I recently visited a friend living at Dawson and was really surprised at the gardens located on the upper floors of the housing development board (HDB) flat. There was a sky garden right up the top, but there were gardens found in between the floors as well. There isn’t a void deck in the traditional sense like the older flats would have, instead there are familiar seating areas found in these pocket gardens for the residents which are just like a void deck but with a beautiful view of Singapore filled with a range of greenery that stimulate the senses.
There’s safety and security features found in the garden as well, from lighting, to security cameras, handrails, and high vertical railings. For most parts the garden I visited was sheltered from the weather. There were even play area for kids.
I’ve got a few images of the gardens to share with everyone.
Security Cameras, Handrails & Railing
The image below on the left is from a separate HDB block. I added this image in because this was actually a bridge from the HDB flats to the garden. Residents have personalise the bottom of the handrails with little plants of their own on this bridge. The path is open to rain and other environmental conditions, however, the design intrigued me as the gardens are separate from the residents providing me thoughts on how we can link intergenerational services in one facility.
The railing are really high too, approximately 1.3m in height, but enough that doesn’t have a caged in feel. I understand a lot of clinical staff would be concern about safety in nursing homes especially in the gardens. You can see behind me that an array plants have been strategically placed in front of the railing of fence. Below is the front view of the same railing behind me with the plants in the frnt. You can see that the beautiful lush greenery of the plants distract and divert attention away from the railing that appears to be muted, disappearing into the background.
There is a number of wheelchair friendly access to the garden as seen below and handrails of different heights. The handrails were not smooth and provided some grip.
Positive Stimulation (lighting, ceiling, temperature, sound)
The area is flushed with natural light and ventilation.Hanging lights and discreet lighting are placed strategically around the garden and sitting area. High ceiling seen in the garden according to Vartanian et al (2015) are seen to be
- asthetically more beautiful then areas of low ceiling or closed rooms
- activate structures in the brain such as visuospatial exploration and visual motion processing information on objects and space
- Non-enclosed space deactivates the cingulate region and it’s association with the amygdala
We all know that the Amygdala hijacks our rational thoughts and sends us all into a fight or flights behaviour. For designers working on environmental design for people with dementia, this may be something that we may wish to consider in the design of healing or therapeutic gardens and spaces to reduce the activation and evolutionary response to fear and anxiety brough about by the amygdala.
Due to the lack of direct exposure to the sun, the temperature was cool and breezy, which made it quite relaxing even for a 32 degree day in Singapore. The chairs were cool to sit on, and none of the siting area was hot to touch. Despite a few older adults, and teenagers hanging around in the area, chatting in the afternoon, I could not hear their conversations until I am right beside them. The area did not appear noisy despite the moderate number of people hanging about.
Familiar & Inclusive Environments
The garden also contained a number of familiar tables and chairs that we see at our local Kopithams (coffeeshops) found in HDB estates and food courts.
Areas inclusive for children were also found in the garden containing a little area for hop scotch and for a game of snakes and ladders.
Integenerational Facilties
Just looking at the garden, and thinking back on nursing home in Singapore, Nursing Homes can be integrated with other services to serve a multitude of generations and become a truely multigenerational facility such as the design below.The draft below is inspired by this garden and thoughts of an integenerational facility.
I also notice the tables and chairs were great for students as study area but lack facilties such as powerpoints. Living in a crowded, high density city, finding study areas are getting harder by the minute. For people in the western world, this is our Asian phenomennon. We use to joke that rich kids get to study in Starbucks and fork out a ton for drinks while us poorer kids try and tough it out in the libraries or at the cloest Macdonalds or Mos buger. However, libraries may not be close to home, and if we wanted to study in a group, finding a location gets pretty tough. anyway who has to tough it out in eateries to study have to put up with the noise.
Older adults can participate in activities after they have sent their grandkids to kindergarden, or school and all come together in the mornings and return home in the evenings. Grandparents can also relax with their grandchildren in the public garden, grab a coffee and catch up with friends before meeting up with their kids and going home together. This is a dream for a place where communities and families can come together to build that kampung spirit.
If there is a multi-generation facility such as the ones found above, families can remind tigher and stronger despite hussle and bussle of our urbanised cities and dual income lives. We are already spending much time on transport and work, what we really need is some solutions to help support us with maintaining our relationships with out familiies to build a stronger, tighter, and caring Singapore, and we know it starts with family.
Designing for Aged Care 