Influence of the spatial environment on users with Alzheimer’s disease: Parameters, project criteria, and architectural design principles

PhD: Pablo José Valero Flores
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
Supervisor: José Pablo Lara Muñoz
PhD Programme in Biomedicine, Translational Research, and New Technologies in Health, University of Malaga
Defence date: 06-16-2023

Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by a progressive alteration of brain function, with a high incidence in people over 65 years of age. This dementia produces important changes in the way that people who suffer from it live. These alterations are caused by disorientation, insecurity, lack of control or limitations on autonomy within their environment. In architecture in recent years, there have been improvements in housing for those with dementia and, in particular, patients with AD. However, the solutions applied in buildings have basically focused on accessibility, with measures aimed at adapting environments through general recommendations that do not differentiate the evolutionary stages of AD, nor the particular needs of the patient. This is because these solutions are not derived from a characterization of the users, nor from a previous evaluation of the environmental stimuli that affect them. In this investigation, we establish the hypothesis that the space and environment directly and significantly influence the user with AD in the initial phase. The objective of this work is to determine quantitatively the variables that affect sensory stimulation, orientation, or comfort. To achieve this goal, we have designed a methodology in which the person is at the centre of the investigation, using techniques and tests specifically designed for this purpose. The results allow us to determine some architectural parameters that may influence a sample of people with AD, evaluated in certain environments of the city of Malaga. With this knowledge, it is possible to enunciate a series of criteria and design guidelines to project a physical environment adapted to the specific needs and requirements of these users in a certain place.

Community Spaces as Design Materials in Contemporary Housing. The Case Study of the Corrales of Triana

PhD: María del Carmen Martínez Quesada
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Defence Data: 01-29-2016

Abstract:The evolution of lifestyles in relation to habitat is not an unexplored area of study. Different studies have already carried out this task of investigating how the probability of change in housing can alter habitat practises and, more specifically, the use of domestic space, but it is necessary to consider contemporary housing design from typological research in terms defined as: intermediate habitat, outdoor surface colonisation, and revitalising and using common areas. Like other approaches to contemporary housing, this research on the ways of appropriating the current intimate space and public space is carried out from the ways of living, the different critical thoughts, and the ways of projecting and inhabiting it that it acquires. Architecture, and specifically popular architecture, implies a marked social and cultural component, factors that contribute to the specificity of a certain number of its inhabitants. For this reason, it is possible to start from the experience and ways of life of the subject, already contrasted and verified, and use examples of domestic architecture, which build a social fabric based on these ways of life, as a place from which to review the project of contemporary housing. The previous reflection leads to the suggestion that the new room or habitat starts from the need for a rooted habitat that does not contradict the technique, which is currently considered necessary to satisfy new demands. In general, there has been a progressive shift in the centre of gravity from the home to the community, and housing will reflect these social trends. Vernacular architecture understands very well the concept of the natural use of spaces since, from a formal economy perspective, it must resolve different issues, not only private but also relational. The examples that this research studies, the neighbourhood corrals, are recognised with the previous conditions, and that allows linking, through them, the present and the future of the common spaces of collective housing. They are proposed as a way of establishing a temporary continuity that, from what already exists, beyond the social, the urban, and the symbolic, allows us to think about the future of these spaces for the city and for the community as places of representation and meeting, Using architecture as a vehicle. This research raises the possibility of a review of the current home using a specific architectural type as a model: the neighbourhood corrals of Triana. The basic and fundamental reason is to recover and integrate their most precious values: the sociability that they generate and the relationships that are established, factors that turn the corrals into identifying cultural spaces for the community that inhabits them. This leads to the conviction that today’s society needs to evolve from the individual, as an essential factor, to the person within the community, which conditions the activities carried out by the latter as recognition of the specific ways of each group and therefore makes it necessary to reconsider the spaces that host it. In the housing project proposed as the conclusion of this doctoral thesis, new living needs are combined with the enhancement of elements of vernacular collective housing, reactivated, and integrated into the contemporary housing project as resources available from new forms of use.

Coherence in the Permanence of the Past in the Present

PhD: Marina Patiño Osorio
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
Thesis Director and Supervisor: Pablo Diañez Rubio
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Defence Data: 01-21-2016

Abstract: Until well into the 20th century, heritage protection was in the hands of professionals other than architects and urban planners. It was mainly art restorers and historians who were in charge of the mission of studying, protecting, and promoting heritage, with a vision that suffered from several problems, among which it is worth highlighting the Eurocentric gaze, on the one hand, and the appreciation of the historical (the past) as better or superior than the contemporary (the present), on the other. As a result of these two weaknesses, the third, equally or more problematic, can be understood: the almost total neglect of the social factors of heritage, which are well embodied in a particular population group that inhabits those spaces or that are expressed as a set of cultural practises. and the value systems that give meaning to those scenarios as places where the daily life of a community has taken place and takes place. In the transition from a historical and artistic vision, museum-style, to a vital conception of heritage in which there is an overlapping of layers of meaning, where people and groups have real interference, and where the present must undeniably make its contributions as a moment of the continuum of history, inconsistencies and mismatches are perceived between theorising and practise, between academic and institutional concepts and their management in different parts of the world. It is a fact that the different conceptualizations of heritage today come to be concentrated and expressed in international guidelines with an alleged global reach, hand in hand with institutions such as UNESCO. This study investigates the practises of heritage protection in their cultural dimension, that is, not only material but with historical, referential, and symbolic connotation, which has a meaning mediated by the experiences of individuals and groups. In any case, it is about revealing that the valuation of heritage transcends the material and that in its exercise there are contradictions and inconsistencies. To show it, emphasis is placed on the problems that the urban conservation of the centralities has caused, where the neglect of social dynamics has implied deterioration since there is a gap between the past functions that buildings and localities performed with respect to the new housing functions, residential or commercial, given by the current residents.

Applying Neuroarchitecture to the Design of Healthy Settings. A Prototype House Designed to Meet the Needs of People with Alzheimer’s Disease

PhD Student: María Lozano Gómez
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Thesis in progress

Abstract:

Within the Architectural and Design discipline, the user is always the aim of any kind of project, so it is of utmost importance to give him the best living and structural solutions to respond to his exigencies. Keeping in mind functional and aesthetic aspects is not enough to accomplish that, but also comfort, sensory, and healthy aspects. These items are strongly due to requests coming from the experience of any subject in each spot. In this way, a close relationship is established between Architecture and mind, and, therefore, Neuroarchitecture arises as a discipline. Nowadays, people aged over 65 are larger than 5-year-old children, which shows the population’s ageing growth. This is directly related to the fact that a huge amount of the population, including architecture users, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. This new discipline becomes a new tool for architects and designers, allowing the design of healthier places capable of generating positive answers from the user. This work pursues making visible the Neuroarchitecture and providing professionals with design tools as a result of its application into architecture, as well as verifying the possibility of using criteria to generate healthy spaces and designing a dwelling prototype able to be adapted to the further evolution of people with Alzheimer’s disease. To accomplish that goal, a careful analysis of the current Neuroarchitecture bibliography will be done, as well as a survey of residential buildings for people with Alzheimer’s that have been previously developed under the guidelines of tools aware of the environment’s influence on the inhabitant. Moreover, tests with the participation of patients with Alzheimer’s disease will be done. This work phase represents innovation in the methodology of architecture research and is one of the main contributions of this study. The conclusions of this research will output a useful guide to be managed by professionals, who can be able to achieve a quality and healthy architecture, improving user capacities in every situation.

Housing and Alzheimer’s: New Dementia Housing Strategies

PhD Student: José Emilio Rodríguez Miró
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Thesis in progress

Abstract: In Spain, various factors have led to an increase in the number of diagnoses of diseases that lead to the deterioration of cognitive abilities, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The lack of adaptability of housing to the changes derived from this disease means that sufferers end up moving to institutions where their new needs are met; given that this is detrimental to their wellbeing, the problem arises. Internationally, this situation has led to a proliferation of solutions to the issue. Dementia plans are particularly noteworthy as they are compendiums of strategies and actions designed to prevent and treat dementia. Countries such as France and England are benchmarks for their experience in drawing up these documents. Their objectives and actions have ended up converging, pointing out the potential of actions based on housing, as they provide an effective line of action that directly or indirectly influences part of the proposed goals, as well as the daily reality of these people. Spain lacks solutions in this sense; it does not specify any housing strategy in relation to the needs of this sector of the population. Even the Spanish Alzheimr’s Plan (2019–2023), despite proposing similar goals to those of the aforementioned countries, acts in a different way by avoiding actions based on housing strategies. The investigation seeks to demonstrate the benefits of extending these strategies to the national level. This will be done through the study, from an interdisciplinary perspective, of European dementia plans, comparing them with each other and with their national counterparts. The research will result in a proposal for improvement in housing based on objective facts derived from real-life experiences.

PhD Student: Thilo Gumbsch
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Thesis in progress

Abstract: This theoretical-empirical study takes as its starting point a position of landscape observation from the disciplinary field of architecture. It is about observing, quantifying, and classifying the landscape and specifically, its physical substrate, from the framework of knowledge of the architectural constituent elements, and in particular from the concept of architectural space. The landscape as a concept and as an inhabitable conglomerate is characterised by being informed through graphic and numerical data that attend multiple scales. Taking a position in it through the architectural Space on a domestic corporeal scale, or scale of experiences, provides an opportunity to contribute to knowledge, analysis, and information about the landscape. This leads to the following hypothesis: The concept of Architectural space is based on the fact that Architectural spaces, which are perceptible, describable, and quantifiable, are a valid tool to transfer knowledge from the discipline of architecture to the panoptic and multi-scale concept of landscape. The first section of the study deals with a critical and reflective bibliographical review of the various theories, and conceptual proposals related to the landscape and the architectural space, observing in particular the area of intersection of both. A second section deals with the architectural space as a framework for observing the landscape. For this reason, a case study is chosen: the area dominated by the water of the Guadalquivir Channel. This section is preceded by an exhaustive study of the historical context of the elected area to obtain the reasons for the framework of perception and experiences of the current state that is subject to analysis. The concept of Architectural space is applied as an analysis tool, trying to obtain quantifiable, comparable, and classifiable data to inform the landscape of this area. The validity of its possible generalizable character is checked by extrapolation to other environments. The data obtained will be validated by studying the contemporary qualities of the landscape.

PhD Student: Guillermo Pavón Torrejón
Thesis Director: Santiago Quesada García
Thesis Director and Supervisor: José Mª Cabeza Laínez
PhD Programme in Architecture, University of Seville
Thesis in progress

Abstract: The objective of this research is to understand, from an architectural viewpoint, how the adaptation of the physical environment to the needs of the human species has been achieved. The issue is approached through convergent vectors: the first, methodological, faces a general phenomenon—the territory. The second, empirical, focuses on a specific territory on which to corroborate the analytical methodology—the central section of the Guadalquivir valley that includes the Sevillian countryside. In this territory, agricultural production has been, and even today continues to be, the main economic activity. Understanding the dispersed architecture related to it is a fundamental factor for any research dealing with the transformation of nature into a habitat proper to civility in this cultural field. Identifying the role it plays in shaping the landscape is imperative. If we accept the loss of the use value of these constructions in the system of the agricultural economy, their conservation must necessarily pass through its redefinition as cultural heritage within the broader concept of cultural landscape. The analysis’ methodology applied to the research was developed by the Italian architects Saverio Muratori and Gianfranco Caniggia in the second half of the 20th century. In this methodology, the territory of man is conceived as a spatio-temporal synthesis and its formation process as a cyclical phenomenon of man’s relationship with the physical environment. In each successive cycle, the environment becomes more artificial and becomes the territorial organism or organism-environment that conditions and, reciprocally, is conditioned. Furthermore, it verifies that a human being’s action upon the territory presents, in comparison with his action upon the urban fabric, a greater inertia to change. From this fact, the fundamental evolutionary stages of a civilization can be deduced. This methodological basis is completed with later contributions, such as that of architect Xavier Eizaguirre, that he develops in his research on rural territory.