In arcCA 09.2, we look at current research and development in design for aging. As Andrew Scharlach, professor of social welfare at UC Berkeley, points out in his introductory essay, California is in for a “silver tsunami” of aging citizens. We’re not alone. Much of the world is experiencing population aging, with studies such as those cited in Andrew Lian, Carolyn Karnovsky and Lauren Zmood’s “The Aging Workplace” indicating that, in many parts of the developed world, a quarter of the population will be older than sixty by the year 2050.
Not only does the increased proportion of seniors require a greater quantity of accommodation; it also, and far more significantly, forces this accommodation from the margins of society into the mainstream. We can no longer treat senior housing and care facilities as separate from the everyday lives of our communities, our eldest citizens out of sight to all but their immediate families and professional caregivers.
Accordingly, a constant theme in this issue is integration: in mixed-use developments (Dorit Fromm’s “Looking to Europe”), retail environments (Avery Taylor Moore’s “Inviting Seniors Out”), urban communities (Michael Malinowski’s “Affordable Senior Housing As an Engine for Urban Revitalization”), and elsewhere. And the needed integration is not simply among use types. It takes in services as well as buildings, social networks as well as spatial ones, innovation as well as memory.
There is nothing about the project shown on the cover that says, “Old people live here.” Why should there be? It and many of the buildings featured in this issue are decidedly contemporary, not to shortchange stylistically traditional buildings but to make the point that design for aging is not merely a necessity; it is an opportunity. As Joyce Polhamus notes (“Architectural Opportunities in Design for Aging”), “This is one of the only architectural product types that hasn’t evolved much in the last fifty years.” The possibilities for synthetic innovation are enormous, and our hope is to encourage imaginative, generalist architects to dive into the mix, partnering with specialist architects and other experts in medical, accessibility, and regulatory issues to design invigorating, joyful places for our later years. Because they are our later years, not someone else’s.
Author Tim Culvahouse, FAIA, is editor of arcCA.
Originally published 2nd quarter 2009, in arcCA 09.2, “Design for Aging.”
