Design for care and connection: consideration for how spatial and sensory factors in care home dayrooms influence social interaction

This article examines how architectural design decisions in care home dayrooms shape social interaction possibilities for residents. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a care home in South Wales, the research reveals persistent contradictions between spatial patterns and lived realities. While care home dayrooms are theoretically positioned as domestic spaces supporting connection and well-being, institutional imperatives and regulatory compliance generate environments that can inadvertently undermine the social interactions they intend to enable. The study employs layered floor-plan analysis to document how residents navigate sensory conditions (lighting, acoustics, temperature), negotiate territorial claims and adapt spaces through micropractices of occupation. Findings demonstrate that dayrooms function as ‘unnatural third spaces’ performing third-place functions within institutionally constrained and spatially mandatory settings that lack the neutral ground, accessibility and playful atmosphere that characterise authentic third places. As residents’ lifeworlds contract, from public to institutional realms, these communal areas become sole arenas for casual encounters, yet their design often reflects assumptions divorced from empirical understanding of spatial experience. The article contributes detailed ethnographic evidence to debates on institutional space, spatial ageism and environment–well-being relationships, with implications for age-friendly urban design and evidence-informed care home standards.