EXPERT HUB
Expertise: Wayfinding
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Expertise
#design
#architecture
#environment
#carehome
#wayfinding
Dr Martin Quirke
Martin is a chartered architect and researcher who specialises in design for age-related health, physical and cognitive impairment.
Based within the University of Stirling's internationally renowned Dementia Services Development Centre, Martin is part of the multi-disciplinary design team that provides research informed professional design consultancy and design review services. He is an approved building assessor for the University of Stirling Dementia Design Accreditation scheme (aka the 'Stirling Gold Award')
Martin is environment lead for 'Our Connected Neighbourhoods', a pilot dementia friendly neighbourhoods research project funded by Life Changes Trust. The project focusses on supporting local people living with dementia to undertake assessments and share their experiences of local places in the Stirling North and Forth Valley areas.
Martin is a founding co-developer, along with DSDC Chief Architect Lesley Palmer, of the IRIDIS project, a revolutionary suite of publicly available digital technologies, to support research evidence based design that improves the independence and wellbeing of people with dementia, sight loss, and other age related impairments.
Martin's doctoral research project, carried out through the University of Newcastle, Australia, rated the suitability of building layouts in Australian and international care settings for supporting the independence and wellbeing of people living with dementia.
Katie Gambier-Ross
Katie Gambier-Ross is a final year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. Her current research is funded by the Alzheimer's Society UK and focuses on the everyday lives of people with dementia and the decision-making they (and others) go through when 'going out' and during the potential or actual experiences of being missing. Through discussion groups and walking interviews with people with dementia, she explores how these experiences affect people's sense of identity, purpose, control over their own lives, independence and safety. The findings will be relevant for a range of stakeholders and specifically intend to inform prevention and response strategies deeply informed by the voice of people affected by dementia. More widely, it aims to support people with dementia to live independently in a safe and supportive environment. 
In addition to her PhD, Katie tutors on undergraduate and postgraduate courses covering research methods and theoretical underpinnings of health and social science research. She has worked as a research assistant on a range of projects and is heavily involved in research and science communication communities. In 2019, she was a postgraduate representative for Scottish Institute for Policing Research, has been on the organising committee for several conferences and co-founded the International Consortium for Dementia and Wayfinding.