Our Partnership with Swinburne University at Martin Luther Homes
At Martin Luther Homes, we are proud to partner with Swinburne University of Technology on a collaborative project that brings together academic expertise and aged care innovation. This partnership allows us to explore new approaches that support the wellbeing and quality of life of older people, while also providing valuable real-world learning opportunities for students.
By working together, we are helping shape the future of aged care through evidence-based practice, shared knowledge, and a commitment to person-centred outcomes.
Over six months and 17 workshops, the Swinburne Team led by Sonja Pedell collaborated closely with residents from the retirement village and assisted living units to shape a shared vision for a newly cleared outdoor space near the community hall—one that balances accessibility, tranquillity, social encounters and exercise. From rotunda and garden designs to technology-facilitated idea sharing, the co-design process empowered residents to meaningfully contribute to a vision of an outdoor space they would like to call their own.
Sonja noted that there were many highlights in the project, including the involvement of experts to better understand the opportunities for native plants and animals, as well as the views the place offers. But also moving shade patterns during the day and seasons, and the importance of any kind of exercise, helped residents to ground their ideas in realistic conditions.
“If we’re building on this concept of the borrowed landscape, you start with the big things that you can’t move, and one is where are the views, where are the opportunities. […] We love views to the horizon, even if we’re not going to walk up that mountain, but you have a mental journey up that mountain.”
— Astrid Huwald, landscape architect
“Exercise that might sound scary for some, I could imagine in some cases it might just be as easy as walking. It’s literally movement, and for some people, exercise might be just standing up and going for a walk, but for some people it might be some balance sort of exercises, and for some other people it might be lifting some weights. In terms of the social aspect, I think that’s really underrated. It’s about community as well, and saying “oh, you know, I’m going to go see Bobby and Emma and we’re going to do a few exercises together”. And that’s the motivating thing behind the exercise.”
— Vid Jatunarachchi, physiotherapist
Project Team Swinburne Living Lab: Professor Sonja Pedell, Dr Diego Muñoz, Mia Lan An, Ho Ho He, Xingting Wu, Vanessa Zervogianni and Professor Emeritus Leon Sterling
This work was financed by the Australian Research Council (DP230100796).
