There have been remarkable advancements in medical science and as a consequence it is estimated that a quarter of babies born today will live to one hundred years old. However, these extended years will likely not be spent in good health, and this increased life expectancy will bring about many changes for society. When the modern pension system was introduced in the 1940’s, life expectancy was much lower, and the pool of beneficiaries small compared to the active workforce of the time. Today, people can spend as much time in retirement as they did in their working lives and as the proportion of the workforce compared to retirees continues to reduce, the economics do not stack up. This will further stretch already pressured health services. Inevitable technological advancements will fundamentally transform the nature of our work, creating entirely new roles and jobs that have yet to be invented. These changes mean existing conceptualisations of life; education, work, retirement, a three-stage model, will be replaced by a multi-stage model of life. For example; education, work, education, further training, work, career break and working much later into later life.
How and when we exist with these changing aspects of life and where these activities take place are increasingly less certain as traditional structures of every-day life and the spaces we inhabit are being challenged including our home. These changes are blurring the boundaries of domesticity, work life, and where healthcare is delivered
Poor quality housing has a major impact on people’s physical and mental health and have long-term effects on children in how they age (World Health Organisation). Yet around 4.1m homes in England do not meet basic standards (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health). Failure to improve housing options could add hugely to care and NHS costs, with the Building Research Establishment forecasting that inappropriate housing for the over-55s will cost nearly £20bn by 2041. A key challenge facing the UK today is the fact that its housing stock is one of the oldest and worst insulated in Europe with only around 15% of existing stock built since 1990 and most current homes expected to still be in place in 2050. Over one million UK properties must undergo retrofit each year to meet an ambitious target of retrofitting more than 27 million homes by 2050 and achieve net-zero emissions. This presents a great opportunity to consider more broadly what design factors might enhance more flexible and adaptable homes to support sustainable living.
The greenest building is the one that already exists. Carl Elefante (Former president of the American Institute for Architects).
The challenge is not simply just to build more homes, but homes of the right type that adopt a broader and more creative definition of sustainability According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) our environment is the single largest determinant of our health, yet most research in the design of homes focuses on standards and guidelines related to minimum space, energy performance and the use of sustainable construction materials. To date there is limited understanding of how the physical attributes of the home impacts upon our health and wellbeing, to support ‘liveability’, that in turn can support and sustain the changing needs of individuals (and co-habiting units) through life-course.
The Covid pandemic prompted an increase in public health awareness and a major change in our hygiene behaviours forcing us to use our homes and public spaces in different ways. Over 100 years ago the Spanish Flu pandemic triggered a similar response that prompted modern architecture to consider its health promoting benefits. The modern movement architects and designers of the early 20th century explored how the use of clean lines, arrangement of form, space, integration of nature, use of light and materials could contribute to the health and well-being of a building’s inhabitants and influenced the design of many of the healthcare environments we experience today. Richard Neutra was one of the most influential architects who moved from central Europe to the American west in the early part of the 20th century. His extensive portfolio of work of domestic houses explored flexible living, multi-use and adaptable buildings, intergenerational living, maximising small spaces, and understood the impact of the built environment on our health.
Neurological conditions are now the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide. According to the WHO in 2019 43% of the global population had a neurological condition. Consequently, while creative consideration should be given to the physical aspects of our homes to help make them more inclusive and accessible to support us through life course, of equal importance is how design decisions might impact on our senses. Neutra described more than 70 years ago how the process of adjustment by early humans to the environment were automatic but warned how the man-made environment was becoming subject to far more rapid changes and there was no time for slow biological adjustment to novelties which at any moment may become technologically feasible. This is in an ever-changing digital world that is overloading our sensory capacity is more profound than ever.
‘Human habitat in the deepest sense is much more than mere shelter. It is the fulfilment of the search—in space—for happiness and emotional equilibrium. Richard Neutra 1956
In 1961 the UK’s ministry of housing published an influential housing report led by Parker Morris, ‘Homes for Today and Tomorrow’. It emerged as a result of an extensive national study on homes that focused on ‘usability and the lived experience’ and that called for ‘a creative response to the requirements of the age’. The report suggested the only definable minimum space standard should be determined by fulfilling basic human needs and health requirements. Consequently, the Parker Morris recommendations increased the minimum overall dwelling size to the most generous in the history of British council housing. However, the UK government abolished the Parker Morris standards in 1981 and the UK now has the smallest minimum space standard in Europe.
It is important that greater consideration is given to adaptable and flexible solutions to housing designs that respond to and support changing needs through life course, accommodates changes in lifestyle and remain future proofed against technological advancements. Future Designs should allow for multi-use, intergenerational living but give respect to and provide opportunity for privacy. Design decisions can have a significant positive and negative affect on our health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is critical that designers, architects and house builders of our future homes understand and adopt a ‘creative response to the requirements of this age’ and recognise the impact of their design decisions to reduce the gap that currently exists between environmental health knowledge and its application to architecture.
Winston Churchill once said, ‘The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward’. In shaping our homes for the next 100 years we may well learn from the some of the ideas and inspiring examples from the past century.
Paul Chamberlain is Professor of Inclusive Design and Co-chair at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art. He was the first international resident scholar at the Neutra Institute, USA.
