Learning lessons from Europe and challenging the norms

Urban Edge Architecture’s Sonia Parol has recently returned from a study trip to Europe where she visited care homes and senior living schemes in Copenhagen and the Netherlands that have been designed to promote social connection, happiness and wellbeing.

Care homes in Europe differ greatly from those commonly found in the UK. Is it therefore time we started to challenge the accepted rules, regulations and concepts that have dominated the UK care home market for several decades? 

The senior living and care home sector in the UK is at a pivotal point; the changing needs and expectations of its core demographic requires that we must seek to change the concepts that we have been applying to senior living schemes for years. 

People who are reaching retirement age now have completely different lifestyle expectations to those that went before. For some time the retirement or care sector in the UK has been focused on the high end of the market – luxurious care and retirement villages, often located in rural locations. These developments may suit the silent generation, who perhaps haven’t travelled far and have worked and saved to feel safe and secure. 

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