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Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Longevity, the great challenge for architecture and urban planning in the new millennium
1 aplausos
2 respuestas
Mª Paz Martín Rodríguez
Directora del Programa " La Vejez: los retos de la Arquitectura"; en Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad
Abstract
Thanks to active aging, medical advances, prevention and health care, we live longer and with a better quality of life. Despite the great impact that aspects of the built environment have on the quality of life and well-being of the elderly population, in all its scales and complexities, unfortunately this group has not yet begun to be considered as an object of work and opportunities in the design of our cities.
Paz Martín Rodríguez, an architect graduated from the ETSAN in Navarre and Master in Architecture from the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam, analyses and reflects in this article on the challenges posed by this scenario, since, as she points out, the relationship between longevity and the city -urbanising old age-, housing -inhabiting old age- and leisure -enjoying old age- are all aspects related to the architectural and urban design of cities. Longevity opens up new alternatives not only for architects, but also for developers and innovative companies, who will have to be able to provide them with quality responses and anticipate the needs of an increasingly demanding group.
Articulo
Architecture, urbanism and old age.
"There is a growing discrepancy between the acceleration of culture and the persistent slowness of architecture." Rem Koolhaas 2004.
This statement is very relevant in times of a long-lived society, as some of the specific aspects of human life - old age, illness, decline, care - seem to be ascribed to certain physical spaces that are kept separate from the space of everyday life around us.
Architecture, as a means of organising human relations in space and time, is subject to a strong orthodoxy as to where and how certain functions should be located in the urban landscape.
While contemporary architecture admits the ideal of multifunctional structures, it would never occur to an urban planner to mix living spaces with spaces of degradation. Often located on the periphery of the city, it is as if the spaces of senescence have been thrown beyond the reach of our bodily consciousness.
It is clear that architecture achieves physically what the consumer society tries to apply mentally. Old age and the idea of it seem to have no place in a society that only praises the virtues of youth, mobility and success.
Or rather than no place at all, do we not assign well-defined, but camouflaged, aesthetically questionable and introverted topographies to old age? It is as if architecture itself as a generator of solutions for real needs has forgotten its social purpose to focus exclusively on productive and representative functions.
It is also true that although they are much less exposed and do not generate attention in this bulimic society of images, examples are beginning to appear of new projects for the elderly which, with respect, vindicate the dignity of this stage of life.
The longevity of the population, also known as the grey tsunami, constitutes a challenge of great dimensions at all levels, comparable to that faced by those architects who designed the modern cities that welcomed a massive rural exodus or those who rebuilt the cities after the war, periods in which the need to act quickly and offer innovative solutions adapted to the existing resources meant that the solutions provided laid the foundations for many subsequent developments.
Unlike then, when the challenge was a priority objective for all the public and private agents involved and for which many important architects were hired, it seems that today we have not yet come to consider the scale and dimension of the challenge of longevity and how much it will affect the homes and cities we live in, and try to anticipate the scenario, foreseeing the real characteristics and needs of this complex aging society, and provide innovative solutions to match.
From a bench's location to a fork's location
What is really exciting about this challenge is that it affects a great diversity of scales in our field of work, since the relationships of longevity with the city -urbaniSING old age-, housing -inhabiTING old age- and leisure -enjoyING old age- are all aspects related to architectural and urban design.
I will try in this text to involve the reader in these relationships and in the conclusions that I consider relevant, and to do so I will use as a guide the relationships set out above where architecture and urban planning must and can contribute.
UrbaniSING old age
According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), 75.15% of the elderly in Spain live in municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, although the ageing of the population, i.e. the ratio between older and younger adults, is greater in smaller municipalities and, according to projections, this will continue to be the case in the future.
This is due to several causes, firstly, to the rural exodus which is still a major problem, especially in communities such as Castilla y León, and secondly, to the fact that most services are always concentrated in large towns, which forces many older people from rural areas to migrate to larger towns where there are services for them.
The city, or town, is the space where the relationship between the different social groups takes place, where human relations are established and where social integration takes place, and it is the public space as an extension of the domestic space where the socialisation of the elderly takes place.
If we analyse the current configuration of our cities, they have been designed for a productive life, in which mobility, the use of resources and the logistics of services are designed for an active and eminently young population.
This condition, added to the real estate pressure we have experienced in recent years, has turned our cities into places where public spaces, pavements, squares, parks and gardens have been neglected. Issues such as accessibility, street furniture, urban amenities and mobility are once again beginning to be on the public agenda.
Age Friendly Cities
In its 2005 Age Friendly Cities programme, the WHO merges the phenomenon of the ageing of the world's population with the concern for controlling the urbanisation of the planet and the control of large urban agglomerations.
To this end, the programme identifies a series of aspects that determine daily life in large cities: housing, mobility and transport, citizen participation, social inclusion, employment, building design, open space, facilities and services, collaborative networks, communication and the right to information.
"An age-friendly city encourages active ageing by optimising opportunities for health, participation and security to improve the quality of life as people age. (WHO, 2007:7). This statement in the text of the programme emphasises the need for a city in which quality ageing is possible by enabling older people to occupy and enjoy their time in a participatory environment.
This programme, to which cities and towns voluntarily subscribe, is implemented over five-year periods, during which a diagnosis of all the aforementioned fields is carried out, conclusions and objectives are drawn up, improvements are proposed and carried out, and it is checked whether these improvements have had an effect on the initial objectives. Once this time has elapsed, it starts again by detecting new problems and continuing only with the successful initiatives and with new ones.
What is really interesting about it is that in the first place it approaches ageing from a transversal perspective, since all the agents from the different administrations and disciplines that deal with issues that affect the elderly form part of it, and in which precisely this group is the very centre of the programme.
There are currently 202 cities and municipalities in Spain that are members of this programme managed by the IMSERSO1 , a number that has been growing steadily since 2015. It should be noted that the autonomous community where the programme has been implemented for the longest time and with the most resources is the Basque Country, both at urban and rural level.
If we take the Basque Country as an example in diagnosis2 of the shortcomings detected in its cities and towns and extrapolate them to the rest of Spain, it is striking to note that the demands of the elderly include quality accessible public spaces, with obstacle-free pavements, benches and public toilets, more public transport stops and systems that help them to find their way around clearly. There are also demands for accessible public buildings, with intergenerational services and activities, more and better health and home care services, and more possibilities for access to housing adapted for them.
Conclusions
A more age-friendly environment in urban planning means that cities must be redesigned for different human capacities: the quality of urban design and its maintenance are fundamental issues to be assessed and improved in ageing cities, and involve solutions that are not so complicated or do not entail such a high cost. A city with sufficient benches and shaded areas for sitting and resting, public toilets, wide pavements without obstacles, good lighting and signage, trees and green areas... that promote independence, physical health, social integration and emotional well-being.
Given that it is more difficult for the elderly to move around, the location of places and services necessary for their daily lives (affordable housing, local shops, health facilities, public spaces, etc. ....) should be planned nearby, thus favouring the synergy between uses, spaces and places and increasing the possibility of outdoor activities.
In other words, urban regeneration understood as "the achievement of a more intelligent, sustainable and socially inclusive urban development" (Toledo Declaration of 2010), in which it is established that it is the existing cities that have to assume new models of development to tackle the regeneration of their neighbourhoods from an integrated perspective, which of course will have to have the collective of older people at the centre of it.
If, on the other hand, we try to see the new challenges facing us in the future design of our cities, there are two aspects that will bring about a revolution in the design of our cities: the way we work and the way we move.
Due to demographic pressure and the way our welfare state is set up, it is clear that, for the first time in history, four generations will be active in the labour market. The long-lived, experienced worker will be an increasingly large demographic group, and one that will increasingly postpone its retirement age. Robotics and artificial intelligence, on the other hand, will mean that many of the jobs we know today will disappear. The rise of the collaborative economy, enabled by technology, will create new work environments geared towards flexibility, teamwork and coexistence, making many of the existing structures in cities obsolete for their productive places. This is why coworking spaces will not only appear in office areas, but will increasingly be present in our streets and neighbourhoods and will even become necessary programmes in new intergenerational housing.
The automotive industry is immersed in a revolution of hitherto unknown consequences for our cities. Low-emission electric cars, car sharing and autonomous (driverless) cars will mean a paradigm shift in the way we move today and how we understand car ownership.
Many of these developments will significantly reduce the space requirements of today's roads and car parks, freeing up large spaces in cities once again to be reclaimed by those who really need them. The design of these new streets, free of pollution and vehicles, might resemble what the boulevards were once like, being reconverted into green and recreational spaces for all ages.
On the other hand, for a group of people whose mobility is reduced because they can no longer drive at a certain age, the driverless car can be a great step forward in recovering it and allowing access to the various services offered by the city. The same applied to the rural environment, this would mean that many of the people who today are forced to leave their villages due to the impossibility of accessing services would not have to do so.
InhabiTING old age
Inhabiting individually....
According to projections made by the INE, in the year 2050 in our country, people over 65 years of age will account for more than 30% of the total population, of which approximately 30% will be over 80 years of age.
When a person gets older in Spain, they prefer to stay in their own home for as long as possible (age in place). Up to 93.6% of the population wants to do so, according to statistical indicators.
This is due to three key factors; the first is property-related, since 89.2% of people over the age of 65 in Spain have completely paid off their property.
The second is medico-social, as there are more and more people in this age group with a healthy average life expectancy and an increasingly higher cultural level, who manage their lives and leisure time in their own way and are not willing to be institutionalised.
And the third is economic, since, depending on the level of income, the cost of moving to another model of living can vary from a lower category to a quasi-luxury hotel.
It has been shown that continuing to live in one's own home and its surroundings is a very good option for enjoying active, healthy ageing and a good quality of life.
For this purpose, there are specific programmes for home help, functional adaptation of homes, etc. However, it must be recognised that many older people will need intensive external assistance at the end of their lives and that certain types of existing housing are so difficult or costly to adapt, in the absence of public services for this purpose, that it is impossible to use them properly, making them de facto prisons for this group.3
According to the report published by the Social Observatory of la Caixa with data obtained from the 2011 population and housing census, 20.1% of people over 65 in Spain (1,596,675 people) live in a situation of extreme residential vulnerability, i.e. in homes with serious problems of habitability. These problems are mainly due to lack of accessibility and lack of heating, although it should also be noted that some of them do not have drinking water, or a toilet inside the home, or access to sanitation networks.
Traditionally, the Mediterranean and, specifically, the Spanish social model, especially when problems related to dependency or loneliness appeared, had assumed this stage of life of the elderly in two ways:
On the one hand, by the families themselves taking care of them, internally in their own homes, according to INE data from 2012 Spain is one of the EU countries with the lowest proportion of elderly people living alone and where it is more frequent to find elderly people living in households with more people in addition to their partner.
On the other hand, when this was not possible, society offered to do it externally, mainly through the so-called nursing homes. Home care services (SAD) began to become widespread from the mid-1980s onwards and their ratios and intensity do not currently reach many of the people who need them.
It is clear that our social model has changed enormously in recent years, as has the size and type of housing, making it impossible for many families to take on the care of their relatives at home.
Inhabiting collectively....
In Spain, only 4.2% of elderly people live in externally managed collective establishments - residences, supervised housing or other types of accommodation - and according to surveys, residences are the worst rated place to live for elderly people, who prefer to stay in their own homes for as long as possible and tend to use them as a last resort when dependency problems arise.
While it is not clear how or when the Covid-19 pandemic will end, the specific pressures that this disease has placed on these facilities will necessarily determine how existing facilities will have to be adapted and how future nursing homes will be designed in the coming years.
A number of geriatric experts, with the aim of promoting autonomy, respecting personal self-determination, maintaining responsibility for one's own life and the right to support, have been calling for years for a complete overhaul of the current model of care homes. This institutional model has been abandoned decades ago in other countries around us - Denmark, Germany, Holland, among others.
Faced with this challenge and from the perspective of a change in the social model, many attempts are being made, beyond institutionalised care, to design alternative and more innovative forms of housing for the elderly, each of them related to the degree of fragility and dependence of the elderly.
In order from the lowest to the highest level of institutionalisation we find, fundamentally: independent senior housing, collaborative housing for the elderly, intergenerational projects, supervised housing, assisted living, residential homes and social and health care centres.
The current objective in this sector is to extend the independence and autonomy of the elderly as much as possible so that their stay in independent housing is prolonged and institutional care is replaced by radically new models of care, with much smaller living units, comparable to family units, and with a person-centred model of care.
Finally, although those who live in self-managed housing are not statistically significant, it is clear that this is a model that is attracting a great deal of attention not only from today's elderly population, but also from those who are now thinking about where and how they would like to grow old.
These types of alternative housing projects for the elderly and not so elderly are the ones that now and in the future represent the greatest challenges in terms of innovation and social sustainability.
Conclusions
Taking into account the data on the current housing stock, it is very important to point out that one of the great future challenges for architects will be the necessary rehabilitation and remodelling of existing homes and buildings to adapt them to the needs of this group (universal accessibility, specific spaces for socialising, adaptation of size to maintenance possibilities, comfort conditions and reduction of energy consumption demands, etc.) and all of this within inclusive environments.
On the other hand, we must also investigate new collective residential typologies more in line with these needs to accommodate people who want to age actively in a home adaptable to their present and future needs, improvements that revolve around accessibility and adaptability of furniture and rooms that change over time in an individualised manner.
An example of these new forms of cohabitation are the so-called cohousing for the elderly, a model imported from countries in the Anglo-Saxon world where there is a great tradition in this respect. These are non-profit cooperatives of elderly people who join together to build housing with services that allow them to live independently and offer them services adapted to their needs. They exist in both urban and rural areas and, although there are not yet many of them, they are a successful model among the elderly.4
Personally I am more in favour of integration and although the segregation of the elderly is only in one building or complex, I find much more interesting the models of intergenerational housing, in which young and old live together in independent housing, but sharing common services, unfortunately there are still not many new examples in Spain, but what is really interesting is that these buildings are a negotiation between different interests, but also a support between generations, and in which it is demonstrated that the different age groups learn from each other in fascinating ways.
It is worth noting that this model, which is now being presented as novel, has been used for many years in our country in the well-known corralas, where young and old have always lived together and where neighbourly ties have always been very strong. By this I mean that we should study these models of coexistence that are so much our own and readapt them to the new contemporary needs.
In short, it is not only a question of correctly designing buildings suitable for today's elderly people, nor of making decisive progress in terms of accessibility, an area in which there has been a remarkable change, but also of anticipating and thinking about the needs of the elderly population of the future.
This means bringing new approaches to housing with care that prevents the isolation and stigmatisation associated with solutions that are designed exclusively for the elderly and allows, as is already the case in intergenerational buildings, new and surprising combinations: nursery school and old people's home6, home for single mothers and elderly mentors7, etc. The time has come to test, research and measure emerging programmes.
Finally, I will focus on care buildings for people with severe disabilities and their models of living together, since, although in these cases it is not possible to be "at home", existing models of nursing homes are already being implemented in order to make them "home-like". This means that in many cases residents are already allowed to take furniture and objects from their homes with them, and their facilities are also being improved to provide them with natural spaces (vegetable gardens) with the incorporation of the possibility of having pets, which are proving to be very important for a better quality of life for their occupants, and also reducing the number of people living in them.
An example that deserves special mention for its unique conception in the world is Hogeweyk8, in the Netherlands, a small village where dementia patients live in shared housing of 6 or 7 people in complete autonomy, and where they develop a normal life. With facilities such as a square, theatre, garden, café, supermarket and post office, each house is designed and furnished for the time when the residents started to lose their memory, the 1950s, 1960s or even 2000s, as this helps them to feel more at home. More than 250 full and part-time employees look after the residents, taking on roles in the village such as shop assistants, cinemas, restaurants or the post office.
It is a great example that demonstrates once again how the environment affects behaviour and mood, enabling these people to live their lives to the best of their ability, an example that France has already finished building in the city of Dax9.
Finally, I would like to point out here that a thorough revision of existing regulations regarding housing and living spaces would be necessary in order to allow for these new uses discussed here.
EnjoyING old age
"Leisure is an integral experience of the whole person and a fundamental human right".
In 2002 the WHO itself defines the term active ageing as "the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to improve the quality of life as people age" (W.H.O., 2002:79). Ageing is thus seen as a positive experience, a longer life accompanied by continuing opportunities for health, participation and security. This definition not only looks at ageing in terms of health care, but incorporates all factors in the social, economic and cultural areas that affect the ageing of individuals.
Leisure activities, whether passive or active, occupy a fundamental place in older people's time. Active activity patterns set the trend for active and healthy ageing and are formulated as a key element in the prevention of dependency. Maintaining an active social life, through leisure activities, guarantees a satisfactory ageing both in quantitative and qualitative terms.
Leisure is not only a right for older people but also a personal experience. This implies recognising that older people are not a homogeneous group; that not all older people have the same lifestyle and, consequently, not all older people have the same leisure style.
In order to analyse the current and future leisure needs of the elderly, we must take into account their social types, which present similar patterns of behaviour and consumption, in other words, each generation presents very different demands with regard to the use of their leisure time.
Today, focusing the analysis on each of the activities obtained from the 2011 survey on consumption and cultural habits, we can see that the home is the place chosen by the majority of older people who choose to spend their free time playing board games, arts and crafts, listening to the radio and watching television, digital leisure activities, attending parties, cultural activities (reading...), and even individual sports.
Some of these activities also have an important presence in community facilities, such as board games, arts and crafts, digital leisure and individual sports, sports shows and team sports. Open spaces are chosen by older people for walking and spending time with friends.
It is important to note that leisure activities are not possible for 4% of users due to architectural barriers, i.e. access to and movement around the buildings.
On the other hand, according to the INE in its 2015 tourism and hotel survey, in Spain there were a total of 13,590,000 trips by people over 65 in one year, including in this figure the IMSERSO trips and the 6,000,000 elderly foreign tourists who visit us every year. These figures have continued to grow to the present day according to recently published data.
But if we analyse our hotel offer and the level of accessibility of our cultural heritage, most of the 14,995 hotels and monuments are not accessible. This is a devastating fact for our industry, as we are the second largest hotel destination in the world.
We can also affirm that every hotel of a high category (over 3*) has sufficient space to guarantee a minimum level of accessibility. These figures seem to indicate that, in relation to the space required for accessibility, there are no limitations that justify the presence of physical barriers in private, public or administrative areas.
Conclusions
Old age can make it difficult to engage in new or unconventional activities. However, the environment in which we live can prevent this. The first challenge for architects and designers when designing indoor and outdoor social infrastructures and public buildings is to create environments that allow people to engage in activities such as interacting, playing, relaxing, walking, sitting or sunbathing.
On the other hand, more and more social actors are paying attention to the emerging need to promote intergenerational programmes and spaces by encouraging practices of meeting and collaboration between people of different ages. This is a phenomenon that is widespread throughout Europe as an effective means for the achievement of a caring and inclusive society.
This is why another great challenge for urban planners will be to locate spaces of opportunity for the implementation of innovative, high quality services for this sector of the population that can be used by the greatest number of people in the greatest possible number of situations, contemplating both the possibility of occupying exclusive plots of land and the possibility of hybridisation with other uses.
Another great challenge facing us as architects is the necessary readaptation of our hotel and cultural infrastructures to consumers with different needs, which will be a major economic boost. It is a question of offering quality services to achieve sustainable tourism.
We will also have to think about what the demands of the future elderly will be, with a higher level of education than at present and with completely different leisure patterns to those of today, in order to provide highly flexible, convertible and adaptable spaces over time.
Closing remarks
Every challenge presents new opportunities. In particular, longevity opens up new and unexplored paths not only for architects, but also for developers and innovative companies that are able to anticipate this scenario and provide quality solutions.
Aplaudir
1 aplausos
THE AUTHOR ENCOURAGES US TO EXTEND THE DIALOGUE WITH THIS QUESTION
Why do you think that we as architects and urban planners have not yet faced this great challenge to implement a clearly improvable built reality, even though this would open up new and unexplored paths for the practice of our profession?
Respuestas de expertos
Iñaqui Carnicero Alonso-Colmenares
Director General de Agenda Urbana y Arquitectura
We architects have always been called upon to think, design and build the cities we inhabit and which will inevitably become our urban heritage of tomorrow. In this process of city creation, we are obliged to provide solutions to the different challenges that we face at any given moment. In this global, connected and constantly evolving world, a circumstance as transcendental as the increase in life expectancy is becoming increasingly evident, a circumstance which, combined with the low birth rate in Europe, will mean that, in the coming years, a very significant part of our society will be made up of people over 65 years of age.
This issue is particularly relevant in our country, where socio-cultural aspects, as well as the progressive improvement in the quality of life and social welfare, together with medical and scientific advances, are making our population one of the longest-living in the world. It is essential, when designing new buildings or urban spaces, renovating existing ones, as well as tackling major urban transformations, that all these processes are promoted taking into account the population structure that we are facing in the future, although this may be balanced by migratory phenomena.
Traditionally, the architectural discipline has not addressed, to a large extent, the phenomenon of longevity, however, architecture and urban planning are key tools for advancing towards the inclusion of all people, therefore, it is necessary to incorporate this important challenge of our time into the architectural debate.
Architecture, in combination with other disciplines, must contribute to offering the architectural proposals that today's society is already demanding, to enable, on the one hand, the creation of new public spaces or the improvement of existing ones, so that they encourage the interrelation of people, thus trying to minimise the phenomenon of loneliness and isolation that often accompanies old age. At the same time, the design of these spaces must take into account the characteristics of this sector of the population made up of people over 65 years of age, a population group that is expected to reach more than 36% of the total population in Europe by the year 2050.
In short, it is a question of making cities friendlier for the elderly, which, at the same time, makes them friendlier for children, and it is very important that this intergenerational exchange takes place, with adults and children sharing the same space.
Therefore, the improvement of cities along these lines is a key factor in promoting cohesion as a determining element for the present and future quality of life of our elderly. In some cases, the changes required do not involve major investments and may simply consist of placing a bench in a particular part of the city, while in other cases, they will require major transformations, such as the implementation of a new network of public services or a new mobility strategy, which will allow this population to age actively, enabling them to meet their needs close to their homes.
In this sense, similar efforts should also be directed towards meeting the needs of the population in rural areas, trying to generate activity that will allow other age groups of the population to live there.
These same ideas put forward for the urban environment, of attending to the needs and characteristics of this sector of the population, should also be applied to the design of residential spaces, offering and facilitating solutions for the refurbishment of housing for the elderly, attending to their new needs. In addition, imaginative formulas should be explored to promote new housing models, beyond geriatric residences, especially for those elderly people who are autonomous. One of these housing formulas could be cohousing, this option being a way to avoid isolation, as shared communal areas, which function as an extension of the home and are specially designed to promote this meeting between residents, are of great importance.
And although not all fields of architecture and urban planning have yet made much progress in this regard, I would like to highlight and highlight the fact that the Administration, specifically the Directorate General for the Urban Agenda and Architecture of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, is working to promote the necessary measures to ensure that the Spanish architecture of today and tomorrow is a benchmark of quality, offering innovative solutions and promoting awareness of social inclusion, based on criteria of social inclusion, is working to promote the necessary measures to ensure that the Spanish architecture of today and tomorrow is a benchmark of quality, offering innovative solutions and promoting awareness of social inclusion, based on functional design criteria adapted to the needs of all, allowing people to improve their autonomy in the most natural way possible and, in short, improving their quality of life.
This clear commitment to an architecture and urban planning more oriented towards taking into account the greater longevity of our society is evident in the content of the Architecture Quality Act, in the technical regulations on accessibility conditions, and in the Spanish Urban Agenda.
In the case of the Law on Architectural Quality, one of the principles that led to the drafting of this Law is the firm conviction of the importance of architecture and the built environment for social cohesion, well-being and the health of people, together with the growing awareness that a change of model in the building and urban planning sector is necessary, This makes it necessary to carry out a profound reflection on the future we want for our cities, in order to protect, promote and encourage quality architecture, where, among its principles, it is committed to contributing to the inclusion of all people, guaranteeing universal accessibility and the development of public activities. In general terms, the law promotes an inclusive dimension of architecture, understood as a tool for social transformation through better design and construction of the space that surrounds us.
In terms of technical regulations, we can highlight that last year we approved the Order of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (TMA/851/20021 of 23 July) developing the technical document on basic conditions of accessibility and non-discrimination for access and use of urbanised public spaces, which is applicable both to the design and construction of new urbanised public spaces and to the renovation of existing ones.
The Order pursues the real effectiveness of universal accessibility and the right to equal opportunities and treatment for all people in public spaces. To this end, we incorporate rules to make them as comprehensible, usable and practicable as possible, in conditions of safety and comfort and in the most autonomous and natural way possible, which is why I am convinced that it will undoubtedly have a very positive impact in relation to urban quality, good design and the recovery of public space for all people, and especially for the elderly.
Finally, with regard to the Spanish Urban Agenda, this is configured as the roadmap that will set out the strategy and actions needed to make our towns and cities friendly, welcoming, healthy and aware areas of coexistence, so that all public and private actors involved in cities and seeking equitable, accessible to all, fair and sustainable development from their different fields of action, can draw up their own Action Plans. All of this is a reflection of this Ministry's clear commitment to inclusion, accessibility and the right to equal opportunities and to improving the quality of life of all citizens, within the framework of a changing and increasingly long-lived society, aspiring to focus on all people and their diverse needs, offering solutions to the great challenge of longevity through the architecture and urban planning of the new millennium.
Mª Ángeles López Amado
Directora General de Accesibilidad y Centros.
From time immemorial and throughout different eras, interest in the elderly has always been present, being participants in important commissions by passing on their advice to the younger generations, as in the Spartan Gerusia (from geronte, old man in Greek) or in the Roman Senate (from senex, old man in Latin); or as protagonists of the praises that Plato, in his work the "Republic", found in his experiences, full of wisdom and great experiences.
At other times, on the other hand, they have been considered poor in spirit because they had already been mistreated by life and were not desirous of extraordinary things, but of those essential for survival, as Aristotle recounted in his "Ars Rhetorica"; or in later times, such as the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, which were complex times for the elderly, with the appearance of the medieval charity hospitals to care for them, or because they were found to be somewhat ugly, due to the excessive tribute to beauty and Renaissance perfection.
From the mid-20th century onwards, with certain infectious diseases having been conquered and people reaching an increasingly advanced age, interest in ageing has come back, close to Platonic positions, definitively discarding pessimistic perspectives and ceasing to associate senescence with hardships and disabilities that made it impossible to understand it as desirable.
Life expectancy when Rubén Darío longed for the loss of youth, the "divine treasure", was no more than 32 years worldwide, whereas today it is around 70 years. Even in Spain, a privileged country in this respect, this figure exceeds 83 years. What is more, while in 1980 the average age of the Spanish population was around 35, today it is 44, and is slightly higher in the region of Extremadura.
As can be seen, life expectancy is increasing, which indicates that older people are gaining importance in both the family and social spheres. Statistical figures show that this is not a casual demographic phenomenon, but is stable and with a continuing future. Being able to live longer seems to be increasing due to multiple factors, with families and public authorities valuing, from the point of view of affection and admiration, the return of the care that previous generations provided us with in order to enjoy our current wellbeing. Therefore, to the previous poem, it would be appropriate to add "old age (senescence), divine treasure", the title of various papers and books that circulate in the common florilegium.
This longer life expectancy must always be understood as an improvement in society and a greater strengthening of relations between generations, taking into account that this entails an increase in the number of care services and an increase in accessibility in all environments. The implementation of universal accessibility must be a tool that makes it possible for people to enjoy full independence in today's society, without age being a barrier to participation in all areas.
Accessibility has been limited to people with disabilities, partly due to the efforts made by relatives and associations, who have promoted a necessary approach in search of their rights. As society moves towards an increase in life expectancy, together with the progressive impulse and the advance of humanisation and social cohesion in societies where democracy is being consolidated, other vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, have been incorporated into the concept of accessibility. This is where accessibility takes on the dimension of universality, in the search to improve people's life cycles and relations with their immediate environment, whatever their age or capacity.
In Extremadura, over the last four years, through the Directorate General for Accessibility and Centres (DGAyC) of the Regional Government of Extremadura, a new philosophy has been promoted and devised, new values for a humanising and humanised society based on universal accessibility that aspires to become the basic pillar of a fairer and more cohesive society. Through it, in our towns and cities, the aim is to build a new layer, an integrating skin for all people, which goes beyond the physical environment. It seeks to break down the social barriers that prevent access, thus overcoming difficulties in the development of daily activities. It is the master key, the key tool for social inclusion and the lever for change towards equal opportunities.
With the difficulties that this entails, but with the hope of achieving a more equitable environment (physical, virtual and social) for all people, the "Strategy for universal accessibility for equal opportunities in Extremadura"[1] has been drawn up, with the aim of making society aware of the concept of universal accessibility from a new perspective, the transversal perspective, that which helps to weave links between people and institutions, eliminating borders and watertight compartments, in order to build real life itineraries. The aim is to break down social and psychological barriers, build an easier and more accessible life, disseminate the advances that are being made, and involve all citizens and entities that make up our society at all territorial scales in the process.
Under these premises, and with the aim of designing comprehensive and inclusive public policies, the Strategy arises from active listening to society and from consensus through social concertation[2] , with a special focus on those groups most in need of universal accessibility: the elderly, people with disabilities, children, migrants, people with high abilities, etc.
Composed of six strategic areas and different lines of action that perfect them, the aforementioned document includes examples of good practices promoted by the DGAyC and other entities, with the aim of serving as a reference for social and economic agents. In this context, two of them are presented here, among the various proposed, where participation in intergenerational workshops, in the form of collaborative scenarios, has been a relevant fragment for their achievement. On the one hand, "Filare, rural accessibility and innovation and contemporary creation", as an original and pioneering pilot project that promotes universal accessibility and social inclusion through contemporary creation interventions in rural localities of less than 5,000 inhabitants in Extremadura. And on the other hand, the elaboration of the "Methodological guide for the drafting of a universal accessibility plan in the municipalities and local entities of Extremadura", which has served as the basis for the development of the "Universal Accessibility Plan for the municipalities and local entities of Extremadura". [3]which has served as a basis for the preparation of universal accessibility plans such as that of Alcuéscar or Hernán Cortés[4] .
Filare[5] aims to deepen the sense of belonging, raise awareness of the values inherent to universal accessibility and reflect on the need to build inclusive rural environments and spaces for coexistence that ensure a full life, using unique heritage sites and local communities as intervention scenarios. Itinerant and ephemeral, given that each year it takes place in a different municipality, it aspires to promote a new perspective that eliminates physical, sensory, cognitive and psychosocial barriers to go further, educating in guaranteeing a design for all people. It is committed to a collective cultural and social experience with a strong emotional benefit for the neighbourhood by encouraging participation and awareness of the mutation of architectural-landscape environments into inclusive ones. Through various meetings, bringing together all ages, in the form of convivial gatherings and forums, the proposals put forward are capable of transforming society, its streets and squares, into quality, democratic community halls.
In the same way, being aware of the role that universal accessibility must play, other pilot projects have been promoted with the aim of improving the routes and disabling environments[6] of the towns. With the publication and implementation of the Methodological Guide, the aim has been to develop a new way of proceeding in the preparation of these Plans, in accordance with what is proposed in the Strategy, from a transversal, participative and integrating approach, with the idea of establishing a series of guidelines that serve as orientations to gradually convert rural built environments into accessibility benchmarks, integrating a novel management from an inclusive and equitable perspective.
Based on the analysis of a locality, complemented with the participation of the population from all spheres and ages, through surveys and focus groups, practical intergenerational awareness-raising workshops are carried out, together with other training and capacity building workshops for associations, municipal technical staff and students in training at professional schools, through the staff of the DGAyC and the Extremadura Technical Accessibility Offices[7] , which enable the difficulties encountered by the most vulnerable people in terms of accessibility to be approached in a practical way. In the different citizen participation activities, the aim is to generate a two-way process between all the agents involved.
In the same way that population centres change at the pace of society, the processes for their transformation are also in continuous renewal. Universally accessible spaces are democratic and inclusive environments that welcome all people equally, generate a collective place to share and become, without differences, the home of citizenship. There are many architectures: the spaces we inhabit, where we learn, the spaces for leisure time, the spaces for culture or the spaces for health; in short, the spaces in which we relate to each other. All of them must necessarily be accessible to all people, creating independent itineraries in the way they use them. Furthermore, the connection between people's feelings and the places they inhabit must be facilitated, favouring the use of environments and buildings, making them habitable, efficient and more human, thus guaranteeing emotional memory and the promotion of individual and collective happiness at all stages of life.
Being aware that we are heading towards a change of paradigm when it comes to designing new models of living, which favour the construction of public spaces without barriers for all ages, origins or abilities, and which promote new architectures derived from the interrelation between vital stages, knowing that any metamorphosis must go hand in hand with a change of mentality, it is essential to insert this new look into the skin of society through various actions.
On the one hand, education in its different cycles, since as a vital learning space it will serve as a spearhead for learning about current demands and generating critical thinking in the search for consensual solutions. In this sense, the responsibility for educating and training professionals falls clearly on schools of architecture, heavy machinery sometimes trapped in the administrative apparatus of evaluating subjects that distance them from social realities, from new professional profiles and from new ways of understanding an architecture that is increasingly participatory and empathetic with the citizenry.
As a preliminary step, it is necessary to promote elementary knowledge about the different ways of living from childhood through adolescence, through the basic knowledge contained in formal educational programmes, guaranteeing the chain of transmission that involves intergenerational coexistence, the collective sharing of a close, independent and friendly environment, thus eliminating the watertight compartments in which the conception of life stages is currently found. The demand for multifunctional, intergenerational, sustainable and inclusive spaces should start from the beginning of our education.
On the other hand, public administrations must make this new culture of living ("cohousing", shared housing, etc.) visible, through awareness-raising and public awareness campaigns, in order to make it present and normalise it; and accompany, in parallel, political actions that are geared towards innovation, that seal alliances between institutions, public and private entities, and that encourage multidisciplinary participation in order to manage projects that function as beacons in the night. A good example of this could be the Spanish Government's commitment through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and specifically, the policy lever number 8, "New economy of care", which includes three pilot actions that will investigate multi-use housing solutions, in the hope of recovering intergenerational coexistence .
Focusing on this stage of our lives goes beyond providing resources, services and environments. What is at stake is the interrelationship, the ancestral transmission of knowledge and the memory of the place. Let us not forget that memories are woven through ties that favour the transition between generations. We understand our history when we understand and share our origins, and this can only be done with the help of everyone.
[2]The Strategy was unanimously approved on 20.12.2022 within the Extremadura Council for the Promotion of Universal Accessibility. It was the subject of Social Agreement between the Regional Government of Extremadura and the economic (CREEX) and social (UGT, CC.OO.) agents, through the universal accessibility roundtable set up on 27 February 2023, within the framework of the Sectoral Commission for Health, Social Protection Policies and Equality.
[6] "Let us not forget that it is the environment that is disabling, not the people". Dr. Adolf Ratzka.
[7]https://saludextremadura.ses.es/web/detalle-contenido-estructurado?conte...
Note: To consult all the pilot projects and lines of work carried out by DGAyC, please click here.