Comment: 鈥楾ime travel鈥� as dementia care Published on: 30 July 2019 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Kellie Morrissey and James Hodge argue that designers and carers shouldn鈥檛 be afraid of using the present and the future in innovating for dementia care. , and , The village of Hogeweyk in The Netherlands has been . It is home to 152 people with dementia and is run by carers who maintain a round-the-clock false reality for the residents. Hogeweyk resembles a 1950s village, with carers acting as butchers, shopkeepers and greengrocers, allowing the residents to . Residents are free to shop, visit the local cafe and roam around, all within the confines of this 鈥渄ementia village鈥�. The model has won many awards and is touted as to care for people with dementia, keeping a semblance of an independent life from earlier decades alive 鈥� even if it鈥檚 somewhat false. And this 鈥渢ime-travel鈥� model is spreading. Plans are underway to develop the UK鈥檚 first for 拢15m. This time-travel model is even being adopted by existing . Mismatch When designers create care homes and villages for people with dementia, there is a risk that how the designers perceive residents and how the residents perceive themselves often do not match up. Developers of care homes in Bingley and Birmingham in the UK, who were , spent a lot of time and money building 1950s-style 鈥渕emory lanes鈥�, complete with old-fashioned sweet shops and (where the bus never comes). These all appeal to the common notion of care home residents preferring to live in a sepia-hued 1950s landscape. The aim of placing people with dementia in the past is influenced by the so-called reminiscence bump that is seen between the ages of 18 and 32, where memories encoded in this period are often . But some people living in care homes now were born in the 1940s and 50s, and formed their most defining memories , so 1950s settings are already out of date for some residents. Dementia villages are also just that: villages. So they don鈥檛 match the experiences of people who grew up in . These villages are also often built on the , segregating people who may benefit more from feeling a with their local communities. Then there鈥檚 the issue of social class. Hogeweyk has a distinctly . But all sorts of people get dementia and end up in care, not just middle-class white people born in the 1930s. As designers, we鈥檙e hearing increased calls to . VR and 360鈦� cameras We know from our research that looking to the past can be effective for some symptoms of dementia, but usually only when it鈥檚 specific to the person鈥檚 . Rather than constantly orienting people with dementia to the past, we can instead tap into their to be spontaneous and creative. And their ability to think about their future. This isn鈥檛 to say that care homes and dementia villages can鈥檛 be great sites for innovation. At 缅北禁地, we are working with people living with dementia and their families to create immersive media, such as virtual reality (VR), 360鈦� photography, and new ways of . Using , people with dementia and their families took part in personalised day trips to capture videos that they could replay in a VR headset. In , we created a virtual reality concert for a lady with dementia who had never seen her favourite artist - Shania Twain - perform live. Using VR lets people with dementia reminisce or seek an experience that places them in the moment, depending on their mood and wishes. In , we created digital musical instruments for people with advanced dementia and found that rather than shying away from the technology (older people are often seen to be ), they embraced it and enjoyed it. Designers and carers shouldn鈥檛 be afraid of using the present and the future in innovating for dementia care. Instead of spending millions on designing facilities to take people in care homes back in time, money would be better spent paying for more carer training, higher carer wages and . For instance, this could mean designing care services alongside people with dementia and their loved ones and carers to ensure their values are represented in the final design. As attractive as they may seem, dementia villages and care homes that use these time-travel techniques run several risks. They risk becoming outdated as the population ages. They risk alienating people of different backgrounds. And they risk freezing residents in time, often a time they never experienced or that they may actively reject. , Research Fellow, School of Computing, and , PhD Candidate, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 recognised with geography award 缅北禁地 has been awarded the Highly Commended Geographical Association Publishers Award for its collaboration with Time for Geography, the UK鈥檚 open-access, dedicated video platform. published on: 16 April 2026 缅北禁地 historians mark General Strike centenary To mark the 100th anniversary of the British General Strike and miners鈥� lock-out of 1926, historians at 缅北禁地 are organising a series of events on its enduring legacy. published on: 16 April 2026 Comment: NCP is in administration Writing for The Conversation, Erwei (David) Xiang discusses how some big companies like NCP are so dependent on debt that they can鈥檛 adjust to change. published on: 16 April 2026 Facts and figures
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