
As we age our needs change and our spaces need to either be adapted or, often grudgingly, the elderly need to move to a new home. Adaptability of spaces is the ideal allowing people to stay in their homes and neighbourhoods connected to their community. Aging in place minimises stress and disruption to both the individual, family and friends. Adaptability requires that the existing home has enough space to accommodate change for things like grab rails, walking frames or wheelchairs. Unfortunately this is not always possible based on the age or layout of the existing house or apartment.
If the only option is to move, most of the options are often also less than ideal. With aged care facilities feeling like institutions rather than spaces to age gracefully. These spaces can feel inhuman and isolating despite being in the same building as many other residents. Another downside is that as everyone ages differently you can be bundled in with higher care residents who can inadvertently increase the rate of aging for a younger resident.
So what's the answer?
Well the Commonwealth government is introducing new guidelines to help address these issues which are to be released soon. To demonstrate these guidelines they ran a national architecture competition and our studio placed second!
If you would like to know more, a great article on the competition was featured in the Saturday Newspaper - Commonwealth Design Competition Reimagines Aged Care.
As a studio we are focused on the spaces in which people live. Aged care is an important area we have deep interest in. We are excited to begin working on these important projects and helping developers and providers navigate the new aged care guidelines. There are many positive ways these projects can be planned to benefit older generations to live life to the fullest.

The competition jury included Kersten Thompson and Tim Ross
More information at the link