This document summarizes seven contemporary design trends for aging populations and aged care facilities: 1. Participatory co-design involving end-users like residents and staff. 2. Intergenerational contact zones through co-location with schools or community spaces. 3. Sustainable and biophilic design bringing nature indoors and outdoors. 4. Playable design introducing fun elements to reduce isolation and encourage activity. 5. Dementia-friendly and inclusive universal design for diverse needs. 6. Emerging technologies like robotics for care, entertainment, and companionship. 7. Evidence-based design informed by multiple perspectives and empirical research.

1. PLACES FOR AGEING
Advancing the quality of the built
environment for our elders
- the academic view
Prof Evonne Miller
Professor of Design Psychology
& Director, QUT Design Lab
Queensland University of Technology
SEVEN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN TRENDS

2. About Me: Professor of Design Psychology & Director of QUT Design Lab
Chair, 2023 Australian Association of Gerontology Conference, GC 14-17 Nov
Evonne Miller
e.miller@qut.edu.au
Miller, E., Chari, S. & Winter,
A. (2024). How designers are
transforming healthcare. Springer.

3. The Royal Commission has raised awareness &
action, but for too long, residents of aged care
have been an invisible population:
“since they are often physically frail and do not
venture far beyond the walls of the home….
They also tend to exist outside the boundaries of
‘ordinary society’ and community, and are ‘off
the radar’ of the majority of initiatives that aim
to engage citizens or address marginalization”
p. 3. Denning & Milne, 2011. Mental health and care homes. Oxford University Press
Aged Care Invisible?

4. With rapid population ageing, there
is an opportunity to reimagine ageing
and the design of aged care
2020 = 2500 centenarians in AUS
2050 = 20,000 centenarians in AUS
Queen Elizabeth (now King Charles) sends birthday
cards to Commonwealth citizens who turn 100..
population ageing, means that the centenarian team
has expanded from just one official to seven!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/11121184/Queens-birthday-
card-team-expands-to-cope-with-surge-of-100-year-olds.html

5. thinking about the past, present and future of aged care…..
1.
THE
PEOPLE
2.
THE
PLACE
3.
THE
SYSTEM
1. Participatory Co-Design – End-User Engagement
2. Intergenerational Contact Zones / Co-Location
3. Sustainable and Biophilic Design
4. Playable Design
5. Dementia-Friendly Design / Design for All
6. Technology and Robotics
7. Evidence-based design
CONTEMPORARY DESIGN TRENDS
Compliment the 2023 National Aged Care Design
Principles, to: enable the person, cultivate a home,
access the outdoors, connect with community.
Seemann N, Fuggle L, Week D, Westera A, Morris D, Loggie C, Thompson C, Fildes D, Grootemaat P,
Lambourne S, Goodenough B, and Gordon R (2023) Final Report on the Development of the draft
National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines. Wollongong, NSW: Centre for Health Service
Development, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong
An older Australian spends an average of 2.6 years – 913
days – in their aged care residence before their death
(AIHW, 2020).

6. Respecting design expertise – but also amplifying,
respecting & engaging with diverse voices of end-
users….. staff, residents, their families (grandchildren)
The laundry example; at an architectural design review meeting: the practice
director realizes the laundry has no window, but to add a window would
disrupt the curved shape and aesthetic of the external wall. A colleague
suggests adding a roof light but the project architect immediately dismisses this
idea. From his tour of the residence and meetings with care staff, he explains
that the laundry will get too hot as it runs “16 hours a day”.
KEY TREND 1: Participatory Co-Design – of spaces, structures, services & systems
Buse, C., Nettleton, S., Martin, D., & Twigg, J. (2017). Imagined bodies: Architects and
their constructions of later life. Ageing & Society, 37, 1435–1457.

7. Miller, E., Chari, S. & Winter, A. (2024). How designers are transforming healthcare. Springer.
Hopes /
Legends
Fears
Myths /
Taboos
A Co-Design Lens: User Engagement, Empathy Mapping & FHMT Matrix
“the wisdom is
in the system”

8. KEY TREND 2: Intergenerational Contact Zones / Co-Location…
from ‘mono-generational’ to intergenerational spaces and places
• Old People Homes for 4 Year Olds -
Australian Institute for Intergenerational Practice
• NHMRC Grant – GrandSchools: A new model for
healthy senior living and integrated school
communities across urban and regional Australia
Trotter, M, Sanders, P, Lindquist, M, Miller, E, Hajirasouli, Aso, Blake, A,
Harrington , Olsen, H., Tyvimaa, T., Pepping, G., Kuys, S. & Drogemuller, R.(2022).
Intergenerational living and learning: The value and risks of co-locating retirement
villages on secondary school campuses - Evaluating the GrandSchools vision.
Australasian Journal on Ageing, 41(3).

9. What could
co-location look like..?
the design of aged care
residences is slowly
evolving to emphasize
connections with, rather
than segregation and
separation from, the
surrounding community
• Childcare / high school?
• Community Gardens
• Libraries
• Makerspaces
• Men’s Sheds
• Galleries / Art Spaces
• Community Wellness/Medical
• Theatres / Auditoriums (hosting
meetings, eg local council mtgs)
think strategically about place, and
the features & activities the local community might value

10. 2023 National Aged
Care Design
Principles: connect
with community.
ON THE GROUND
EXPERIENCE:
“historically, what the
organization had done was
we had turned our back onto
our community and our
neighbors”. Even a simple
thing, like removing the
fence that separated the site
from the community was
challenging: while it aligned
with best-practice urban
design, residents worried
about security. And sharing
green space access with
nearby school and childcare
took years to negotiate.

11. KEY TREND 3: Sustainable and Biophilic Design
Simply by choosing to reside in an aged care
facility designed with sustainable, regenerative
and biophilic design principles in mind, older
people’s residential choice might positively
impact the world - positively enriches their own
life and ‘also the lives of others – from next
door neighbours to people living on the other
side of the globe’
(p. 193., Chmielewski & Hoglund, 2018 )
Miller, E., & Osborne, L. (2023) Redesigning aged care with a biophilic lens: A call to action. Cities & Health.

12. p.64
2023 National Aged
Care Design
Principles
“The grounds of the residence had
wide walking paths with handrails
and multiple places to sit and rest,
and yet relatively few residents
ventured out alone – even though
most residents said that they valued
going for guided walks around the
grounds led by staff. Rooms
typically had an exterior patio,
where residents enjoyed the simple
experience of sitting in that space
and watching the view. As one
resident astutely noted: there were
“interesting places to go . . . if
you bother to leave”; her point
was that many of her fellow
residents rarely left the facility. What
residents, especially those with
reduced mobility, deteriorating
cognition and sensory
impairments, valued and derived
great pleasure from was looking
at and watching nature – whether
it was simply enjoying the trees and
Placemaking, with nature –
and views matter
Seemann N, Fuggle L, Week D, Westera A, Morris D, Loggie C,
Thompson C, Fildes D, Grootemaat P, Lambourne S, Goodenough B, and
Gordon R (2023) Final Report on the Development of the draft National
Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines. Wollongong, NSW: Centre
for Health Service Development, Australian Health Services Research
Institute, University of Wollongong

13. Playable design challenges us to intentionally rethink the design of our
urban environment to be playable, sites for fun, joy, and pleasure – e.g.,
• musical stairs
• installing ping pong tables in an underpass park
• swinging seats
• playful technology intervention games
• Indoor bike track, Funan shopping mall Singapore
• A nature inspired playground and stream and gardens
KEY TREND 4: Playable Design
“Why introduce play into a city?
Play can be considered one of the basic needs of
human beings…. Rather than being involved in
physical play ourselves, we can enjoy the playing of
others, share the enjoyment with others, and
experience a playful atmosphere in a city. We can
sense a city and can develop affective feelings for a
city because we experience it as being playful for us,
for our children, for our friends, or for the community
we live in” (p4, Nijholt, 2020)

14. KEY TREND 5: Design for Dementia / Design for All
• The Dementia Enabling Environment Principles are based on the work
of Professor Richard Fleming & Kirsty Bennett, University of Wollongong.
• Design for all, age-friendly and inclusive design is a process of thinking
and designing for a diverse population, with the aim of creating spaces,
buildings, services, products and environments that can be accessed,
understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people,
regardless of their age, size, culture, ability or disability

15. KEY TREND 6: Technology and Robotics
Will robots care for older
people or babies?
Is one more ‘acceptable
The future is now:
we are living through
the 4th Industrial
revolution
From artificial intelligence, algorithmic analytics
and big data, to advanced robotics, virtual reality,
biometric sensors and apps, the 4th IR is the
unprecedented fusion of emergent technologies
across physical, digital and biological spheres that
is changing the “what” and “how” of doing
things, as well as “who” we are (Schwab, 2016)
How will technology will change healthcare, aged care & ageing in place?
Would you trust a robot to look after you? Why / why not – & what tasks?

16. WHAT COULD
ROBOTS DO…
care tasks, leisure
activities
entertainment,
companionship,
exercises,
administration,
catering, cleaning,
laundry, gardening
& more…
BUT need
instructions,
& to see…
Robot Typology
for Ageing
& Aged Care
- CHORE
- COMPANION
- CARE
The robotic movement: What does ‘cyber-care’ look like?

17. Current Project – Collaboration with QUT Robotics, to co-design tasks for HELPII

18. THEORY-STORMING: viewing a design problem through multiple
theoretical lenses. The goal is to generate an evidence-based
design solution that is creative and inspired, but also effective
and sustainable for multiple stakeholders.
Thinking with THEORY facilitates the creation of Great Places
KEY TREND 7: Evidence-based design
Design Theory-Storming is inspired by Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Cushing, D. & Miller, E. (2020). Creating Great Places: Evidence-based urban design for health and wellbeing. Routledge.

19. Putting on Different THEORY HATS –
Theory-Storming in Action – ‘Design a Utopian Place’
QLD DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING,
HOMELESSNESS & SPORT (HHS)
Cushing, D. & Miller, E. (2020). Creating Great Places: Evidence-based urban design for health and wellbeing. Routledge.
Theory-Storming Innovative, Health-Promoting Places

20. thinking about the past, present and future of aged care…..
1.
THE
PEOPLE
2.
THE
PLACE
3.
THE
SYSTEM
1. Participatory Co-Design – End-User Engagement
2. Intergenerational Contact Zones / Co-Location
3. Sustainable and Biophilic Design
4. Playable Design
5. Dementia-Friendly Design / Design for All
6. Technology and Robotics
7. Evidence-based design
CONTEMPORARY DESIGN TRENDS
Compliment the 2023 National Aged Care Design
Principles, to: enable the person, cultivate a home,
access the outdoors, connect with community.
Seemann N, Fuggle L, Week D, Westera A, Morris D, Loggie C, Thompson C, Fildes D, Grootemaat P,
Lambourne S, Goodenough B, and Gordon R (2023) Final Report on the Development of the draft
National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines. Wollongong, NSW: Centre for Health Service
Development, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong
A workplace for staff and a home for residents: an older Australian spends an
average of 2.6 years – 913 days – in their aged care residence before their death
(AIHW, 2020).

21. “Once finished, a new urban area or
park or building will likely outlast
every person who designed,
engineered and built it. […]And it will
remain in use long after those who
commissioned and paid for it are gone….
every element – building, landscape, urban
area, infrastructure – ought, accordingly, be
designed to help us thrive”
p. 269-272, Goldhagen, 2017
THE DECISIONS WE MAKE ABOUT PLACE FACILITATE (OR
HINDER) HEALTH & WELLBEING… THEORY-STORM to make
GREAT, EVIDENCE-BASED DESIGN CHOICES!

22. PLACES FOR AGEING
Advancing the quality of the built
environment for our elders
- the academic view
Prof Evonne Miller
Professor of Design Psychology
& Director, QUT Design Lab
Queensland University of Technology
SEVEN CONTEMPORARY DESIGN TRENDS