A YORK architecture practice which specialises in designing care villages for elderly people is helping developing countries look after their elderly.

DWA Architects, based in Blossom Street, has completed more than 250 care projects in the UK and is now taking its expertise to the Middle East, Africa, China and India.

Mel Fairbourn-Varley, international projects director for the firm, which employs 35 people in York and Warrington, said they decided to spread their wings about four years ago.

Mr Fairbourn-Varley has just returned from making a presentation on architectural and interior design for senior living, care and dementia environments at the China International Senior Services Expo in Beijing, as well as visiting Egypt to progress a number of projects they have in the pipeline.

“Because of the wealth in the Middle East, we started there as the first port of call,” he said. The firm partnered with a Qatari company and started accumulating research about the elderly situation in the Middle East. He said the different states faced different challenges, but as they became wealthier, young people were more highly educated and mobile, with less time to look after elderly relatives.

The firm’s research led a Beijing-based design studio to approach them to compete to design a large care village project in Shunde District, in the Guangdong Province of China.

Age Concern International has also approached the company and introduced it to the Egyptian market, where it is now working with the Egyptian government and hotel sector about a potential project to create assisted living accommodation for tourists aged over 55 in Luxor, Egypt. He said Luxor was a city linking the oasis towns in the western desert and Red Sea resorts, known for their natural holistic medical treatments, which have been proven to improve health issues such as arthritis and psoriasis.

Mr Fairbourn-Varley said: “They haven’t exploited it as a tourist attraction. There’s an opportunity there for us to look at that as a possible tourist attraction for over-55s in the European, US and Middle Eastern markets.”

The company is also in early stage talks with a UK developer and investor interested in rolling out ten care homes in China and 80 in India and is working with Age Concern International on a care home model for Nasr City outside of Cairo, Egypt, which is tailored for the Islamic culture.