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Following a successful pilot in July 2017, we are delighted to be running the first full session of our new, one-day training programme devised and delivered jointly with the Centre for Accessible Environments.
‘Co-Design for Inclusive Placemaking of External Environments’ combines theory and practice from our co-design activities and takes place in, and around, Holyer House in London on Wednesday 28th March 2018.
This course aims to assist professionals develop an understanding of how to use co-design, both as part of policy making and to inform inclusive design.
All too often, the people who use environments day-to-day are left out of the design process. For older people, this can feel particularly alienating.
In our research, we’ve brought together early career designers and older participants to envision places, from homes to public spaces, which are inclusive, enabling and inspirational.
In our latest publication, published in May 2017, we’re sharing what we’ve found from four years of co-design activities in a beautifully illustrated, 32-page guide.
It’s called Mobility. Mood. Place. Intergenerational co-design for age-friendly places.
The front and back covers of our new publication
Structured around the 13 key things we have uncovered through the co-design process about older people’s needs and preferences for age-friendly environments, the publication features a range of annotated designs for the cities of London, Manchester and Copenhagen, and the Scottish islands of Orkney, interspersed with quotes from participants.
Led by a team whose expertise spans teaching, research and practice in the fields of architecture and landscape architecture, the designs have been produced by a total of 84 students at Edinburgh College of Art, in collaboration with local older people.
A double-page spread from the publication
Many of the things older people have told us in the course of our research are surprising; challenging widespread assumptions about ageing and place.
We hope that, by sharing them with you, we can encourage you to think about your own practice through an age-friendly lens, and about the benefits of meaningful collaboration with end users.
A double-page spread from the publication
The foreword for the publication is by Diarmaid Lawlor, Director of Place at Architecture and Design Scotland and MMP Advisory Group member, who says:
“The experience of older people is exacerbated by some basic design problems. Mobility, Mood and Place tackles these challenges head on. Smarter places are about smarter choices for all generations, enabled by smarter design. Mobility, Mood and Place provides us with a routemap on the how”.
Would you like to take part in our research? We are currently doing a pilot study in Edinburgh for which we require older volunteers (aged 65+) who can walk comfortably for 20 minutes and who are right-handed.
We’re delighted to be invited to participate in today’s AGM of the Cross Party Group on Older People, Age and Ageing at the Scottish Parliament, which sets the Group’s agenda for the year ahead. MMP partner, Age Scotland, is the current secretariat for the CPG, which is convened by Sandra White MSP, with Nanette Milne MSP as deputy convenor. Study Manager, Dr Katherine Brookfield, is attending on our behalf.
MMP researchers, Dr Jenny Roe and Dr Chris Neale, have taken part in the annual Pint of Science Festival in York. At an event in the Stonegate Yard Bar, they explored how the quality of neighbourhood and work environments contribute to health and wellbeing, presenting their research using new technologies, including our EEG headset.
Jenny and Chris are involved in our second topic, Environment and Affect.
MMP team members, Professors Catharine Ward Thompson and Jamie Pearce, have given a free public lecture at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation (ECCI). Jointly organised by the University of Edinburgh’s Global Academies for Health and Environment & Society, Environment and Health Under the Microscope: Resilient Citiesattracted a full house. Study Manager, Dr Katherine Brookfield, attended the event to publicise MMP at the accompanying exhibition, alongside the project’s Communicator, Máire Cox.
