PennDesign is hosting an international conference on aging and architecture this year. They will be having many speakers present what they've been thinking, writing about and doing with respect to aging. It's become a big topic lately with all the baby-boomers out there retiring and trying to age in place or sell their homes in favor of more age appropriate accomodations. In U.S. 1 newspaper's Insights and Arguments section recently I was reading Susan Hoskins' article about not denying your age and how ageism can sneak into well-meaning discourses. Ms. Hoskins' essay is a good read for anyone with aging parents or clients. It reminds us that older people are not diminished in some way. They are just different. And I hope that Penn's aging initiative keeps that in mind, and keeps the students on track and away from ageist beliefs.
I don't know how to design specifically for the aging, apart from ADA guidelines and such that is. It seems to me that some scientific study needs to be done on what older people find useful and not. Can we design buildings and environments that change as we get older? I'd be interested in what the "experts" have to say about it. It might be cost-prohibitive for most. But there must be a better way than the chair that climbs stairs for a person, etc. Well, when they figure it all out, hopefully they'll let us all know what they've decided.
I don't know how to design specifically for the aging, apart from ADA guidelines and such that is. It seems to me that some scientific study needs to be done on what older people find useful and not. Can we design buildings and environments that change as we get older? I'd be interested in what the "experts" have to say about it. It might be cost-prohibitive for most. But there must be a better way than the chair that climbs stairs for a person, etc. Well, when they figure it all out, hopefully they'll let us all know what they've decided.
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