Whenever I hear the term “aging-in-place”—from a design perspective—I traditionally think of the thoughtful tweaks and updates that can be made to a home to ensure that its residents can stay put as long as possible.
But when I attended a session at the recent EFA Conference in Anaheim, a whole new perspective was offered.
During “Effective Environments for Aging-in-Place at Home—Case Studies of Senior Housing Development in China,” Zhe Wang and Connie Fan described developments in China that don’t fix what’s already been built but instead plan for the future in advance.
Wang, founder of International Green and professor at Henan University, and Fan, principal and director of the Asia market for LSG Landscape Architecture, shared the experiences they’ve had in planning and designing solutions to the country’s demographic conundrum.
By 2050, China’s senior population is expected to reach 400 million, tripling the current number of citizens aged 65-plus, they said. Faced with an impending and daunting need for long-term care, solutions being explored look for a way to reduce that need.
And one approach is to create developments where housing is only one piece of the solution, complemented by all of the other services that will help keep people well, longer. From on-site healthcare providers to public transportation to commercial and retail offerings, these iterations of the “health village” models growing in popularity in the U.S. make a whole lot of sense.
Largely, what Wang and Fan described was open housing, too—meaning residents can move there regardless of age, creating a multigenerational dynamic complemented by the necessary services and amenities to help residents stay healthy.
Back here in the U.S., we’re facing our own exponential rise in a senior population, as EFA Conference closing keynote Richard Adler addressed (See “New Age: Reinventing What It Means To Grow Old”). Adler talked a lot of the systems that can be put in place to support a new generation of elders who are living longer than ever and remaining active longer than ever, too.
A lot of this is an urban planning conversation, but it's an important one to consider when you think about the loads of demand our owners and operators are going to be facing in the near future. But beyond that, I think what’s great is where these conversations overlap—where these very same principles of a multigenerational environment with retail and public transit and easy access to healthcare are discussed for residents of LTC communities, too.
For independent living, assisted living, or even skilled nursing sites, like Demetrios Kanakis discussed in his EFA Conference session (See “Planning A Health-Focused Campus For Senior Care”), the components that create healthy living environments are the same.
So how can the design community play a role like Wang and Fan in rethinking the way communities are built to create a support system so we can all age in place, wherever that might be?
