Spaces, People, Things: Entanglements within Congregate Living

This project explores how one congregate living environment in Edmonton Alberta supports their residents through the use of the material environment including designed spaces and objects created by architectural and interior designers. The web of person-environment relationships and interactions that is complicated, dynamic, messy, and riddled with shifting agency is unpacked revealing how humans depend on things, things depend on things, and things depend on humans. This project takes on theory and practice by conducting research that is directly applied to the renovation, operation and programming of the congregate living complex studied. In sum, this project is informed by and contributes to scholarly research on material culture, architectural and interior design; directly impacts the re-visioning, re-design and re-programming of one congregate living environment; and develops essential in-depth case study research to inform design practitioners in the future.

Faculty Supervisor:

Megan Strickfaden

Student:

Lara Pinchbeck

Partner:

Canterbury Foundation

Discipline:

Agriculture

Sector:

Health care and social assistance

University:

University of Alberta