Entitled ‘Remodelling housing for older people’, a special launch event for the new design guides will take place at Forgewood Community Centre in Motherwell on Wednesday November 30 and is free to attend.

The design guides have been commissioned by Trust Housing Association in partnership with North Lanarkshire’s Health and Social Care Partnership. They include specific guidance on adapting and remodelling existing stock, better use of colour and signage in housing developments for older people and creating attractive internal and outdoor spaces with improved access to daylight.

Contributors to the guidance include UrbanPioneers, an Edinburgh-based landscape architecture and art practice, INCH Architecture & Design, a Glasgow-based architecture, design and research practice and Graphical House, a design consultancy also located in Glasgow.

The launch event will include an overview of the original brief for the preparation of the design guides and presentations from all three main contributors. It will conclude with a keynote speech by Professor June Andrews, formerly director of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre and an internationally acknowledged expert on dementia care.

Commenting on the launch event, Trust Housing Association chief executive, Rhona McLeod, said:“In the midst of the current debate around Scotland’s ambitious target to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes over the next five years, it’s easy to overlook the fact that most older people living in supported or sheltered accommodation over the coming years will be living in housing stock that already exists today.

“At the same time, housing and care providers face the ongoing challenge to provide accommodation that meets the changing needs of older people, a growing number of whom will be living with complex conditions such as dementia that require a carefully tailored response both in terms of housing and care.

“This is what prompted Trust Housing Association to commission these design guides. Our aim is to help the housing and care sectors to improve outcomes as cost-effectively as possible. As the guidance shows, this can be achieved through innovative thinking and design that can give our existing housing stock a brand new lease of life so it is better able to meet the changing needs of older people.”

Full details and free tickets for the design guide launch event can be accessed here.