Submitted by Victoria Linn Lygum, 2025
Location
Græsted, North Zealand, Denmark
Designer
May Bjerre Eiby
Year
2016
Visual Credit
Photos: Victoria Linn Lygum
Film: May Bjerre Eiby, Andreas Omvik
Description
Dagmarsminde is a pioneering dementia care home in Græsted, North Zealand, Denmark, founded by nurse and entrepreneur May Bjerre Eiby. Designed as an “Omsorgsoase” (Care Oasis), it offers a holistic, non-pharmacological approach to dementia care that prioritizes dignity, sensory well-being, and human connection over conventional institutional models.
The core philosophy behind Dagmarsminde is to create a home-like, therapeutic environment that supports residents with severe dementia through comfort, familiarity, and meaningful engagement. This approach is grounded in the belief that emotional and sensory experiences are central to quality of life, particularly for individuals with cognitive decline.
Highlights
Their focus on aesthetics is reflected in a homely interior design with vintage furniture, decorative objects and plants. Both indoors and outdoors, the design includes various sensory stimuli such as light, sound and scent that as a whole support well-being and a safe atmosphere.
Scent characteristics
Dagmarsminde makes strategic use of smells linked to places: the plants in the garden, the goats and the spa room in the basement. As well as the welcome scent in the entrance hall which is constantly emitted from a diffuser and the food scents from the kitchen that come and go at certain times of the day and vary from meal to meal. Scents are also switched on and off to support specific activities, situations and moods: e.g. focus scent in connection to storytelling.
Reference / Acknowledgement
Smellscape Catalogue: 