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Our aim is to create communities that enable independence and ease in village living and, with heightened attention to enabling support, in our care homes too. It’s all about creating an environment where principles of respect and quality of life are at the heart of every decision we make.
Using a rigorous process that is co-designed by operational leaders, clinical teams and care home managers, and intended to evolve and improve over time, we ensure every design decision is tested against three lenses: Residence experience, Family experience, and Staff experience.
You can download our full Development and Service Design Guide principles statement here.
Care homes are shared living environments, not quiet zones. Design should enable activity, noise, creativity and interaction, as well as places of quietude without isolation.
OUTCOME: People choose how they engage rather than being managed into silence or stimulation.
Families are part of the household, not visitors to it. Spaces have to work for a grandchild doing homework as readily as for a daughter having a difficult conversation.
OUTCOME: Families stay involved because the building makes it easy to.
Buildings outlast the models of care they were designed for. Structure, servicing and circulation are planned so that rooms can change use without major works.
OUTCOME: The building can be changed without being rebuilt.
Technology is planned for and concealed. Power, data and mounting are provided everywhere they might later be wanted, rather than showcased where they are not.
OUTCOME: New equipment arrives without a refit and without a fuss.
The highest levels of care carry the highest risk of a space feeling clinical. Sightlines, storage and finishes are used to keep equipment available but not on display.
OUTCOME: A room reads as somewhere a person lives, not somewhere a person is treated.
Every minute a carer spends walking is a minute not spent with a resident. Travel distances, supply points and line of sight are designed around the working day.
OUTCOME: Time saved on the floor is time given back to residents.
Legibility, daylight, contrast and familiar cues let people find their own way rather than being led. Doors that should not be used are made unremarkable rather than locked-looking.
OUTCOME: People move around independently for longer.
End of life care happens in a home, not a ward. Rooms allow for family to stay, for privacy, and for the ordinary business of living to continue alongside.
OUTCOME: The last months are lived in, not waited out.
Our physical environment: a critical enabler of care.
We all know how our physical environment affects our everyday life, whether we are living independently, or in a care home. Within a care home, the environment’s design affects clinical delivery, resident and family experience, and workforce experience too. Radius Care’s Development and Service Design Guide integrates thinking across development, design and operational lenses, to provide a set of principles that ensure that the infrastructure we create puts Care and comfort first.
Caring is our Calling
As experts in supporting elders to thrive in care environments, we bring this experience to the fore to inform every new environment we build.