If senior living could have a fresh start, what could it look like? That’s the question asked by global architecture firm Perkins Eastman in a year-long investigation, co-sponsored by J+J Flooring Group, to identify the external influences that have the potential to reshape where seniors live, what they do, and how they access healthcare.
The “Clean State Project,” a 60-page report detailing Perkins Eastman’s findings, was recently released.
“Most of the things we now call ‘senior living’ grew out of institutions like homes for the aged, hospitals and mental institutions,” says Max Winters, a Perkins Eastman architect and an author of the Clean Slate Project report. “No matter how far we try to branch out from there, we still have to grapple with those institutional roots.
“The Clean Slate Project is an attempt to plant an entirely new seed — one that could grow into a totally different way of thinking about what we do, and one that puts more emphasis on living and less emphasis on senior.”
It centers around four potential “macro-shocks” that are reshaping the senior living industry:
- Tech-Age: how artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality are poised to fundamentally change how older adults engage with the world, and how the rest of the world engages with them.
- Aging in the Community: how services are moving away from a traditional strategy of centralizing care to instead branch out into the communities where older adults already live and work.
- Third Act: how the traditional notion of retirement is changing, where lifestyle matters and continued engagement opportunities abound.
- Paradigm Shifts: the worldwide systemic disruptors we are all facing due to climatic, financial and political trends.
The study also includes six possible future scenarios for senior living as a result of the macro-shocks. Each takes a different perspective on the possible impacts of the macro-shocks, with a different set of “givens” for each scenario.
To download the complete report, click here.