Ageing homes: Visual anthropology and the architecture of elderly care

An ageing society has severe implications for the organization of care and residential housing. Existing housing designs as well as public spaces generally are not well equipped for accommodating growing numbers of elderly. The demographic transition to an ageing society runs parallel with transitions in the policy and practice of elderly care, which moves away from institutional buildings and arrangements towards informal support networks of friends, neighbours and family. Despite these transitions in elderly care policy, research on the perception and use of home spaces among older people as well as how to incorporate this knowledge in the design and redevelopment of residential space, is still scarce. There is a need to rethink the architecture of home and living environments for elderly people, as, for example, in how elderly care might be embedded in urban settings or how more inclusive environments might take shape.This paper addresses these issues by reporting first findings of an ongoing anthropological and architectural research on the everyday life of elderly in care centres, located in two Dutch cities. It aims to document and visualize the needs and living conditions of elderly today, as well as translate fieldwork into architectural design. The paper contains three sections. The first section discusses current paradigms in the management, housing policies and architecture of elderly care. The second section proposes a method of researching elderly in daily life by combining visual anthropology and architecture. The third section presents preliminary findings of a fieldwork study in one of the two elderly care homes we worked on, organized as part of a design studio with a group of fourteen students in Architecture.