︎ Intergenerational Vision: Senses as Your Guide
Intergenerational Vision seeks to empower those with sensory disabilities such as visual impairment as well as other physical and cognitive disabilities to engage in an intergenerational exchange of knowledge to assist in the idea of a healthy and truly accessible age in place environment. The design tackles several interventions that promote the complexities of the human senses, and the human brain. Intergenerational Vision is nestled within a community to promote belonging within 20-minutes of accessible public pathways.
By Brian Silva ︎ , Lauren Jenkins ︎, Rohini Perera ︎,
Who
Jaya is a 70-year-old woman who has a degenerative disease called retinitis pigmentosa. She currently resides with her younger sister and her family. Jaya is a retired schoolteacher who still desires to help students and kids alike to learn. She enjoys going on walks, cooking, and playing with her niece and nephew. As Jaya’s vision impairment deteriorates, she wants to continue engaging with her community.
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Why
According to the United Census Bureau, approximately 83.7 million of the US population will be aged 65 years or older in 2050. The independence of older adults with vision impairment is limited, and little assistance is provided when navigating the urban environment for necessities such as groceries and community engagement. Interventions for older adults with visual impairment need to be tailored as their needs vary greatly when compared to older adults without visual impairment. Most environments are built for the able-bodied with little consideration for the elderly and disabled. This often creates barriers and doubles the physical and mental effort in public spaces. As Jaya’s vision impairment progresses, she will have to adapt differently as she navigates her everyday occupational tasks. Things such as navigating her apartment, to the pathways to her work will become increasingly more difficult.
How
The way of adapting to these bodily changes is to build spaces that engage in senses such as sight, sound, taste, touch and scent. By doing this, we create enriched environments that allow inclusion for all different people, ages, and abilities. As we navigate our day, this will enable us to use all our senses to interact and understand our environments.
What
Our approach will function through human-centered design that will engage with a variety of human senses. This will enable older adults with visual impairment to live independently, while remaining connected to their communities. Our aim is to tackle an everyday task and make it more accessible to those who are blind or losing vision. By accessing other sensory stimuli, we can create a space that allows for those who are visually impaired to navigate through their everyday spaces. Our intervention between third spaces (i.e. along sidewalks) include:-
- Edible/Aromatic Garden Bench
This intervention focuses on the senses of smell and taste. By surrounding this place of rest in aromatic herbs we can create an environment of smells that will create a calming atmosphere that will draw people in. Thus creating a place of social interaction where individuals can pick out herbs from the garden and use it in their meals at home. Exchanges of knowledge can occur from the exchange of herbs planted in the garden as well as how to upkeep the garden.
- Cognitive Games Bench
This intervention will focus on engaging the brain through a series of different game related activities. Naturally this area will draw in people who want to sit down and play with their friends, families and neighbors alike. Creating this area will create a social hub where people can compete against each other to see who will win the game.
Cognitive Problem Solving Bench
This intervention will also focus on the ideas of cognition through a series of problem solving tasks. To keep the puzzles and tasks on a loop of different variations, we will prompt the children of the community to create different sidewalk chalk obstacle courses to engage others in participating in the course. Additionally, the furniture is meant to be flexible and arranged in different ways to create brain engaging challenges that can be taken on by the older community to engage their thinking as well as have that exchange between children and adults.
Sound Playscape Bench
This intervention will focus on the sense of hearing through a series of outdoor furniture. This will become a site for those who want to gather a group of people and engage in creating a musical melody. The exhibition will feature instruments that can be experimented on by kids who are learning through ideas of hearing. The adults can teach them what each instrument is able to play and how to create sounds that are more soothing for individuals. Thus creating a soundscape that can manage stress as well as create sounds that can promote restorative sleep.
Please Touch Art Exhibit Bench
This intervention will focus on the sensation of touch through the structure as well as art. This intervention will promote community engagement by allowing local artists and makers to exhibit their art along the walls of this rest area. These pieces of art will focus on very touchable art that can be tactile as well as puzzle solving. By including the ideas of pegboard there can be an exchange of play for different arrangements of colored pegs and textured pegs between adults and children. This will allow all to engage in the bench in different ways and create a variability to the area. This will help manage stress through these very fidget based interventions.
Dexterity and Compression Exercise Bench
This intervention will focus on the sensation of touch as well as ideas of balance. This bench will focus on exercise to tackle ideas of compression, dexterity and balance through a series of hand grips, exercise bands, people rollers and balance beams. This will engage children and adults looking to understand how their bodies move leading to an exchange of knowledge. Kids can learn how to manage their bodies and behavior while adults can learn how to maintain their dexterity and balance.
Visuals of intervention modules
So What
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) reports that nearly one-fourth of older adults are socially isolated. By designing third spaces that allow individuals of various ages, cultures, and disabilities to engage in their communities, we empower them to stay connected.
Design To Outcomes
Our intervention features a series of rest points along a pedestrian pathway that engage the senses, the mind and body. In return these spaces will give greater independence to those with physical, mental, or sensory impairments such as vision. Our intervention provides community members options to participate in healthier eating habits and higher amounts of exercise by establishing more cognitively stimulating routes. In addition, these rest points aim to be hubs of social interaction that will lead to higher sociability, brain cognition and overall well-being.
Links to Follow:
︎︎︎Two Page Report
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Works Cited
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