A short guide to how to design age integrated urban spaces

A short guide to

How to design Intergenerational urban spaces

Based on a report orderer by the Danish Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing

Who is arki_lab? arki_lab is a young, Copenhagen-based urban design studio and was founded upon the strong ideological principle of getting closer to people through our efforts to create better cities.

One of our big strengths is our interdisciplinary approach, and we have a good mix of architects, urban designers, sociologists, anthropologists, graphic designers and communication experts. The many different perspectives are valuable in designing the perfect user-involvement strategy and eventually in designing cities that are serving all of us, and that is the main reason that we always collaborate with different companies and individuals ranging from researchers to big architecture firms.

At arki_lab we are ‘designing WITH people’. This means involving citizens directly in the design process through tailor-made engagement processes. We work with education through involvement, community building, and creating spatial change that benefits the users’ needs. Every process revolves around citizen involvement in as many stages as possible. We translate the needs and dreams of the citizens, activate unused spaces, and give places new life through local knowledge.

Abiut this Guide In 2015, arki_lab in collaboration with TERROIR ApS and Deane Simpson, and by the Danish Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing was assigned to conduct a research project focusing on intergenerational integration in urban and suburban areas. arki_lab’s main task during this research was fostering interaction across generations in urban spaces in order to increase community cohesion and decrease loneliness. During the project, we applied our expertise in analytical research, based on user engagement, and provided innovative methods and strategies for transforming the urban and suburban FORSTADEN spaces into an inviting environment that supports the interaction between generations.

The following guide is a summary of arki_lab’s main findings about integration and citizen participation during the course of this project.

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Enjoy reading !

And remember, we are always more than happy to hear your feedback.

BYFORNYELSE

Introduction Today Western societies in particular-and the rest of the world generally- is divided by age. From our birth to our death, society keeps us well within spaces occupied by peers to the degree that other age groups seem alien and unapproachable. This divide, though it is often relatively invisible and seemingly natural, guides our everyday actions more than we know. As an urban design office, we see firsthand the degree to which our cities are divided into age-specific areas, we hear the difficulties that people of different ages have in interacting with each other and we feel the widespread consequences to the bone.

To our greatest relief, we have experienced that urban design can help address these problems specifically. We therefore have an ongoing interest in the dynamics of age and how it shapes our society.

During the last 2 years we had the opportunity to investigate this interest further. A notable demographic change marked by the increase of aging population has urged the Danish Government to allocate financial and human resources to tackle the issue.

Consequently, in 2015, arki_lab in collaboration with TERROIR ApS and Deane Simpson, and by the Danish Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing was assigned to conduct a research project focusing on intergenerational integration in urban and suburban areas.

Community cohesion in urban and residential areas was the main task of the overall project, with a special emphasis on integration of elderly citizen groups. Moreover, the concept of shared living communities, which accommodate all generations, was the architectural focus point. The final report is roughly 150 pages, where we have given theoretical examples on how age can be understood and how age segregation permeates society in an institutional, spatial, and cultural sense. We have investigated three cases in Denmark and have provided concrete empirical examples of how age segregation issues can be dealt with, from our everyday practice as an urban design office.

We find age integration a very important issue that needs our immediate attention-hence this short guide to “How to design intergenerational urban spaces” which is based on the report we have conducted for the ministry. We have extracted the some of the main points and made a list of what we think should be tackled as soon as possible.

It is our hope that this could be a departure point for discussing age integration in our cities and how we can foster it in the future by Designing Cities WITH People.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 3 of 14

1

Age is a delicate phenomenon!

Our Experience It was our experience through the research project whenever we touched base with professionals engaged in the field of urban design and development that ‘age’ as a phenomenon was widely neglected. Often even the professionals made do with stereotypical images of different age-groups and doing so, missed the nuances of how people in different ages behave, what they want and how they should be approached. In the report we make available great background theory on the matter of age and concrete ways of handling age in urban design. We suggest an increased focus on age as a delicate phenomenon.

Our Suggestion Age is an issue that should be addressed in all urban design projects. Education and Creating awareness about age amongst all those who work with urban design and development and architecture should be on top of the governments and municipalities’ agenda.

We are so pleased that we could gather all of you as well as our mayor here, so we can discuss and brainstorm about how to design cities that are accommodating to all ages.

YEah. I have always found it a little tricky to design urban spaces that serve all and everyone.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 4 of 14

2

Life-phases Could be used as a tool to understand and design specifically for a very narrow age-group!

Our Experience In our work we make use of life-phases to operationalize the different stages of life and accordingly the different age-groups present in our society. This valuable tool helps to unveil the potentials and problems of age in urban design and a way to check a design for an area. It brings upon questions like: “Did we include the old-old in our design?” and “What are the wishes of the teens compared to the tweens?” Questions to which the answer assists us greatly to design more accommodating urban spaces for everyone.

Our Suggestion We encourage everyone to make a life-phase model and use it in their work. This model then should be used to identify different groups in the area as well as assess the level of their integration in urban spaces.

I am old-old.

I am a teenager.

I am young-old.

I am young.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 5 of 14

3

the very young and very old are more likely to be overheard due to their status as vulnerable!

Our Experience When studying age-groups we found that especially the very young (children) and the very old (elderly with limited health and mobility) are often not involved in urban design processes because of their fragile status. This means that their needs could be easily neglected and their voice could be overheard in the chorus of the more voluble groups.

Our Suggestion We emphasis that special treatment is needed in a democratic urban design when it comes to the very young and the very old.

It is such a long way between the shop and the nursing home. If they had asked me, I would have told them that I could really use a bench here, so I could rest a little.

I wish someone had asked me about how I’d like this playground to look like. A few more trees could have made me so happy.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 6 of 14

4

Methods and involvement processes should be tailor-made in order engage and reach all age groups!

Our Experience Different age-groups don’t respond to different methods in the same way, and not all methods work for all age groups so we need to develop and use different methods to gather data about, get ideas from and facilitate interaction between different age-groups.

Our Suggestion Involvement processes should be carefully constructed, different approaches shoulde be considered and methods should be specifically chosen when working with multiple age groups.

Seniors don’t move in the city the same way as youth. S0 we need to adjust our question list.

I think we should also adjust the length and format of the workshop.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 7 of 14

5

An easy and effective approach to an area is through different agespecific institutions!

Our Experience We have tested various approaches to reach out to various age groups. Some of the most important ones are: off-the-street approach, the network approach and finally, the institutional approach. Our experience has proved that the last is often the most effective way of engaging age-groups.

Our Suggestion Identify an age-homogeneous institution in your area like a school, dormitory, workplace, bridge-club, or nursing home and use these institutions as a way of recruiting and organizing the citizen engagement. Use multiple institutions at the same time to facilitate creative processes where the groups can meet and discuss.

Oh, it’s nice to take a break from the nursing home.

Thanks for joining our exhibition today. I like to share our ideas about that empty lot between the school and the nursing home.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 8 of 14

6

Involvement should be done both across age-groups and in isolated age groups!

Our Experience It is best to engage one age group at a time if you just wish to gather knowledge about that group and its behavior. If you however want to create brainstorms and gather ideas for design or facilitate democratic processes aimed at commonly approved designs it is recommended to engage different groups together.

Our Suggestion Know your process and define your goals for each step of the project. Then select the age group(s) that should be involved, in order to satisfy the goals of any given step in the project.

It was surely great to hear what my peers’ ideas are about this urban space. But I’m happy that now we get a chance to exchange ideas with the young ones. It is so inspiring.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 9 of 14

7

Different age-groups have different time-schedules leading to a temporal age-segregation!

Our Experience An observation we made, that builds on the understanding of an institutional, spatial and cultural age-segregation in society, is the new point of this also entails a temporal agesegregation, where different age-groups have different schedules in everyday life. This means that they can co-inhabit an area at different times of day without ever interacting with each other – for good and for bad.

Our Suggestion Reflect on how and when different age groups use an area and investigate if various urban spaces that serve various age-groups could be combined. Can a kindergarten and a nursing home share common outdoor spaces?

Isn’t it lovely that we do some urban gardening in the school yard in the evenings? I feel Like I’m sharing something with those kids.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 10 of 14

8

It can be necessary to create cross-departmental units to deal effectively with age-segregation

Our Experience Age segregation is also present in the way we organize our society from the top in the division of ministries which focus on children and education or work or health. This devision extends into the municipal level and civil society as well. This often creates some organizational and even legal boundaries that stops and inhibits age-integration to flourish and makes intergenerational projects difficult.

Our Suggestion We suggest creating cross-departmental work-groups and projects on every level with a focus on facilitating age-integration and making better circumstances for age-integrating projects.

The other week we had some young visitors from a school. We cooked and painted together. All of us had such a good time. I wish there was a way to see more of them.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 11 of 14

9

It’s important to be aware of which degree of age-integration we want to obtain!

Our Experience Our relation with other people can range from complete stranger to dear friends and family – when we discuss age integration we need to be clear about what we define as successful age-integration, whether it is ‘just’ peaceful cohabitation or it needs to be the creation of actual social ties and relations. In this light it is clear that urban design can only do so much to facilitate age-integration as much is happening in the social sphere. But before this can happen, people need places to meet and which are inscribed with ageintegration discourses.

Our Suggestion We need policies on whether we always should encourage age-integration or when it is okay to divide age-groups and design segregated spaces. We encourage politicians and policy makers to create guidelines and visions for the age-integrated city.

oh! It’s so pleasant to see those kids there. I’m happy though that we still have some private space at the nursing home.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 12 of 14

10 User involvement can be a tool to facilitate age-integration itself!

Our Experience In line with our approach to urban design, where user-involvement is a crucial tool in creating community through urban development projects, we have experienced that userinvolvement in itself can be a tool to generate age-integration. Different age-groups can meet around the changes that are going to happen in their local area and they can unite through democratic processes that deal with their differences and enhance the common goals and needs to create great intergenerational spaces in the city.

Our Suggestion By putting age-integration on the agenda when we involve, we can create an ageintegrated platform, where people can meet each other and learn about each other.

We can create a forum where different age-groups can interact and stand together. By involving multiple age-groups in the design, we kickstart the process of age integration and break down that invisible wall that exist between people in different ages.

I think it was wonderful to hear your opinion. I’ve never really talked with anyone from your generation before.

· Designing Cities With People · www.arkilab.dk · Birkegade 4, 2200 Copenhagen, DK · mail@arkilab.dk · p 13 of 14

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