Humanities & Cultures

A large mural of a teacup decorated with a green flower bursts off the white wall on the ground floor of a tall apartment building in the Kebun Baru area of Singapore. A bowl with a rooster adorns another building nearby. Up the street, another tower features a candy with a white rabbit on the wrapper.

The paintings are more than street art. These 10 murals — each depicting a distinctive Singaporean food-related item — are helping residents with dementia find their way home.

More than 80 percent of Singapore residents over the age of 65 live in public housing blocks like these. But, as the social service agency Dementia Singapore heard from locals in Kebun Baru, the uniform, whitewashed design of the ground floors made it difficult for residents with dementia to get around. Dementia — a family of conditions that impact cognitive function, including Alzheimer’s disease — changes how people are able to navigate even familiar areas, and can impair their ability to read information like numbers.