AGING AND PLACE

Location: Various sites around New England

roles: CREATOR; Ethnographer

Design Challenge

To incorporate a broader understanding of “place” and co-create aging experiences that offer more meaning, value, and richness of life to older adults

Overview

We often talk about “aging in place,” but lack a nuanced understanding of what “place” means to older adults. I am launching this project to learn from older adults the roles that places play in their lives, relationships, hopes, and fears – in the past, now, and in the future. Through guided tours of meaningful places, on-site and off-site interviews, photography, and projective activities, I will develop a richer sense of what we mean when we talk about place, how older adults contribute to the places they inhabit, and how ideas about community intersect with ideas about place. I will then use these insights to co-create aging experiences that incorporate place in ways that inspire and enhance living.