HOUSING
LATER LIVING HOUSING DESIGN: LEARNING FROM COVID-19
Stuart Carr, Director with architects Inglis & Carr, sees several potential long-term changes to the way housing is designed and delivered as an outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1 In a recent trip to Verona, prior to the majority of the population of the UK being placed under house arrest, I found myself looking up at the balcony which was said to have inspired Shakespeare’s ‘Wherefore art thou, Romeo’ scene. Young couples, and some older, were re-enacting the scene for the benefit of their families and friends and any thought of social distancing amongst the tourists in the courtyard below, myself included, could not have been further from our minds. In a sense the crush and inconvenience of it all was part of the fun of the experience. How ironic that just a few short months later the television pictures of Italy would show deserted streets with not a tourist and barely a local in sight. Before long the pictures from Italy were showing residents on their balconies, observing the social distancing rules but managing still to communicate.
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What bearing will all of this have on the design of new communities for older people? Communities that enable residents to rent or own a property and to maintain their privacy and independence, with the reassurance of 24-hour on-site staff, communal facilities, and optional care and support as needed. This is a crucial question for our practice as we are currently designing Future Street’s new mid-market Later Living Villages for rent and part-ownership in various locations throughout England. We have a huge housing gap in the UK and the population is ageing. In August 2019, Property Week declared that Later Living is ‘set to be the next major UK residential asset class’ and Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO), the main body representing the sector in the UK, has ambition for 250,000 people to have the opportunity to live in Later Living communities by 2030.
WWW.OFFSITEMAGAZINE.CO.UK | JULY/AUGUST 2020
COVID-19 will drive changes of various kinds: legal, fiscal, procedural and physical. There is an inevitable tension between the need for densification and future social distancing. If we try to spread ourselves out more, what effect will this have on our valuable green belt and our dependency on the car to get anywhere in the absence of good, well-connected public transport in more rural areas? It is unlikely that COVID-19 will result in a reconsideration of the Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) principles which we adopt in our approach to good design for the elderly. The provision of external spaces, both private and communal, opening onto areas of planting, trees and the natural environment are essential. In such responsibly managed living environments it is likely that health, fitness and wellness will improve, leading to increased longevity.
