Introduction

Losing Myself argues for an imaginative engagement with dementia on behalf of the architect. Focusing on the social function of architecture, architects increasingly try to work with others to design age- and dementia-friendly buildings and neighbourhoods that improve the lives of all. But to have lasting success, architects need, first of all, to better understand dementia.

While most literature produced on the subject for architects focuses on ‘best practice’ guidance, we seek to better understand and empathise with the lived experiences of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Our work pays particular attention to the frictions that exist between health and safety management on the one hand and the individual’s right to autonomy on the other.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is a degenerative brain disease that erodes the ability to plan and to remember. As the condition progresses it affects navigation and the individual’s sense of place, two spatial capacities that concern us because they are vital in the experience of architecture. We concentrate on the heart of this challenge: What spatial capacities do we have that we might lose because of dementia? How does the brain comprehend space? How is embodied cognition formed and linked to architecture?

As architects, we simply do not know enough about dementia. Our project is a commitment to acquiring and effectively communicating new knowledge on the condition. By engaging with people who have direct experiences of dementia and with experts in the cognitive and behavioural sciences, we have gained a deeper understanding of dementia and spatial cognition more broadly. By working as part of a collective with other architects, designers and artists, we have built a collaborative mode of practice and a drawing methodology informed by neuroscience and art that embodies the social reality of buildings. This mode of drawing and its presentation in an orchestrated assemblage acknowledges that dementia affects individuals differently and that we all perceive the world in different ways. Our decision to use many elements in a mixed-media installation, combining drawing, film and sound, was significant to the representation of the experience of dementia itself.

The work is a collaboration between McLaughlin and Manolopoulou who started working on this project in 2015 in response to the theme for the 15th International Architecture Exhibition. ‘Reporting from the Front’ asked architects to reflect on their own experiences while working to improve the lives of people ‘under tough circumstances, facing pressing challenges’ (La Biennale di Venezia 2016). Alzheimer’s disease was chosen by the authors as a topical and significant challenge, given the pressing nature of the disease and its evolution: ‘globally nearly 9.9 million people develop dementia each year; this figure translates into one new case every three seconds’ (WHO 2017).

The research was made public through an immersive installation for the Irish Pavilion and extends in an online resource that compiles a detailed description of Losing Myself and the authors’ ongoing investigations on the subject.

5 Study of the brain by Níall McLaughlin, 2016.

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