The City and the Elderly
Urban living spaces of the elderly population, between social needs and the built environment from the Modern Ages to the Contemporary World

International Conference, Lugano, 16-17 October 2008

Laboratorio di Storia delle Alpi Institute for the Contemporary Urban Project
Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana



The conference analyse in a multidisciplinary approach the urban models of life of the elderly population in the past and in the contemporary world, as well as the strategies adopted (in politics, planning and architecture) to manage the current demographic aging of the European city. More particularly, through the contribution of a number of different disciplines (history, geography, sociology, economics, urban planning, architecture).

The congress is linked with the research project UrbAging: planning and design of urban space for an ageing society (www.arch.unisi.ch/index/icup/pdf_urbaging) which is part of the National Research Program 54 "Sustainable development of the built environment” promoted by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF, 2007-2008) (www.nfp54.ch/f_projekte.cfm).

Topic
The city has always been the theatre of special forms of aggregation, but also of specific forms of social segregation. In the course of its history the city’s growth has kept pace with the transformations of intergenerational relationships.
The relationship between the elderly population and the city is ambivalent: on the one hand we find that cities attract an elderly population while on the other the urban environment is the source of socio-relational, residential, cohabitative, welfare and socio-regulatory problems.
In historical periods, cities often organized welfare services and issued social regulations that favoured the most vulnerable social groups, including the aged, who were placed at risk by the loss of traditional solidarity and exposed to the dangers of pauperization and marginalization. Also the forms of domestic and familial cohabitation in the city expressed a range of possible solutions.
In recent decades the relationship between the elderly and the urban world has changed profoundly. The generalized coverage offered by the national insurance and social security systems has been accompanied by an increase in life expectancy and above all the rising numbers of people who enjoy good health at the time they retire, generating new prospects and new projects in the individual path of life well into the third age.
Social and architectural-urban issues intersect with the increasing sensitivity to the relationship between built spaces and the quality of life, particularly in connection with the development of mobility and the separation of functional spaces. Numerous recent studies have shown the importance of the revival of public spaces for the enhancement of social life.

Program

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Session I – Social regulations and support
Analysis of some historical example of social regulation linked with elderly

Session II – Residential choices and life styles
Relationship of the elderly with the city according to the residential choices

Session III – Architectures and building types
comparison between different examples of home for elderly in a historical and contemporary perspective

Session IV – Designing public spaces and mobility
Elderly’s urban mobility and the importance of public spaces

Session V – The Age-friendly city
How to make the city for the elderly a city for all


Two public conference will take place during the congress

Thursday 16 october:
P. A. Rumley (Bern) - Vieillissement de la population - défis et opportunités pour l’aménagement du territoire (20:30)

Friday 17 october:
Josep Acebillo talks with Franco La Cecla


Information
For further informations and details please contact urbaging@arch.unisi.ch
Tel. +41 (0) 58 666 58 19