ABSTRACT The Baby Boomers are coming! The Baby Boomers are coming! Well, coming of age. It has been almost 70 years since World War II. At its conclusion, after the high of victory combined with new found economic prosperity, the victorious soldiers returned (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) and a boom in births erupted in the United States.
This period of
increased birth rates is defined by Encyclopedia Britannica between 1946 to 1964, and decades later it is now poised to create significant challenges for the design of the contemporary built environment. As
For Public Use and Display LEED 2009 for Neighborhood Development Rating System Created by the Congress for the New Urbanism, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the U.S. Green Building Council (Updated October 2010)
the healthcare industry develops a better understanding of how to handle and care for the mounting” population of aging citizens, architecture needs to be equally as progressive in its strategies for design. Not only is there a need for more health care facilities in the United States, but also facilities and communities to house and support a doubling in population of people over 65 by 2030 to 70 million as stated by Nancy Lisbon in 2006.
The following paper will examine
research and precedents that inform a new approach for the design of senior housing with affordability and amenities leading the research. The discussion of designing this new benchmark for senior living begins with affordability and progresses into New Urbanism with ideas rooted in compact, walkable communities. Senior citizens can intentionally live in these urban environments due to the proximity of a wide variety of activities and services and short travel distances to the surrounding people. With a mixture of mid-rise apartments, landscaped streets and activity centers, a new “cityscape” environment will enhance not only the resident’s lifestyles, but the local fabric of an urban infill.
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CASE STUDY 1: de hogeweyk weesp, the netherlands “Residents of the Hogeweyk living and life - under supervision - in an environment where they are familiar from the past. With every imaginable convenience and comfort, adapted to a variety of lifestyles. 23 diverse housing forms together as a unique living concept where approximately 135 residents with dementia were really his home, where they can continue. Their active lives This makes the Hogeweyk a safe and free environment for such a normal and dignified life possible.” ©2014 Molenaar & Bol & VanDillen architecten