2.4 THE SOCIAL PROBLEM:
17
In A Pattern Language (1977, pp.216-219), Alexander, et al., indicate the natural tendency for the elderly to gather into communities. When these communities become too isolated and clustered, it can lead to segregation within cities and towns with no chance for the various age demographics to benefit from each other’s company. This segregation then causes rifts within each individual’s life: as the older people live in isolated elderly communities, they pass away with their ties to their past and heritage. This loss of wisdom damages the younger generations’ ties due to their history and culture as it is unacknowledged and lost in time. Therefore, dissociation among the young is more prone to happen (Alexander, et al., 1977). In order to reintegrate the elderly socially, they should share the same streets, shops,
services, and public spaces with the rest of the public, enabling social connections. However, the elderly also need a community of other elderly people (Alexander, et al., 1977, p.216). Therefore, according to Alexander, et al. (1977, p. 219), one must design retirement communities so that they can provide the elderly with the proper care they require: 1. Retirement communities should be in the neighbourhood the elderly know best 2. Retirement communities must be small enough to allow the elderly to live together and not isolate them from the rest of the neighbourhood 3. Retirement communities must accommodate elderly people who are still independent enough to live self-sufficiently, without losing the benefits associated with the facility (activity halls, TV rooms, dining halls, etc.) 4. Retirement communities must accommodate the elderly who require nursing care or prepared meals without the elderly travelling far from their neighbourhoods.
With these requirements incorporated into the elderly landscape of South Africa, one could create a strategy to have small pockets of elderly people throughout instead of having a high concentration of elderly in one specific area/district. This spread of the elderly will then allow the symbiosis between the various generations to happen while simultaneously providing the elderly with the support they require within their small communities (Alexander, et al., 1977).
2.5 THE MAIN PROBLEM STATEMENT: Due to the phenomenon known as the silver tsunami and the current rapid pace of life, there is an increase in elderly people who require a place to retire. This increase in the elderly population will have an impact on the residential landscape of South Africa. The current traditional retirement typology is seen as places where people who are too busy and stressed can dump their elderly to live out the remainder of their lives in small, beige, lifeless rooms. This abandonment leads to the elderly having a sense of worthlessness and depression. The depression then allows self-neglect to happen.
02: IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
02: IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
“Old people need old people, but they also need the young, and young people need contact with the old” – A Pattern Language (Alexander, et al., 1977, p. 216)
FIGURE 2.5: The Neighbourhood The Elderly Knows The Best.
18
