Ageing At Home Village: Normalcy Is The Key To Living With Dementia With Grace And Self-Esteem
Sai Wan Estate, Kennedy Town
With models and drawings, students will solicit comments from local residents through street stations to explore the topic of dementia.
Hong Kong faces a pressing challenge: by 2039, over 300,000 individuals aged 60+ are predicted to be living with dementia. With no cure available, there is an urgent need to examine how our built environment can alleviate and delay symptoms. One promising approach is adapting the Dutch Dementia Village concept to Hong Kong’s unique context, creating spaces that provide community warmth and well-being. The proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” underscores the profound well-being derived from community centric living. This close-knit village model could be innovatively applied in both dense urban and local rural settings. Such village communities would honor local cultural heritage while fostering supportive co-living lifestyles for ageing together. While “ageing in place” or care home are the global models, a consciously chosen “village” environment could empower those with dementia to freely enjoy their later years and ensure they remain valued and remembered.
Hong Kong faces a pressing challenge: by 2039, over 300,000 individuals aged 60+ are predicted to be living with dementia. With no cure available, there is an urgent need to examine how our built environment can alleviate and delay symptoms. One promising approach is adapting the Dutch Dementia Village concept to Hong Kong’s unique context, creating spaces that provide community warmth and well-being. The proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” underscores the profound well-being derived from community centric living. This close-knit village model could be innovatively applied in both dense urban and local rural settings. Such village communities would honor local cultural heritage while fostering supportive co-living lifestyles for ageing together. While “ageing in place” or care home are the global models, a consciously chosen “village” environment could empower those with dementia to freely enjoy their later years and ensure they remain valued and remembered.
- 2025
- Grantee: Sylvia Ng
Sylvia Ng is a local practicing landscape designer for over 25 years. Notably at EDAW Aecom, she worked on prestigious projects such as the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, Taikwun Central. Bringing her experiences and knowledge from the field to classrooms, she has over 10 years of teaching at various institutions, including HKDI; THEi, and HKU. She bridges her industry connections with developers and communities with fruitful collaborations. Led many co-designing projects with student and local villagers and local communities from Yimtintsai; So Lo Pun; Pokfulam Village; Caritas Kennedy town and Shamshuipo. Topic of ageing and dementia began with a collaboration with Enable Foundation where older people co-created objects with students to promote dementia awareness. Her father, who is in the final stage of his journey in dementia, inspires her to explore creative ways to alleviate and delay the symptoms of dementia and ageing through evidence based environmental design of care.
The collective comprises of professionals from a variety of fields. From architects to landscape architects, they are highly experienced in their fields and have built projects in the GBA and internationally. Some are design educators; academics and a medical doctor specialise in dementia and research in a hospital. What sets them apart is that they are not only compatible collaborators but some of them have long standing friendships built over time. The internationally diverse group consists of members from local Hong Kong, Singapore; Japan and Taiwan. They are passionate about the topic of dementia and believe in the positive impact through Architecture of Care designs. Aiming to build meaningful and memorable spaces for the growing ageing population; especially for people with dementia and their families and friends. The group takes on a hands-on, bottom-up methodology to community building and co-designing with the local community; stakeholders; developers and the government.