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B
y 2050, the proportion of the
global population over 60
years will double, from
about 11 percent in 2000
to 22 percent in 2050. Or
from 605 million to 2 billion
people.
The fact that we can look forward to living
longer is a cause for celebration. But it also
presents a challenge for architects, town plan-
ners, and governments everywhere, raising the
importance of accessibility in buildings and
urban infrastructure.
So how is the aging megatrend redefining
the built environment? And what do the dual
realities of increasingly aging populations and
aging buildings mean for architecture?
MORE THAN HOUSING AT STAKE
“The world is about to be hit with a tsunami of
age care. We need to treat it as an urgent prior-
ity,” says
Michael Heenan
, CEO and principal of
Allen Jack+Cottier Architects in Sydney, Australia,
who has twenty-five years of designing housing for
elderly people.
Not only are we living longer, birth rates are
declining dramatically so that there are fewer tax
payers to support the old.
Against this backdrop, institutionalized care is
typically four times more expensive than provid-
ing support for an older person living in their own
home. So there is definitely an economic incentive
for addressing these needs as well as a moral one.
In the past, housing and care facilities for the
elderly were typically uninspiring places that few
of us would choose to live in. Heenan believes this
has to change. “This aging population is different
from any other before. They’ve not grown up dur-
ing a major war or recession and they have a high
expectation when it comes to their quality of life.
60
by 2050, people aged 60 or over
will make up one-fifth of the
global population.
SOURCE: Global Age Watch Index 2013
PEOPLE FLOW |
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