Summary
Architectural Design Studio for Masters’ level students at Politecnico di Milano AUIC School of Architecture, on how to design inclusive spaces in all scales, from urban spaces to furniture design, with a special focus on age-friendly housing. The course is supervised by two professors: an architect and a sociologist. The interaction with other generations is always promoted in the design process to avoid ageism. Students are challenged with out-of-the-box older people types (Patti Smith, Clint Eastwood, Meredith Monk, etc.) to broaden their view of older people’s diversity and capacities. Students get basic rules and are required to interview older couples, usually their relatives, enquiring what older people value the most in their living spaces and which major problems they face to remain and age in place. Based on this enquiry and given lectures, students must design mixed function buildings (housing, commerce, offices) focused on the ageing population, their needs, and aspirations, together with young adults in intergenerational communities. Students must also study the surroundings of the chosen site to understand the provision or lack of services in a walking radius, therefore integrating in their hybrid buildings the lacking services. They must also design the urban spaces surrounding their buildings to promote the use of outside spaces and active ageing. Accessibility and universal design are key concepts for all spaces, interior or external. Students in the Design Studio come from all continents, therefore the course’s impact on future generations of architects is intended to be global, after these students go back to their home countries and put in practice what they have learned.
Planning and Implementation
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What was the challenge you were trying to address?
We are living in a complex world. In 21st century Europe is ageing very fast, technology is developing even faster, social and environmental issues are demanding from all of us new ethical behaviors, namely considering the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations for the planet (UN, 2015) and the New European Bauhaus goals (EC, 2020), which are by nature inherent to our design topic. The COVID-19 pandemic brought new mental health and psychosocial concerns generating global stress (WHO, 2020) for all ages. We will reflect upon it. But architecture can have a major impact upon the quality of life for citizens: the spaces where we live, work or enjoy leisure time, can be reimagined according to these issues towards ageing societies, young people’s interests, citizens’ rights, smart cities, climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, sustainability, air quality, healthcare and well-being, land degradation, ecosystem management, landscape design… Under this complex scenario, we’ll be dealing in Architectural Design Studio with this central issue, involving mainly two age groups (older people and university students) and two spatial types (urban space and housing). Therefore, we’ll be developing innovative housing solutions for spaces where these groups of people can fulfill their daily living, in sustainable environments, designed under new aesthetics for a better living.
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Who were you trying to impact?
Older people in general, Older people with vulnerabilities, Both older and younger people
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What sectors were you targeting?
Education, Health, Housing, Transportation, Urban development
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Who else was involved?
Civil Society Organization, Older People's Association, Academia
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How did older people participate?
Older people were consulted during the planning process
Lessons learned
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Please describe how collaboration worked in your initiative.
Whenever older people’s organizations existed in the study area, they were contacted for talks with the students to share their activities, goals and needs and keep an open channel for the students who wanted to explore it further. This academic year 2022-23 we worked in Lisbon and Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa helped through their long history in Lisbon, Portugal, namely their program Radar and program Lisboa, City of All Ages.
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What was the impact of your initiative on older people, their families, and/or their communities?
The simple fact of putting in touch different generations, students interviewing older people (family or not), empowered the interviewees. Suddenly their opinions and preferences were listened to and valued. For them it was also an opportunity to imagine alternative housing solutions, question themselves about their present situation, the pro and cons of it, the possibility of sharing housing spaces with other people to avoid loneliness and isolation, while getting or exchanging help. Realizing that the urban surrounding spaces could be improved in terms of accessibility, safety and environmental quality to promote outside activities, all this can happen if older people become vocal about their needs and preferences near the local authorities. Their vote counts for that also.
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What issues did you face, and how did you address them?
Avoiding stigma, prejudice and stereotypes embedded in everyone’s culture. For that the aid of my colleague and co-tutor in the course, a Full Professor in Sociology, was crucial to enhance students sensitivity to theses aspects. Accessibility issues: avoiding the look and immediate perception of spaces designed specifically for handicap or people with special needs. The solutions I require my students to develop are spaces designed to be inclusive and able to be used by everyone, without the usual “handicap signs”. For example, designing a comfortable bathroom: large enough to be used by someone on a wheelchair, with roll-in showers, with each sanitary equipment located at the correct place, but without the aiding bars. In the future, when (and if) the need arrives, it will be easy (and economical) to add the supporting bars, with no need to change the costly bathroom infrastructures. Until then, it will look like a nice, big, and comfortable bathroom that everyone can use without thinking about disabilities. Ramps: they are not only good for wheelchairs. They are fun for bikes, skates, roller-skates, baby strollers. Avoiding the stigma is always very important. Teaching students that in their design they always avoid creating architectural barriers in public and private spaces. This was a basic requirement. Teaching students that instead of horizontal platforms with steps (architectural barriers), we can often design public spaces with low inclinations, therefore avoiding steps or made-in-purpose ramps.
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What lessons did you learn from implementing this initiative?
1) Most older people enjoy the idea of sharing spaces (in different ways) with younger people. 2) The presence of nature or green elements in every day’s life is very appreciated. 3) Improving public spaces surrounding housing spaces is crucial for active ageing.
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Do you have any other reflections you would like to share?
This a very human and compelling theme with a huge scope in architectural design and urban design fields that students (the architects of the future!) embrace with great enthusiasm, reaching beautiful and innovative solutions, putting their creativity at service of the future society. And they learn to see ageing as a process, not a category in human life. Their vision changes after facing this design topic.