DEMANS24-26: a Horizon Europe exploratory study on home environments of older adults with dementia in Ankara
Meghánn Catherine Ward & Yasemin Afacan.
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AbstractPURPOSE: With more time being spent indoors, greater attention is being placed on the homes and neighborhoods of community-dwelling older adults with dementia (Newton et al., 2023). Focusing on Türkiye's capital, this Horizon Europe-funded project explores how everyday interactions with physical and social features of home promote or hinder well-being and identity for older people living with dementia. By examining domestic homes, the study aims to understand 'ageing in place' and everyday living with dementia in an urban Turkish context, informing inclusive and accessible housing design and the integration of supportive ‘gerontechnologies' into everyday domestic environments. METHOD: This project adopts a qualitative multiple-case study design (Dowlen et al., 2022), comprising home-based interviews. Data collection is ongoing, aiming to recruit 6-12 'hard-to-reach' family units in Ankara, each including one person with dementia and at least one care companion. Interviews follow ethnographic principles, incorporating walking tours depending on participants' abilities (Campbell et al., 2023) and a graphic elicitation activity (Lowe, Osborne, and Bell, 2023), in which families draw floor plans of their homes and guide us through their daily usage. Participants can discuss what works well, what they would change, their neighborhood connections, and their ideal home set-up. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Preliminary findings will be presented at ISG2026 as a 'day in the life' of each family unit, showcasing their home-environment use, everyday mobilities, neighborhood situatedness, and the influence of dementia symptoms on home life. Emerging insights indicate that participants focus less on the structural elements but more on the value of space that enables positive socio-familial interaction as well as visual or physical access to the outdoors via balconies, private gardens, or large windows affording natural light and expansive views. This project, albeit exploratory, addresses a knowledge gap on lived dementia experience in Turkish urban settings, identifying home features that support 'living well with dementia' and 'ageing in place' narratives. The findings will inform outputs on inclusive age- and dementia-friendly design for consideration by Turkish-based designers, developers and architects, on sustainable housing throughout the life course.Keywords: dementia; home environments; ageing in place; inclusive design; Türkiye.
Meghánn Catherine Ward & Yasemin Afacan. (2026). DEMANS24-26: a Horizon Europe exploratory study on home environments of older adults with dementia in Ankara. Gerontechnology, 25(2), 1-10
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2026.25.2.1278.3