Architecture · Design · Environment & Place · Humanity & Health
Designing with Dignity
Loader Monteith Architects Founding Director Matt Loader and Studio SJM Architects Architect/ Director Sarah-Jane Storrie join us to discuss architecture’s role in rewriting the story of dementia as part of a quiet revolution at the intersection of design and care
words – matt loader, sarah-jane storrie
location – glasgow, uk
By 2030, there will be an estimated 60 million people globally living with dementia – a number that’s set to reach 150 million by 2050. As the global prevalence of dementia rises, how can creativity shape a more inclusive and sustainable future for all? At the intersection of design and care lies a quiet revolution: one that challenges architects and designers to move beyond compliance and towards compassion.
In such a landscape, the collective responsibility of designers of the built environment becomes impossible to ignore. In conversation with Loader Monteith Architects Founding Director Matt Loader and Studio SJM Architects Architect/ Director Sarah-Jane Storrie, this discussion – originally shared at the launch of 4,4,4&2, the finale of our work to rewrite the story of dementia – reveals how small, intentional design decisions can uphold dignity, independence and joy for those living with cognitive change. The work of Loader Monteith and Studio SJM bridges aesthetics and accessibility, showing that designing for dementia is not a specialist subset of architecture, but an essential evolution of good design itself: one that integrates legibility, sensory balance and emotional intelligence to create spaces that truly include everyone.
“The idea that you don't design buildings that, in some way, help and make a joyous experience for visitors and residents alike is, to me, completely improbable.”
— Matt Loader
Loader opens with a simple truth: architecture touches every aspect of our lives, and so too must it respond to the realities of cognitive change. As dementia rates accelerate globally, inclusive design is no longer an optional consideration – it’s a baseline requirement for relevance and care within the profession.
“By 2050, 150 million people worldwide will be living with dementia. As designers, it’s our responsibility to create environments that are joyful and inclusive for everyone.”
— Sarah-Jane Storrie
Both position design for dementia not as a clinical specialism, but as an urgent human responsibility – a way to build spaces that offer stability, recognition and calm amidst uncertainty.
Loader Monteith’s Hameart – a domestic conversion designed for a family member living with dementia – demonstrates how dignity can be embedded through subtle architectural choices. Open shelving replaces closed cupboards, sightlines prioritise familiarity and legibility of layout enables autonomy.
“Legibility in plan is where it begins. If your memory isn’t as strong as you’d hope, being able to immediately recognise where you are – and where you want to be – changes everything.”
— Matt Loader
“It’s often a series of very small design moves – open shelving, contrasting nosings, familiar objects in view – that make the difference between confusion and calm.”
— Matt Loader
Here, care and beauty can coexist. As Loader notes, designing for dementia should never mean sacrificing aesthetic ambition. Instead, it demands a more intentional beauty; one built on empathy, material intelligence and spatial clarity.
Studio SJM’s collaborative work with Harmony, a school for young people who’ve experienced early trauma, reinforces the same principles across a different context: colour, materiality and sensory awareness as tools to build trust and joy.
“It’s easy to design something that feels institutional. The challenge is creating places that feel human: full of warmth, colour and familiarity.”
— Sarah-Jane Storrie
Through co-design and deep briefing processes, her team balances the hard data of spatial needs and safety requirements with the soft data of emotion, behaviour and lived experience.
“Our process blends hard and soft data: the technical needs of the building with the emotional needs of its users. That’s how inclusive design really happens.”
— Sarah-Jane Storrie
This methodology echoes across both education and dementia care, revealing shared truths about how people inhabit and emotionally read space.
“The distinction between good design and design for dementia shouldn’t exist. They are one and the same – inclusive, human and thoughtful.”
— Matt Loader
Both architects agree that inclusion should not require a separate design language. Instead, it should be embedded from the start as a mindset shift that benefits all users, regardless of ability or diagnosis.
“We must move away from thinking that people with dementia need specialist facilities. Every building should be designed to welcome all users.”
— Sarah-Jane Storrie
Storrie also calls for greater accountability from the wider supply chain:
“Manufacturers have a role to play, too. We need materials and products that support truly inclusive architecture, not just the illusion of it.”
— Sarah-Jane Storrie
The conversation closes as a rallying cry to architects, designers and makers alike to view accessibility not as constraint, but as opportunity: an invitation to design with empathy, intelligence and intention.
As this conversation reminds us, rewriting the story of dementia begins not in the clinic but in the places we call home: the classrooms, community halls and shared kitchens that hold our everyday lives. Here, architecture’s power lies not in its grandeur, but in its grace: the quiet, thoughtful gestures that allow every person to belong.
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