psychitecture.com

Internationally the developed world is undergoing an unprecedented increase in the proportion of elderly people among their populations. 

Over the next 25 years some 70 million workers will retire, and be replaced by 5 million new workers. This contrasts strongly with the past 25-years during which 45 million new pensioners were replaced by 120 million baby boomers.

While this development has been discussed extensively in the literature of the social sciences, architectural discourse has, to date, been silent on this topic. A possible reason for this is that design for the elderly has never been considered a ‘glamorous’ task by the profession with museums, commercial towers and cultural showpieces eclipsing the mundane architectures related to the phenomenon of aging. The social and economic consequences of this demographic shift, however mundane it might seem now, will arguably be the most significant trend of the coming 50 years and will
require innovative responses due to its effect on labor markets, education, pensions, long-term care, housing and urban design.

The emerging demands by the aging population and its influence on architecture can no longer be ignored if the discipline expects to be relevant to this segment of the population in the future. It is the timely definition of possible architectural goals for this "disruptive" demographic that this series hopes to address.