Designing for Older Persons in a Transforming World

The world is greying. By 2050 the global population age sixty-five and older is projected to nearly double—from 12% to 22%, and while many older persons continue to experience relatively good health, contributing importantly to society as family members, volunteering, and in the workforce, others will be at high risk of becoming unhoused, experiencing mental health and cognitive disorders, and comorbidities. Resilient architectural responses are needed to anticipate the needs and aspirations of older persons, particularly against the backdrop of the global climate crisis. Broad trends are examined in relation to progressive architectural case studies in the field of architecture and aging with particular focus on the long-term care housing crisis in Ontario.

Speaker Bios

Diana Anderson, MD, M.Arch, FACHA

Dr. Diana Anderson is a triple boarded professional – healthcare architect (ACHA-American College of Healthcare Architects), internist, and a geriatrician. She earned her MD from the University of Toronto (OT8). As a “dochitect,”she pioneered a collaborative, evidence-based model for approaching healthcare from the medicine and architecture fields simultaneously. A past Fellow of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, Diana explores the ethics of built space related to design for aging. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University, and a recipient of an Alzheimer's Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship. She is a healthcare principal at Jacobs, contributing her thought leadership at the intersection of design and health.

Molly Chan

Molly Chan is a principal with the firm of NSDA Architects, a diverse and dynamic architectural practice based in Vancouver, BC. A six-time recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s award, the firm focuses on a wide range of projects including special needs, social purpose housing, affordable rental, healthcare and multi-family residential. Current projects include YWCA Housing for Women and Children, The Salvation Army Harbour Light facility, and Foxglove Supported Housing and Shelter.

Stephen Verderber, Arch,D., NCARB, ACSA Distinguished Professor

Dr. Stephen Verderber is Professor of Architecture, Director of the Centre for Design + Health Innovation in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, and Adjunct Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health/IHPME at the University of Toronto. A Registered Architect in the U.S. and co-founder of R-2ARCH (Research to Architecture), he is sole author of seven books, co-author of two, and has published over one-hundred peer reviewed scholarly and professional articles. His most recent books are Innovations in Transportable Healthcare Architecture (2016), Innovations in Behavioural Health Architecture (2018) and Innovations in Hospice Architecture (Second Edition, 2020). His first book, Healthcare Architecture in an Era of Radical Transformation (2000), has become a standard reference. Principal investigator of numerous externally sponsored research projects and reports, he holds one of only two North American faculty cross-appointments linking architecture and public health. Dr. Verderber has delivered invited keynotes at numerous international conferences on evidence-based health research and design, educational pedagogy, eco-humanist health-centric design, and has received numerous awards for his interdisciplinary contributions to the advancement of the discipline, profession, and broader community.

Host or Publisher Daniels Faculty