Design Sprint
Workforce demographics are shifting and the elderly are looking for new ways to be productive, both remunerated and voluntary, with the intention of maintaining and enhancing their lifestyle financially and socially.
Client: Fjord
Website: https://www.fjordnet.com/
Services: Design Thinking, Architecture, Physical Spaces & Environment, PROTOTYPES,
Brief
As the generation of elderly is increasing Fjord was looking closer into this demographic shift. During our studies we worked together with Fjord to create diverse spaces for elderly. Our group focused on designing a space for elderly in the workplace environment.
Process
We structured a design sprint of 6 weeks to develop a space for elderly with physical material.
Discover
Interviews
Desk Research
Insight Definition
Define
Brainstorming
Octopus Clustering
Decision Matrix
Develop
Modelling
Sketching
Moodboards
Deliver
Presenting
Discover
As we started researching, we realised that not everyone who retires wants to quit working. Some people feel they still want to share their knowledge and continue working. Thus, we decided to create two different buildings.
Define
How might we create a space for elderly in order to keep them in the working environment?
Develop
To distinguish between the projects we looked more detailed into how spaces are created in the corporate world as well as in the leisure time.
Nevertheless, we want to see both objects as one which is why we decided to use the same material. We brainstormed and decided to use natural material to remain the organic environment for both buildings.
Deliver
We designed two projects
Me time where elderly people can follow their interest and passion.
Not ready yet designed to generate knowledge to others and remain working environment
Results
Me Time
For the me time we looked at general activities elderly people enjoy like art work, walks, workshops, etc.
We did some brainstorming and gathered all our ideas on one paper how we can create a physical space for all the activities in one building and make it easy accessible for elderly.
We want to create a space where elderly can enjoy their free time and still socialise after retiring.
With this concept in mind we obviously want to project an organic and open space. Thus, our building has waves in the roof, open windows and which is supposed to give a feeling of freedom and comfort.
From the outside the space is also seen super natural with the use of material such as wood and gras/ moose. This whole
For this project to be developed and human centred, we want to partner up with Museo del Prado, Fundation Mapfre and Telefonica. We selected theses partners as they can provide great cooperation for the activities we want to achieve. Moreover, we believe that this will be a great start for the project to be alive and in use.
On the other side, for the not ready yet building we want to design an environment of knowledge sharing. Elderly will have the possibility to share their knowledge with others; more precisely: with the younger generation.
To create a work environment we saw that sharp, geometrical shapes are mostly used for work spaces and decided to implement these in our building. In this way elderly still feel the work environment with the combination of an organic and open space.
Our project has big windows, sharp shapes with natural material.
The not ready yet building is working together with universities and accelerator facilities. This gives the space not only a great balance from work and freedom from the outside but also from the main purpose we want to achieve. University students can come and learn in this building and elderly can share their knowledge with them.
With the combination of young and old in this building we generate a great ecosystem of knowledge sharing.
Not Ready Yet
The project faces one of the biggest and most forgotten challenges that our society has to solve, showing high doses of creativity, design, empathy and optimism. It is a very good example of how the coexistence between nature and architecture can promote social changes in our environments.