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The best aged-care home is not simply a compliant building or an attractive garden. It is a place that helps each resident recognise where they are, make choices, move safely, maintain identity, enjoy ordinary domestic routines and remain connected with nature, family and the wider community. Australia’s National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, introduced on 1 July 2024, organise that work around four principles: Enable the Person, Cultivate a Home, Access the Outdoors and Connect with Community.
The guidelines are a design resource with recommendations and checklists, not a replacement for project-specific professional advice, the National Construction Code, state or territory requirements, or aged-care obligations. They apply to new buildings and refurbishments, from modest changes in an existing home to major construction.
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What makes a good aged-care home design?
Start with the resident rather than the floor plan. A useful design asks what a person can understand, reach, choose and enjoy in an ordinary day. That means considering identity, privacy, sensory comfort, mobility, cognition, cultural needs, relationships and the assistance staff provide. The Australian Government describes the purpose of its national guidance this way: “The National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines presented in this document have been developed to improve quality of life for older people through thoughtful design.” (National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, 2024.)
Design decisions are interdependent. A high-contrast sign is less useful if glare obscures it; a courtyard is not genuinely accessible if a heavy door, threshold or confusing route blocks it; a homelike lounge fails if furniture prevents a hoist or wheelchair from passing. Evaluate the whole experience, including how residents, visitors, cleaners and care workers use the same spaces.
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Australia’s four design principles
1. Enable the Person
This principle treats residents as people with abilities, preferences and agency, not as clinical tasks. The guideline’s practical topics include clutter, acoustic comfort, lighting, tonal contrast, circulation, flooring, seating, toilets, air quality, temperature and contact with nature indoors.
Reduce visual and physical clutter
Unnecessary furniture, equipment, cords and competing signs can distract or create hazards, particularly for people with dementia or reduced vision. Keep routes clear, group essential items logically and make destinations recognisable. In an existing building, relocating storage, removing redundant furniture or improving sightlines may achieve a meaningful improvement without rebuilding the wing.
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Hard surfaces, alarms, televisions and simultaneous conversations can make it difficult to understand speech or rest. Consider quieter equipment, acoustic absorption, zoning of noisy activities and places where a resident can retreat. Acoustic treatment should support observation and infection-control cleaning rather than create inaccessible or difficult-to-maintain surfaces.
Use light that supports seeing without glare
Older eyes generally need more usable light, but brightness alone is not the answer. The national guidance discusses higher ambient light than ordinary levels, task lighting, daylight, glare control and lighting appropriate to older residents. Treat any numeric recommendation in the PDF as a project guideline, not a universal legal requirement: confirm the exact context and coordinate with a qualified lighting designer.
Provide even illumination along circulation routes, clearly light thresholds and changes in level, and give residents control where practical. Avoid shiny floors and direct views of bright fittings. Task lighting can help with reading, cooking, crafts and personal care while preserving a calmer ambient level elsewhere.
Make movement and orientation legible
Simple, continuous routes are easier to understand than a maze of identical corridors. Use visible destinations, consistent landmarks, meaningful artwork and tonal contrast between walls, floors, doors and fittings. Contrast should identify important edges and controls without making every surface visually busy.
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Choose safe floors and supportive furniture
Floors should be stable, slip-resistant and visually calm, with transitions that do not look like steps or holes. Select chairs that are comfortable, stable and appropriately scaled, with arms where a resident needs leverage to stand. Leave enough space for mobility aids and assistance; do not use loose rugs or furniture that migrates into circulation paths.
Make toilets and air comfortable
A stress-free toilet is close enough to find, clearly identified, large enough for assistance and fitted with intuitive controls and grab points. Privacy must be protected while staff can respond when help is requested. Good ventilation, fresh air and a comfortable temperature support health and dignity; avoid drafts, overheating and controls residents cannot understand.
Bring nature indoors
Views, plants, daylight, natural materials and seasonal cues can provide orientation and interest. Use planting that is safe and maintainable, and check allergies, toxicity, watering and infection-control requirements rather than adding decorative greenery without a care plan.
2. Cultivate a Home
Homelike design is about control and familiarity, not simply domestic-looking finishes. The guideline addresses small households, private entries, domestic kitchens, room clusters, enabling corridors, private bedrooms, ensuite bathrooms, appropriate furniture, clinical support and staff rooms.
Use the scale of a household
Smaller clusters can make a large service easier to understand and can support familiar routines. A domestic kitchen or shared dining area may invite participation, but it must be planned with safe appliance access, supervision, storage and cleaning. A household arrangement should not isolate residents from activities or make staff support impractical.
Give bedrooms identity and privacy
A private bedroom with an ensuite, a recognisable entry and space for personal belongings helps a resident control their territory. Allow room for a favourite chair, photographs, artwork and familiar objects while maintaining clear paths for assistance. Door visibility, discreet signage and personalised cues can help someone identify their room without displaying private clinical information.
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Balance domestic character with clinical function
Care equipment, medication storage, clean and dirty workflows, staff work areas and space for two-person assistance still have to fit. Conceal or integrate equipment where possible, but never at the cost of safe access or rapid response. Staff need secure clinical storage, places for documentation and a genuine break space; pushing these functions into resident areas undermines both privacy and care.
Make circulation useful, not merely efficient
An enabling corridor can provide handrails, resting points, daylight, views and destinations rather than feeling like a service tunnel. Avoid long featureless runs and confusing junctions. Place seating where a person can pause without blocking a route, and ensure a resident using a walker, wheelchair or hoist can turn and pass safely.
3. Access the Outdoors
Outdoor space only benefits residents when it is visible, reachable, comfortable and connected to daily life. The guideline covers dedicated outdoor areas, garden connections, verandahs, destinations and clear paths.
Connect gardens to living spaces
Put useful outdoor areas beside lounges, dining rooms or household kitchens, with doors residents can see and operate or that staff can assist with easily. A threshold should not become an obstacle. Routes need to address both physical mobility and cognitive orientation, with consistent cues between inside and outside.
Create destinations and reasons to go out
A loop path with no destination may not attract anyone. Provide sheltered seating, a table for shared activities, a productive garden, a birdwatching point, a familiar landmark or a place to meet visitors. The guidance gives examples such as gardening, birdwatching and paths linking points of interest. Locate seats at intervals, provide shade and weather protection, and consider wind, heat, glare and evening safety.
Design for varied abilities
Use firm, even paths, manageable gradients, resting places and handrails where appropriate. Check turning space for wheelchairs and mobility scooters, door hardware, drainage and lighting. A secure garden can support people who wander, but security should be discreet and should not make the space feel carceral. Include staff observation without making residents feel watched.
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4. Connect with Community
Community connection is a site and building question, not just the provision of a communal room. The framework discusses neighbourhood access, a community hub, easy navigation to households and an integrated building form.
Choose and shape the site for participation
Where feasible, locate a home near shops, parks, services, public transport and community facilities. Make the main entry visible, welcoming and distinct from deliveries. Provide a legible visitor route, comfortable waiting and meeting areas, accessible toilets and places where children or animals can visit without disrupting residents who need quiet.
Make shared amenities genuinely shared
A café, multipurpose room, salon, library, workshop or community room can support contact beyond the service when it is easy to find and appropriately connected. Consider opening selected amenities to local groups while protecting resident privacy, infection-control procedures and secure household areas. Internal routes should make it possible for residents to reach activities without crossing confusing back-of-house zones.
Support outings and neighbourhood links
Transport set-down areas, safe pedestrian routes, storage for mobility aids and clear doors affect whether a resident can leave the building. Partnerships with schools, libraries, faith groups and local organisations can add value, but the building must provide the practical welcome: a place to arrive, sit, talk and use the toilet.
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The development report includes a statement attributed to then Minister for Aged Care Ken Wyatt that “up to 40 percent of individuals in aged care homes never have visitors.” That wording belongs to the 2023 report’s discussion and should not be treated as a current prevalence estimate without checking the original speech and context (development report).
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How do you design a dementia-friendly aged-care facility?
Dementia-friendly design is an integrated wayfinding, sensory and safety strategy, not a colour palette. Begin by observing where people hesitate, become distressed, lose objects, trip or ask for help. Then test changes with residents and staff.
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- Use short, understandable routes with visible destinations and consistent landmarks.
- Differentiate important doors and controls with measured tonal contrast, while avoiding visual patterns that resemble obstacles.
- Reduce glare, echo, background noise and unnecessary visual stimulation.
- Make bedrooms, toilets and exits recognisable without exposing personal information.
- Provide safe opportunities for walking, pausing and accessing nature.
- Keep familiar domestic cues, but separate clinical storage and hazardous equipment from resident circulation.
Half of all residents were living with dementia and half required mobility assistance in figures reproduced by the 2024 guideline from earlier sources, including AIHW (2022) and Eagar et al. (2019). Those figures are presented in the guideline’s overview and are not a newly refreshed 2026 prevalence study.
New build or refurbishment: how should options be compared?
No single typology is always best. Use the same resident-centred tests for a new project and an existing building, then identify which changes are feasible, affordable and safe.
| Decision test | New-build opportunity | Refurbishment focus |
|---|---|---|
| Independence, identity and privacy | Plan private entries, bedrooms, ensuites, household clusters and storage from the start. | Improve room identity, privacy, personal storage and resident control within existing rooms. |
| Navigation and sensory comfort | Set clear routes, daylight, acoustics, lighting and tonal contrast into the layout. | Remove clutter, improve signs and landmarks, treat glare and noise, and repair unsafe transitions. |
| Domestic character with care access | Coordinate kitchens, dining, clinical support, staff rooms and service circulation before construction. | Reconfigure awkward rooms, conceal equipment where safe and protect staff workflows during staged work. |
| Outdoor access | Place verandahs, gardens and visible doors beside everyday living areas. | Fix thresholds, add shelter and seating, clarify routes and convert underused spaces into useful destinations. |
| Community connection | Choose a connected site and provide welcoming visitor and shared amenities. | Improve the entry, visitor route, transport interface and links to nearby services. |
| Feasibility and resources | Resolve structure, services, maintenance and operating costs before committing to a form. | Prioritise low-cost, reversible changes alongside works requiring consent and major capital. |
A practical assessment process
- Define the people and activities. Include residents with different mobility, sensory, cognitive, cultural and communication needs, plus families and staff on every shift.
- Map a typical day. Trace waking, toileting, meals, medication, recreation, outdoor time, visits, rest and emergencies. Mark where a resident must wait, ask for help or cross a staff-only route.
- Walk and listen. Check clutter, sound, glare, temperature, smells, floor transitions, door effort, seating and sightlines at different times of day.
- Prioritise risk and benefit. Fix hazards and blocked access first, then improvements that increase choice, meaningful activity and social contact.
- Prototype before committing. Use temporary signs, furniture layouts or lighting changes; ask residents what feels clearer and what feels less like home.
- Coordinate disciplines. Bring together architects, interior designers, landscape designers, access consultants, lighting and acoustic specialists, infection-control advisers, operators and care workers.
- Evaluate after occupation. Observe whether residents actually use the garden, destinations and shared rooms, and adjust furniture, signage, lighting or operating procedures when they do not.
The Department provides a free Care Home Assessment Tool alongside the national guidance. Its accommodation page also links culturally safe design guidance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Improving accommodation in residential aged care.
What should families look for when choosing an aged-care home?
- Can a resident see and reach a garden or verandah from ordinary living areas?
- Are routes, bedrooms, toilets and exits easy to recognise without constant verbal directions?
- Is there a quiet place as well as lively communal space?
- Can residents personalise rooms and control aspects of lighting, temperature, privacy and daily routine?
- Are chairs stable and comfortable, floors even and toilets close, visible and suitable for assistance?
- Do staff have discreet storage, safe work routes, clinical support space and usable break areas?
- Can family members arrive, stay, eat, use facilities and participate without entering restricted areas?
- Does the home connect with a neighbourhood, transport and community activities rather than turning inward?
Look beyond a polished reception or decorative courtyard. Ask to see the route a resident with a walker would take to the toilet, dining room and garden, and visit at a busy time to assess noise, congestion and staff response.
What the national guidelines do—and do not—do
The guidelines provide a common design language and practical recommendations for new work and upgrades. The Department’s 10 July 2024 announcement describes the range as “practical changes” in existing homes through to more substantial features in new buildings (Guide for best practice design in residential aged care). They do not rank one building type, prescribe a universal room size or replace professional advice, statutory approvals, building standards, clinical requirements or consultation with the people who will use the home.
The Department accommodation page was last updated 28 April 2026. It records an eight-part webinar series that ran from 26 February to 11 June 2026; those dates have passed, so check the page for current resources rather than assuming registration remains open.
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For lighting and dementia-specific practice, the development report’s bibliography identifies McNair, Pollock and Cunningham’s 2018 book, Enlighten: Lighting for older people and people with dementia (Sydney: HammondCare Media). Confirm the current edition and availability before purchasing.
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