Identifying Opportunities and Barriers to Innovation in Residential Care Building Design: An Australian e-Delphi Study

The procurement of residential care facilities presents opportunities for design innovation yet is challenged by various contextual factors, including country-specific policies, regulations, research, care models, organisational practices, and socioeconomic influences. Despite the impact of these factors on built quality, research on their role in supporting design innovation remains limited. Defining procurement as four phases—Planning, Design, Construction, and Occupancy— this study aims to provide a holistic understanding of these dynamics to identify pathways to design innovation. Objectives are, to: 1) create a diagrammatic representation of the procurement process for new residential care facilities, highlighting key stakeholders; 2) identify and prioritise contextual factors that significantly influence innovation in residential care facility design; and 3) explore the facilitators and barriers to innovation at each step of the process to propose actionable strategies for overcoming them. A multi-method qualitative approach included a systematic literature review, analysis of 38 case studies, and a two-round national e-Delphi study with 32 experts from four stakeholder groups. The findings offer a foundation for policymakers to assess the influence of various factors, reframe power dynamics between key stakeholders, and explore transdisciplinary collaboration models to foster innovation. The study reveals that many challenges are not unique to residential care facilities but reflect broader systemic issues across sectors and building typologies.