CARING
The charrette teams had a choice of three localities in the Redlands, on Brisbane’s bayside, to work on, where they were challenged to create visionary, innovative and highly connected designs to meet the needs of an intergenerational community in 2050. During the design challenge, the group reached the consensus that what was good for older people, was good for all ages and traditional, walled retirement villages have definitely had their day. Everyone wants to be able to choose how they live their lives, for the full length of their lives. Many of the ideas proposed by the teams shared a common thread of physical and social connectedness, which are key to promoting increased choice, economic development and job creation. While many innovative alternatives to retirement villages are emerging, the design challenge participants considered ways the approach to urban design and built form needs to transform, to be open and accessible to all generations that make up our communities. We know this is what keeps people engaged and connected. Ideas ranged from ‘super blocks’ that reconfigure three typical suburban house blocks into five multi-generational residences,
to new economic models. The teams visualised spaces designed to enable older people to continue to be creative and productive, rather than a more traditional model that might push them further into dependence. Rather than being set apart from the community, the teams developed concepts of specialist knowledge and skills centres driven by community interests and needs that would be distributed within short distances of the hub and connected by free and frequent automated public buses and electric vehicle ride share. Connectedness and sharing might sound obvious and what we all might want, but the Longevity by Design teams showed what the ‘longevity’ economy could look like. Longevity by Design was a joint initiative of The University of Queensland‘s Healthy Ageing Initiative and DMA Engineers, with support from event partners Paynters and Redland City Council. Seven teams took away awards for their innovative pitches. A full list of award winners and design pitches can be found here. ■ Russell Lamb is Managing Director, DMA Engineers.
For more information visit www.longevitybydesign.co
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