Who Cares? An Architecture for an Ageing Population
Ageing is an inevitable part of the human experience, yet in Britain, it is often shrouded in shame. From “anti-ageing” products to “OK, boomer” memes, the message is clear: being old is something to avoid. These ageist attitudes permeate our society. Our fear and rejection of ageing lead us to marginalise older people instead of creating an inclusive environment for them, resulting in the need for facilities such as care homes.
The project aims to challenge our current model of aged care by embedding care into the existing British suburban fabric, making ageing a more equitable experience. It rethinks the typical care home wall, considering how it can enable rather than disable older individuals. By incorporating supportive elements to aid mobility and navigation, and fostering community support, older individuals can continue to live relatively independent lives despite potential physical and mental changes.
We are increasingly living longer lives. Aged care is an issue we should all care about.
Flipping our Model of Care
The strategy flips our current aged care model. Rather than moving individuals away from their community and familiar environment to a care facility, the proposal seeks to bring the supportive elements of a care home to their existing environment, allowing people to age in their own community.
Softer approaches to care were explored. Each example forms part of our current built environment. From almshouses to communal ginnels behind people’s properties, each typology provided spaces for more informal examples of communal care.
Rethinking the Wall: A Series of Sensory Landmarks
The project is structured around a reimaginition of the typical care home wall. Typically, the wall found in a care home setting disables individuals and create barriers that isolate older people from society. The proposed wall embeds supportive elements to help maintain independence. Through the exploitation of various sensory landmarks, the project aims to assist older people with navigation. As we age, our bodies and senses naturally change. Combined with changes to how we represent space in our cognitive map, the proposal provides people with sensory landmarks to help them form and recall their cognitive map and assist with independent navigation.
Implementation Strategy
The wall is formed by reclaiming a section from the rear of the backyards to create a communal pathway. Over time, as community members age, they can build onto this new pathway by subdividing their property. Owners may choose to sell their home and move to the end of the garden. The scheme builds on the idea of a typical 'granny flat' but, rather than isolating the individual, the project seeks to support people and form a new way to negotiate the suburban landscape.
Short Film, “George's Morning”
A short point-of-view film was created to simulate various sensory differences, allowing viewers to experience the scheme from a resident’s perspective. The film follows the morning routine of a resident named George and showcases the various elements embedded into the scheme to assist him. These include a bathroom easily viewable from the bed, door handles designed around his limited hand mobility and a garden embedded into the wall that serves as a sensory landmark on his way to the community building for his morning coffee. The film was produced by compositing footage onto simulated paths through the model, with various digital effects applied to simulate sensory differences.
Who Cares? An Architecture for an Ageing Population