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Dulux Trade partners with BRE in flagship Dementia project

Dulux Trade has furthered its work with the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to deliver evidence-based principles to help improve environments for people living with Dementia and their carers.

Chris and Sally’s House, a project designed to develop solutions for an ageing population, has been created using insight from academics, design experts and people with first-hand experience of living with, or caring for someone with Dementia. It is estimated that some 850,000 people in the UK live with Dementia and 70-80% of those continue to stay in their unadapted homes rather than in any specialised form of housing or dedicated care environment.

Working with the BRE Trust, BRE, Loughborough University, Halsall Lloyd Partnerships and Liverpool John Moores University, Dulux Trade has supported the development of a demonstration home to present evidence-based approaches to adaptation and support solutions that allow people to age well at home.

The number of people living with Dementia in the UK is set to top 1million by 2025 and double to 2million by 2051. The aim of the project is to enable people to stay in their own homes for longer and furthermore, to provide an enhanced environment for people living with Dementia in care homes across the UK.

The Dulux Trade colour schemes used within Chris and Sally’s House have been developed as part of a holistic occupant-centred design consideration, evidencing how wall coatings are able to transition from simply Dulux Trade partners with BRE in flagship Dementia project delivering core functional performance or aesthetic requirements, to making a valuable contribution to the wellbeing dimension of a specification brief.

Inclusive design encourages the application of colour to enable occupants to more readily identify different areas of the entire living space - balancing their needs alongside the needs of their carers or family and giving them greater confidence to move independently within their living spaces.

Careful consideration of colour combinations are also central to the set of accessibility design features. Colour has also been used within the design solution as a way of reinforcing positive personal connections and to provide stimulation within the space.

Dulux Trade is participating in this BRE-led project as part of its commitment to gathering evidence on how colour and design can transform spaces and therefore the lives of the people who use them. This BRE innovation project aligns with the aims of Dulux Trade to understand how to impact users through colour and design frameworks developed with specific places or sectors in mind. The ultimate aim is to tailor adaptation to match the building owners’ objectives, the building’s function and importantly, incorporate occupants’ needs.

Paul Fleming, Commercial Services Manager for Dulux Trade, says, “As market leaders we are proud to work with BRE, particularly on this project, which resonates with so many as it is addressing one of the biggest social challenges of our time.

“We have been investing substantially in research, working to develop frameworks for different spaces and demonstrate, with tangible results, just how powerful colour and design is in the built environment. This Dementia-friendly demonstration house is a perfect example of this and the project has allowed us to develop insight that means we can help people in the built environment across the UK. One in three people born this year will develop Dementia in their lifetime, so now is the time to think ahead. We hope the results can lead to real change in the way we consider our built environments for long-term occupation.”