Age-inclusive design
Thirty years ago, social housing prompted a wave of innovation in architecture and transformational developments, prompting some to call it the ‘Cinderella of the housing market’. Founding Director at Cartwright Pickard, James Pickard, argues that housing for later living has the potential to do the same.
Later this month his practice will co-host a conference on Age-inclusive Design Principles with the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, where the results of a two year research project, part-funded by Innovate UK, will be unveiled.
The research aimed to discover different housing approaches for later living from around the world and showcase and learn from exemplar projects. The undeniable conclusion is that the UK has much to learn from other developed economies.
“With some notable exceptions, much of what is getting built in the later living sector in the UK needs to be more aspirational,” James argues.
So how can the UK learn?
Why architects should take the later living sector seriously
James says that the statistics suggesting a major drive is needed to develop housing typologies and small-scale community developments that older people will choose to live in are compelling.
By 2040, he continues, the proportion of the UK population aged over 65 is set to rise by 25%, yet the UK currently builds just 5,000 to 7,000 homes a year that are designed for later life. The government’s own advice is that this figure should be closer to 50,000 homes. James contends that there is a big opportunity for architects here.
Remarkably, a single developer – retirement homes specialist McCarthy Stone (another of Cartwright Pickard’s research partners) – is responsible for around 70% of the UK’s output when the care home sector is excluded.
James says that in such places as the US and Australia, around one in 20 people live in a home that has been specifically designed to support the needs of an older person. In the UK, the figure is around one in 200 retired people.
The Cartwright Pickard study looked at a long list of 65 completed exemplar schemes around the world before visiting and following up with visits and detailed studies of a dozen or so projects in the USA, Australia, Taiwan and across Europe.
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Where do urban communities fit in with later life living?
These more established age-inclusive sectors are delivering schemes in the heart of urban communities that actively attract older residents by offering connectivity and amenities on their doorstep.
In Scandinavia, for instance, people in their 60s will readily move into such developments and see the good sense in it, says James. He argues that in the UK there is a stigma about ageing and homes for older people, and many from this cohort end up in the suburbs. This approach in the UK often means that some older people will live in unsuitable and oversized homes when other options should be available to them.
The design agenda here is not about level thresholds or light-switch heights or another revision to Part M, it’s about typologies and context, place-making and building communities, says James.
“There are lots of really big questions about where we should be building, but the thrust of our argument is that it should be on the high streets of Britain where 20% of the shops are boarded up and need new life,” he adds. “We should be bringing the potential economic benefits of the older generation onto our high streets, which will become cleaner and quieter with electric vehicles over time.”
He continues: “There are opportunities on every high street – office buildings are under-occupied or unwanted because we don’t need as many offices as before. My practice has converted a department store into high-end residential and we know these large department stores could make ideal buildings for later living schemes.”
Why architects can innovate in this sector
One of his favourite exemplar projects from the research was a mixed-use, high-rise tower in the vibrant heart of Adelaide in Australia where the upper floors were given over to a community of older residents who told of how they loved to see restaurants and entertainment venues from their windows.
“We found really innovative things that are going on that are not happening in the UK just yet,” he says.
With population forecasts for the UK showing only a gentle rise for younger people over the next 20 or 30 years, but a rocketing rise for the over-65s, James concludes by saying that there is a big opportunity for architects to take a lead in shaping the next generation of age-inclusive developments.
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