DESIGNING FOR AN AGEING POPULATION

Living and Working in Later Life

More and more people are extending their working lives, and older workers represent a valuable source of experience, talent and financial contribution to the economy. Flexible working is key to keeping older people in the workforce. However, while many are increasingly working from home, few homes are designed to support healthy, independent and active living and working beyond the traditional retirement age.

Home Office to Age in Place brings together architects, designers for ageing and digital designers from Northumbria University, along with furniture designers from Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy. Together they have created a purpose-built, flexible, and supportive live-work space for older residents in South Seaham Garden Village, County Durham for Karbon Homes.

REACHING THE BIG NUMBERS:

Why age is a big deal for designers…

£320bn – annual household spending in the UK by over-50s, who hold ¾ of the nation’s financial wealth

11m – the number of people aged 65 and over in England, representing 19% of the population. This is expected to increase to almost 13m in 10 years’ time.

71% of over-50s consumers said they would trust specialists for good advice on products that could help with their changing needs as they get older, compared with 49% who would trust mainstream retailers.

Over ¾ of over-50s consumers that had structural/layout changes to their kitchen did so to make them easier-to-use.

More than 60% of over-50s expect to carry out improvements to their kitchen and bathroom in the next 5 years, with brighter lighting, easier-to-use taps, and lighter cookware among the stated priorities.

Sources: ECI Partners (ecipartners.com) / Centre for Ageing Better (ageing-better.org.uk)

Redesigning the Walker Lady Helen Hamlyn, Patron of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, described the walking frame or ‘walker’ as “the most degrading object that we can give to anybody”. Walkers are functional products, but highly medicalised and stigmatised, so many people who would most benefit from using them abandon, avoid or postpone getting one, compromising their mobility.

Confident that good design can shift the negative stigma of walking frames, Lady Hamlyn commissioned Design Age Institute to launch The Hamlyn Walker Challenge. Product designer Michael Strantz’s winning proposal was for a single frame that can meet the needs of different generations. Strantz is now working with design agency Priestman Goode and user groups to explore further possibilities and continue to challenge the current stigma about walking frames.

Designing For An Ageing Population

Function Without Compromise Riser Chair aims to assist users with sitting and standing while being a beautiful piece of furniture that people will not only need but will want in their homes and offices. Creator Ali Jafari, founder of Designed Healthcare, based at Innovation Studio Arts University Bournemouth, was inspired to create Riser Chair by his experience as a nurse assisting patients to sit and stand.

In the Zone

Above the rooftops of Vienna and with a view of the Danube, this luxury penthouse boasts an interior scheme of simple beauty...

There are virtually no partitions in the open-plan structure – this living space is zoned with object-like furniture that conceals plenty of storage space. Each room has an individual terrace exit, with the aim of forming ‘a world of its own’, and yet is organised along a coherent and interlocking path.

Residential Design

The centre of the spacious living room is a floor-to-ceiling open fireplace that functions as a shelf at the back. The open boundary between the living and kitchen zones is formed by the staircase to the upper floor, which is backed by a glass wine cabinet.

Anthracite is the tone-setting colour of the interior design by Marion Fussi and Johanna Jelinek of Vienna-based Destilat Design Studio, which appears in different nuances depending on the specific application. The solid kitchen unit, made of porcelain stoneware, is in keeping with the stringent colour concept, with all fittings in gunmetal, a rich shade of grey.

Guest bathrooms maintain the apartment’s colour and material theme, as well as other aspects of aesthetic continuity, such as the circular mirrors.