Singapore – Lekker Architects and industrial design studio Lanzavecchia + Wai have created an Ikea-style catalogue of DIY design hacks to make the Swedish company's products better suited to people living with dementia.
Created in collaboration with the Lien Foundation, Hack Care takes aesthetic cues from Ikea catalogues and contains DIY ideas readers can use to alter and augment their furniture and homeware. In addition to visualising more than 50 tips and tricks, the 244-page manual also contains personal stories from other carers who assist dementia patients.
In a bid to empower people with dementia and their carers, Hack Care’s advice addresses how ‘everyday home environments do not always anticipate or meet the unique needs of people battling cognitive and physical frailty’, explains Lee Poh Wah, CEO of the Lien Foundation.
As we learn more about how interiors affect our wellbeing, designers are being prompted to think more carefully about the effect of their choices on the end user – something we discuss with Ivy Ross, vice-president of hardware design at Google.