Episode 8:2 Perkins Eastman’s Max Winters on How Design Shapes Senior Living

Max Winters, Senior Associate at Perkins Eastman and co-host of the Shaping Dementia Environments podcast, talks about the company’s milestones, the importance of the built environment for older adults, solutions for the underserved 80%, and what the future holds for senior living.

About Max

A creative force in the senior living design industry, Max Winters, RA, has pioneered new thinking around aging-in-community approaches, innovative dementia environments, and the transformative role technology will play in the future of aging. A senior associate with Perkins Eastman in Pittsburgh, Max’s curious and compassionate nature has established him as a trusted advisor in the development of both long-term visions for senior living communities and dementia environments.

Max’s research and ideas have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Environments for Aging, and McKnight’s Senior Living, among others. As co-host of Perkins Eastman’s new Shaping Dementia Environments podcast, Max is helping to bring awareness and spark advocacy for better designed dementia environments in the United States.

Key Takeaways

• A key ingredient of designing for the middle market is figuring out the minimum “chassis”to keep entry fees as low as possible. Forming partnerships and congregating a critical mass of residents are also crucial elements for success.
• Projects like Opus Newton by 2Life represent an important shift in senior living. Besides cost savings from sharing amenities between subsidized and low-income housing, the residents benefit from a more diverse community by combining different socio-economic groups.
• The two biggest myths about dementia environments are 1. that the primary job of a senior living community protecting the residents from themselves and from other people, and 2. that the primary role of the physical environment is protecting other people from the dementia residents.