Thoughtful, person-centred design now recognises that accessibility isn’t an add-on or a concession. It can be intuitive, elegant and fully aligned with the wider design language of a project. The challenge is no longer simply meeting regulations; it’s creating spaces that genuinely support a diverse range of users—without compromising experience for anyone else.

In a very personal story, Vanessa Champion argues for a transformative shift in how we design care environments. Emphasizing our deep-rooted need for connection with nature – she outlines how biophilic design, through natural elements, sensory engagement, and meaningful experiences – can profoundly enhance wellbeing, dignity, and quality of life in healthcare and eldercare settings by creating spaces that truly support human flourishing.

The National Institutes for Health in the United States have extensive research underlining the vulnerability of people as they age. Certainly, the end-of life can be a period of acute physical and emotional vulnerability. There is no greater honour for a designer than to be tasked with creating the environment in which people will live out their final days, and in which they will spend final moments with loved ones.

While the concept of biophilic design is easily be explained as reflecting positive human responses to nature and the interaction between exterior and interior spaces, motifs, and patterns, being environmentally friendly (i.e. green) in a design sector where infection control and the prevalence of manmade materials is prevalent can far prove challenging.

It’s taken the Covid-19 pandemic for our sector to re-evaluate the way in which isolation management within these facilities is incorporated into new builds and retrofits…with impacts on space planning, person-to-person interface options, our relationship to biophilic design, surfaces and even storage.

We are emerging the other side of the COVID lockdown with improvements not previously considered. As an interior designer might say, “every cloud has a visually interesting contrast lining.”