Designing for Dementia

The Dementia Design Principles aim to create places that are dementia-friendly and will: 

• provide good visibility and visual access
• promote privacy, dignity and independence
• promote physical and meaningful activities
• support orientation
• support navigation
• provide access to nature and the outdoors
• promote engagement with friends and neighbours

All of our refurbishment works have been designed with these principles in mind and have a range of features to support those living with dementia, including:

• different coloured front doors to help with visibility and navigation
• clearly visible entrances, level access and good lighting
• clearly visible door numbers  that contrasts with the wall surface. 

Fire Safety

Our homes feature multi-sensor (heat and optical) fire alarms to living areas, bedrooms, hallways and to some storage cupboards. Heat detectors are fitted within kitchens. In addition, homes with gas boilers will have carbon monoxide alarms. If a fire is detected, all the alarms will sound, and an LED light will flash on the alarm that has been triggered.

If a loft space has electrical equipment within it (such as a solar panel inverter), a fire alarm is installed within the space that is linked to a strobe light. The strobe light is located within the upper hall, meaning when the loft alarm is activated the light will flash - alerting tenants that the loft alarm has been triggered and they should exit the property.

In line with Building Standards regulations, any social housing developments with building warrants from 1 March 2021 onwards will include automatic fire suppression systems. These are generally sprinkler or misting systems within homes and may feature external water tanks. Individual sprinkler heads within each room are activated by high-heat levels and when triggered, will continue depositing water on the fire until they are manually turned off by the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service.

Housing for Varying Needs

Housing for Varying Needs is a design guide that sets out good practice on the design of housing so that it can be suitable for people of all abilities. 

People have various housing needs and these will almost certainly change throughout a lifetime. The built form of all housing should be flexible enough to accommodate a range of these needs.