BESiDE Research

BESiDE [The Built Environment for Social inclusion through the Digital Economy] was a multidisciplinary research group. Our goal was to transform the network of stakeholders involved in care environments into a virtuous cycle of research and design improvement, in which architects, professional bodies, academics, policy makers, charities, and care home providers are all motivated to pursue improvement in the built environment for older adults. Led by Professor Vicki Hanson, we included researchers from Computing, Design and Healthcare at the University of Dundee and from Computing at Newcastle University. Economic, health, and ethical considerations all demand that the built environment be structured to support older adults in maintaining their quality of life long after transitioning to a care home environment. Understanding how to create such environments remains a key challenge facing architects and designers. We carryied out research in care homes to tackle this challenge.