Designing living environments for older people to age well in place: perspectives from architectural education

Abstract

A large majority of older people wish to live in non-institutionalized housing for as long as possible. However, current homes are generally not suitable for later life, leading us to rethink our living environments to support health and wellbeing. Architects, in that regard, have a key role to play. Yet, to date, they seem to have a limited knowledge of emotion-related users' preferences, which could be the consequence of a frequent lack of care perspectives in design teaching, as well as a difficulty to pick up and translate research findings into practice. This study therefore sought to understand how (interior) architecture students design housing that facilitates ageing well in place, when they are prompted to consider older people's needs/aspirations more holistically. We conducted design exercises with 16 students from two architecture schools and we fed their reflections with theoretical "themes" and "personas". These inputs were nurtured by a literature review on "ageing well in place" and by focus groups organized with multidisciplinary experts. At the end of the exercise, the students completed a questionnaire to summarize their design considerations. The results focus on the preeminent spatial features designed by students to meet inhabitant's needs, as well as some pedagogical aspects of the workshops. They highlight links between themes/personas and design strategies/choices. The paper concludes by recommendations to train future architects to design living environments with an eye for ageing well in place.