Why “Heterotopias”?

Better healthcare systems, improved economies, a reduction in infant mortality, and a growing number of adults living longer are some of the XXI century’s achievements. However, these achievements imply some societal challenges. For example, having a long life perspective substantially increments the rates of acquiring long-term disorders such as dementia. Together with the difficulties in defining a clear line between normal and pathological ageing, they have led to a stigmatisation of older adults as a social and economic burden. Considering a number of previous studies which have revealed a recurring relationship between older adults, space, and wellbeing. A care model–shift with inevitable architectural repercussions is required. The adoption of an ‘open care model’ focusing on the individual scale, not only positively affects older adults’ mental and physical wellbeing; but also contain the potential spiralling in a demand for high –dependency and high-cost services as well as stigmatisation. Taking this position into consideration, this paper critically compares the relation among care model, living experience and the built environment of the Humanitas setting in Deventer (the Netherlands) and the Gojikara Mura setting in Nagakute (Japan). The first setting is a nursing home with a total population of 166 residents (50 older adults with dementia, 80 people with long-term physical conditions, 20 people with social difficulties, 10 people in short stay for recovery and 6 university students). The second setting, the Gojikara Mura is a cross generational community which provides diverse services such as child day-care, adult day-care, assisted living, nursery school and nursing home. These services not only accommodate older adults but also their families and visitors. The parallelism with the design process is strengthened through the adoption of the ‘thinking, making and living’ method. It is a one-time post-occupancy evaluation framework in which these three parts are equally decisive in the analysis, so in a design process. In a contemporaneity characterised by a modernist specialization, the method highlights the principles for opening up narrow functional labels constantly associated with architectural typologies. The ‘open typology,’ based on the notion of an “open system,” encourages a diversity tangent to different spheres such as a physical environment, its occupants, and their relationships: “heterotopias.” Suddenly, a new way of sharing responsibilities is revealed. This generates a participatory collaboration among different groups of health care providers, volunteers, residents and their family. The new paradigm of care “normalises” ageing and its related mental and physical impairments rather than to “medicalize” and stigmatise.