How can we maintain our most important personal spaces and relationships in senior communities?
By 2050, the world’s population of people aged 60 years and older will double, reaching 2.1 billion. The built environment is falling far short of such projections, exposing a serious undersupply issue. This presents a challenge of quantity as much as quality and variety. There is no one housing typology that suits all, and this remains true in the context of senior living, in which a mix of single-family, multi-residential, congregate living communities, and more, are needed to satisfy the nuanced needs of an aging resident.
Senior housing should look and feel like a home rather than a hospital. In the same way we are thinking about the consumerization of healthcare, we need to think about the overall experience of the senior resident and the varying degrees of care they might require.
Only 20% of the average person’s lifespan is dictated by our genes, the other 80% is dictated by our lifestyles. This is why designing places that support an active lifestyle is critical to longevity and health. A senior living community is about continuing to live one’s life, just with added support. It is essential to remember that “home” means many things: a house, an apartment, or a community. We must expand the traditional definition to encompass far more, and remember that senior living communities while serving many purposes, must keep home at their core. The comfort and safety in our personal spaces can be applied to how we design.
Maintaining a Lifestyle
For those moving into a senior community, there is a fear that you will relinquish control. While that may be true in some respects, it is up to designers to create places that support autonomy and identity and provide residents with a sense of purpose. An example of this is including spaces for pets. More than 70% of older adults say that their pet helps them cope with physical or emotional symptoms, yet many of them are forced to give up their pets upon moving into senior communities. The incorporation of dog runs and washing stations allows residents to maintain their companionship.
Additionally, moving into senior living communities often requires reducing belongings. Adding storage options in modern senior communities gives residents the opportunity to hold onto more than just what may fit in a small closet. In this way, design can support a resident’s past in the present.
Participating in the Gig Economy
By incorporating areas like hoteling workstations, maker spaces, or partnering with outside businesses to create a mixed-use environment, design can support individuals’ autonomy to continue working should they choose to. A careful approach to unit design may include spaces that allow a continuation of lifestyles for part-time remote work, for hobbies, or for a short-term stay by children.
Enhancing Mobility
Members of the Baby Boomer generation value trying new things, personal growth, healthy living, individual choice, and community service. It is time to design spaces that reflect their values and assimilate them into vibrant and thriving communities. Thoughtfully integrating senior living into existing urban environments and mixed-use communities gives residents and their families more opportunities to spend time together. Non-traditional senior living locations, such as facilities near schools and universities, foster intergenerational activities and can aid in lifelong learning. Integrating senior living into larger mixed-use communities also provides spaces for partnerships with local businesses. From local shops, art studios and even ballroom dancing, older adults can take advantage of their neighborhood offerings and stay active within their community. Adjacency to public transportation, availability to car sharing and ride-hailing make the fear of losing one’s independence feel less onerous.
Creating Celebration Spaces
Celebrating the large and small moments in life should not go away when moving into a senior community. The question we pose to ourselves is how we can better support life’s moments through physical space. Communal kitchens allow residents to cook with and for their families and continue their holidays and special occasions. This helps to give individuals a sense of ownership and pride in being able to host in their homes. Creating private family rooms that mimic the coziness of one’s living room offers privacy for gatherings, which is especially necessary for smaller dwelling units. Ultimately, in 2023, we will be maintaining the important personal spaces of our homes in the designs of our senior living communities.
We are living longer and aging slower—what constitutes as elderly now is different to what it was a decade ago, and yet the same senior living concepts are still being prescribed. What is needed now is the type of advancement in design that we saw in medicine to enable seniors to not only live longer but to live better.
