New designs for the aged at London’s Design Museum

London’s Design Museum is showcasing the latest potential designs that can help people live healthier and better lives as they get older. The new exhibition shows some of the possible new solutions to problems the elderly face in the home, at work, with mobility, and in the community.

People are living longer in recent years

With people living longer, the aging population is getting bigger. The general population is older than it has ever been, with more than half-a-million people in the UK aged over 90-years-old. And of the population aged 75 and above, more than half are living alone. This can cause problems in many areas, not least of which is their ageing and identity.

Top local designers were used for the exhibition

The exhibition, which came as a result of a Design Museum’s survey, features leading local designers. They have drawn inspiration from Lady Helen Hamlyn’s New Design for Old exhibition, shown at the Boilerhouse Project and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in the 1980s. It contains many framed information boards, including one showing a recent photo of Iris Apfel, the leading New York doyenne, who is now in her 90's.

A lot has changed in recent decades

The modern ideas in age-related designs are often colourful and extravagant, which is why Lady Hamlyn wanted to update the exhibition to reflect the modern age. In the foreword of her New Old catalogue, Lady Hamlyn writes, “It is important to understand how much has changed in demographic and technological terms in recent decades, and how much will change over the next 30 years.”

Post a card with your thoughts on it

Much thought has gone into the design, layout and typography of the exhibition, thanks to local design firms, Plaid London and Lucienne Roberts. Their design brief was to create a highly accessible system that challenged the prejudices around the aged and showed the more positive aspects of life as people get older. And this shows through with the end result.

With wooden framed screens throughout the exhibits, covered in a specially designed, clear font, visitors are invited to interact with the exhibits without being patronising or ageist. On one wall there is the question, “When does old age begin?”, and visitors can check the box on a postcard, and pin their answers to the wall. The exhibits also look at the dreams and social lives of the elderly, alongside the problems of mobility and health.

From the conceptual to the practical

Different aspects of the exhibition flow in different ways, with contributions of conceptual style and practicality in their applications and designs. Designs for the older generations are about more than comfy chairs and slippers. The whole exhibition has a youthful feel to it, and takes the taboos out of talking about getting old.

Predictions show that our children are expected to reach over 100, on average, which puts us in the centenarian century. Now is the time again to revere the elderly, and treat them with respect.