Summarising contributions and future perspectives

Age-friendly spatial practice with dynamic ageing recourses at the centre

Through the steps of this chapter, I have defined what can be understood as age-friendly spatial practice. Here the notion of space is articulated in both a metaphorical and a collaborative sense as well as through physical dimensions. First and foremost, this age-friendly spatial practice provides older people with a central place in the production and reproduction of spaces, a practice that considers the dynamic time aspect of growing old and allows for maintaining a role in society as well as the individual’s contribution through collaborative and creative spaces.

I have presented insights into how older people can be involved in spatial exploration and co-design of age-friendly spaces through a spatial practice that brings out and builds on existing resources and resources they did not know they possessed, and which collaborating stakeholders did not know they possessed. The present study reflects older people of low

socio-economic status, people who in society are often presented as citizens of limited resources. Through the discussion of how an age-friendly spatial practice can be developed to bring out resources (regardless of socio-economic status), this thesis offers practical and theoretical perspectives into how to engage people of whom many (including themselves) did not have high expectations to start with. The two urban contexts in Copenhagen, as well as the rural context in Greenland, each contributed to expanding the notion of AFCCs and the diversity of these through a context adaptable practice. By being able to include the Greenlandic study in this thesis, age-friendly spatial practices for developing AFCCs have been further qualified.

Changing the stereotypical image of what an older person is and can contribute with is at the forefront of the political discourse – a discourse that is essential for society because it has an impact on the well-being of the individual older persons and on society at large (cf.

the notion of ageing in Chapter 2). Spatial explorations such as co-design and go-along interviews can be one approach to changing this stereotypical image when developing AFCCs through age-friendly spatial practice. This reframing of the image of ageing, of older people and what their abilities can contribute with becomes useful for policy makers, as well as practice stakeholders such as housing associations and care providers when engaging with the future development of AFCCs.

Engaging architects in connecting, collaborating and distributing agency

From a standard architectural perspective, this might be considered as outside the scope of ‘what we should be solving’ but, as I have presented throughout this thesis, the

collaborative space offers an overlooked opportunity for us as spatial practitioners, since our professional knowledge is strengthened by the expertise of older people and stakeholders from e.g. the gerontological field. In this regard, the creative and spatial modes of working offer dimensions that contribute to the architect’s role in the AFCCs discourse and for collaborating with older people. Hence, the role of architects and designers can or should not be limited to the propositional stages only, unless we wish to end up with yet another bench or generic solution that solves an overall issue that has been defined by others. Designers and architects should be at the forefront of this development, challenging the direction of

defining AFCCs through spatial practices with older people and with other disciplinary fields in research and practice.

Moving forward and exploring further diversity with older people

With the empirical studies of this thesis I have presented potential modes of bringing older people’s resources to the table when it comes to designing AFCCs. As the insights show, older people have clear preferences for how they find it meaningful and purposeful to be involved, and we as spatial practitioners need to take this seriously, because the right involvement can help design the right socio-spatial practice. Through this thesis, this has been explored with groups of low socio-economic status but would be valuable to investigate further with other socio-economic groups. Likewise, other studies into intergenerational spatial practices could be pursued, where an age-friendly spatial practice could be further expanded.

The walker has been a symbol in several chapters throughout this thesis, and I conclude by alluding to it once more. I took the photo (see visual narrative on the next pages: Where to? Moving into the future towards an age-friendly spatial practice) during one of the construction days in Copenhagen in 2017. One of the older men used his walker to transport wooden pieces to a bench where he could sit and sand the edges. He kindly offered that I could use his walker to transport my pieces too, in case they were too heavy to carry.

To me, the gesture and the image of the walker with wooden pieces on top represent several things:

We need to build on top of existing resources rather than merely designing solutions to mitigate the meeting between walker and environment. The older people have the creativity and the resources to show us this.

Further, the image represents both a concrete and an abstract power distributed to a disability aid, and hence to the owner of this aid, an aid that might stereotypically be associated with

decline and disability. In expanding age-friendly spatial practices, we need this kind of image to communicate that power.

I conclude this PhD thesis by suggesting that we collectively move (or roll) into the future engaging in a discourse where a walker (and its owner) leads the way as they present powerful, inevitable resources that we as a society must build on when designing AFCCs.

WHERE TO?