XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

737

Designing the Public and Private Spaces to the Needs of an Aging Society

RC43 Housing and Built Environment (host committee)

Language: English

The early part of the 21st century sees two notable milestones. For the first time in history, more people live now in urban than in rural areas. On the other hand we have the rapid ageing of humanity which is perhaps the most salient and dynamic aspect of modern demography. These two closely related global trends already have and will have significant implications for human development. This means the necessity to meet the needs of the growing group of people with specific requirements. According to the World Health Organization experts, and not only their opinion, the physical and social environments are key determinants of whether people can remain healthy, independent and autonomous long into their old age. There are many possible ways in which the built environment (private and public spaces) may influence the health and well-being of older residents.

In this scope we can observe the growing in popularity of attempts to combine knowledge from the social sciences (especially sociology) with the knowledge from the field of design.

Contemporary design proves that it does not avoid responsibility for the important challenges of the demographics problems and looking for innovative solutions for built environment. We are waiting for interesting examples of theoretical and practical implementations of social answers for challenges of aging. Our interest is to create the opportunity for interdisciplinary discussion on the issue of designing private and public spaces with special focus on elderly needs - what nowadays is worth presenting and promoting in every aspect.