Claire Dickey, AIA, on helping her clients age in place

Claire Dickey, AIA, is cofounder and co-owner of Middleburg, Va.-based Hestia Design Collective, an architecture and interior design firm that specializes in custom homes and commercial spaces. In addition to her design practice, Dickey currently serves as the co-chair of AIA’s Design for Aging Knowledge Community. We chatted with her about firm ownership, her design practice, and how she helps clients navigate aging in place.  

There were several factors that influenced why we decided to start the design firm. We [Dickey and partner Valerie Boudreaux, AIA] launched Hestia as a side hustle in 2021 because it can be difficult, especially when you’re working in a large organization, to get the breadth of opportunities that you would like to have.  

Additionally, during [the pandemic], everybody was struggling in a lot of different ways. My business partner and I both have young kids at home. It was difficult trying to balance a full-time career in a very challenging industry, as well as all the challenges that came with having your children home with you full-time, unexpectedly. There was a factor of burnout that happened, or just overwhelm. It was the right move for us for a lot of reasons, from professional to mental wellbeing.  

In changing scales of work from large institutional projects into much smaller single-family homes, or renovations within the home, there were several positive surprises and happy coincidences. There were carryovers in terms of things that people were concerned about [in terms of] being able to age in place in their home. Even younger adults who still have kids at home may be thinking about it. Something that people don’t always understand is that when you do have kids at home, there are universal design qualities that hold over from little kids all the way through very frail older adults. Good design is good design, regardless of age. It’s been nice to see that people are interested in planning for their futures, and that we have the knowledge and expertise to be able to speak confidently and with authority on those types of concerns that people are having to be able to guide them appropriately.  

For me, it has always been about helping people. For most people, home is considered their safe space. When they’ve had a good day, they want to be home to celebrate with their friends and family. So many important life milestones happen in your home. When you’ve had a bad day, you say, “I just want to go home.” Being able to help people envision and create that place that, for them, will provide a source of both comfort and joy – helping people create that has been what’s made architecture purposeful for me. -- As told to Katherine Flynn