HammondCare – Daw Park Dementia Neighbourhood

Project
HammondCare – Daw Park Dementia Neighbourhood
Location
Daws Road, Daw Park SA
Construction Cost
$27M
Project Completion
August 2023

• 6 bungalow-style cottages for 9-15 residents, built around a Central Park and Plaza, with good access to private and public outdoor areas.
• 2 cottages, each offering 9 places, will be specialist dementia care units – funded by the Commonwealth and SA Health — linked to an 11-place step-down cottage.
• Community facilities including a general store, café, hairdresser, and studio.
• Ancillary administration and back of house and staff facilities.
• Adaptive reuse of the leased heritage B Block building will provide a café and children’s playground and interface with Daws Road.

The design of the cottage-style dementia neighbourhood invokes elements of the bungalow style, featuring prominently within garden suburbs such as the adjacent Colonel Light Gardens. Colonel William Light was instrumental in the design of Adelaide and was influenced by the garden city movement and Ebenezer Howard in the late 19th century.
The cottages include single rooms with ensuites inclusive of numerous dementia design features, such as domestic-style kitchens positioned in the heart of each home, and generous living areas with safe outdoor access. A hair salon, corner store, and café are dotted around the site, each specifically designed to support varied residents’ needs, and a sense of community.

Adelaide’s first dementia village is informed by HammondCare’s model of care, backed through recent Royal Commission recommendations that outline the benefits of smaller, lower density living arrangements for quality aged care, especially for those living with dementia.

 

Daw Park’s individual cottages promote the small household model in all aspects of the built form. Three cottages are dementia-specific (acute care to non-ambulant) while two cottages serve to strengthen the state’s specialist dementia care programme. These two nine-bed cottages are linked to another 11-place step-down cottage, which provides a gradual transition between services as resident needs change.

 

A neighbourhood of six cottages is designed around a central park and amenities, specifically designed for 70 residents with varying levels of severity of symptoms and behaviours.

 

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