DESIGNING FOR AN AGEING DEMOGRAPHIC


‘Baby Boom’ generation will redefine ‘old age’


In an article based on his Design in Mental Health 2022 conference presentation, highly experienced architect, and founder of IBI TH!NK, Richard Mazuch, argues that architects, designers, and planners, will increasingly need to tailor their thinking on the optimal living and care environments to the needs and wants of the so-called ‘Baby Boomer’ generation. This, he says, will require a radical re-think on what an ageing, but ever-more youthfully-minded, population needs and desires for a fulfilling life.


Between 1946-1964 the largest generation was created. The ‘Baby Boomers’ radically changed society at every stage of their lives, as they will do so in their senior years, ‘from considerations regarding drugs, sex, rebellion, and rock ’n roll, to end of life issues’, and ‘will challenge long-term facilities to instate new policies’. (James Siberski, co-author, with Carol Siberski, of an article titled ‘Boomers in Nursing Homes: Ready or Not, Here They Come’, in Today’s Geriatric Medicine 2015; 8 (5): 18). They have lived through post war food rationing to Deliveroo, from telegrams to the Internet, from Perry Como to Black Sabbath, from ‘The Year of Love’ to the bombing of Hiroshima, and from Charlie Chaplin to Monty Python… Mods, Rockers, Skins, Hippies, Punks, Goths, and beyond. The ‘Baby Boomers’ will redefine old


age. This longer-living, ‘toughing things out’ cohort will face significant challenges – ranging from failing body systems to mental health issues. They will encounter everything from depression, Diabetes, Arthritis, cataracts, and incontinence, to loneliness, and from Dementia to substance abuse or misuse. The Silver Tsunami is about to reach landfall, and hoping to see 2020 Design


The ‘Baby Boomers’ will redefine old age. This longer-living, ‘toughing things out’ cohort will face significant challenges – ranging from from failing body systems to mental health issues


Vision for a very different future. Not one that is visually and mentally debilitating, containing Parker Knoll derivatives, fireplaces, over-sized clocks, rocking chairs, menageries of grabrails, flock wallpaper, and nicotine colourways, all saturated in a Biome of ‘senior home’ smells, unsuccessfully masked by rose or lavender scents.


Inhabiting this ‘new world’ What would inhabit this new world? Oxygen bars, Snoezelen Spaces, Virtual reality to enable one to fly a kite in Hawaii, ‘Zimmer’ band gigs, grannies boxing to reduce Parkinson tremors, dementia pubs and cafés, sheds to rebuild motorbikes, invention workshops, robotics, exotic pets, LED pillows, body driers, Tomek fittings, Toto WCs, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, digitised support, and ‘virtual’ mental health consultations.


A new tomorrow The ‘Baby Boomers’ – The ‘Silver Tsunami’ has now reached landfall, abruptly interrupted by the COVID pandemic and much more. Our vision for a very different future has been severely impacted by worldwide climate change, an ongoing rise in energy costs, the escalating cost of living, rising fuel prices, decreasing economies, and multiple waves of exotic viruses and hybrid influences. Our vision of yesterday, and indeed tomorrow, needs to be recalibrated. In moments of great change there are real opportunities for great change. Within this new Third Era of Health, design has a very real opportunity to deliver optimal environments that are truly supportive of wellbeing, diagnostics, treatment, and recovery, in new settings – such as the smarter, salutogenic home, within a supportive and caring community. Let us deconstruct, reconstruct, and reboot, today’s obsolete concepts into forward-looking paradigms focusing on invisibility and symbiotically supportive features that create environments that offer experiences that empower. Let’s continue to create memories.


‘The silver Tsunami makes landfall’. THE NETWORK | NOVEMBER 2022


Healthy ageing – Centres of Excellence This concept was initially developed for the St. Paul’s Healthcare Campus in Vancouver. It was designed as a beacon of research to provide spaces for innovation within the overall medical community of British Columbia. The entry floors of ‘Experience and Discovery’ feature simulation labs and virtual reality experiences for clinicians, caregivers, patients, and family, to engage with multiple aspects of ageing. The varied simulation suites include the exploration of


21


Courtesy of Richard Mazuch


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34