Blog: New Lives for Old?

Professor of Marketing and Strategy at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, Merlin Stone, who is currently undertaking research into the older adult in Europe, shares his thoughts on the New Old Exhibition at London's Design Museum. As part of our research into older adults’ health, wellbeing and housing, I visited the New Old exhibition at the Design Museum in London. It was in a way a celebration of a similar exhibition, New Design for Old, in 1986 by the Boilerhouse Project. Then as now the inspiration for the project was Helen Hamlyn, the great philanthropist. The exhibition was by no means an exhibition of care aids. To coincide with NEW OLD, the Design Museum commissioned research on attitudes to ageing in the UK. Amongst its finding were that a quarter of respondents would prefer to be cared for by robots rather than humans in old age. This echoes the findings of my own research. Driverless cars and sensors are also important in terms of what people look forward to in managing their lives as they age. According to the survey, old age starts at 73 in the UK, so I have a few years left! More importantly, this later entry into old age is reflected in the medical statistics, in terms of improving health, so if we define the proportion of our population that is aged as being over 73 (and rising), then we don’t have an ageing population at all, as the proportion relative to those under 72 (and rising) would be shrinking or static at worst, with every year the proportion of those aged 65 or more still working full or part-time also rising quickly. Of course, the distribution of health is not even, so we still have problems. The exhibits were designed partly to show the rapid evolution of technology. I remembered working with products of the kind exhibited, my professional career having been closely intertwined with the rise of personal computing and mobile telephones. To me, it said, “We’ve put some advanced stuff in this exhibition, but these too will be seen as old hat in a decade or two”. The Aura Power Suit exoskeleton based upon the idea of powered clothing to help older people move will no doubt be developed very rapidly to allow older people to do extraordinary things. The same will be true of digital home companions that are effectively friendly small ElliQ robots that ease connectivity and communication within and outside the home, advising their owners on what to do or avoid and reminding them of what they ought to be doing. One intriguing idea was a powered but collapsible Scooter for Life - I still wonder why this is seen as just for the old – perhaps it isn’t. An important feature of the exhibition is the lectures given by top designers, focusing on their general design philosophies and how they design to make living easier at any age. I attended one group of three lectures and came away inspired by the positive attitudes of the top designers who spoke – it’s not often that I sit so patiently through someone else’s lecture. The catalogue for the exhibition is a book in its own right, presenting lots of ideas and research. The exhibition finishes shortly at the Design Museum, but there are plans to take it on tour.