The world is ageing ungracefully. Our population is the oldest it's ever been, with over 500,000 in the UK aged 90 or older. Half of people over the age of 75 live alone.
A new exhibition at London’s Design Museum demonstrates design’s potential to help us lead healthier, more rewarding lives as we age. Commissions from leading designers (among them Yves Béhar, Konstantin Grcic and PriestmanGoode), offer solutions within the framework of ageing, identity, home, community, working and mobility. This format draws from the 1980s exhibition 'New Design for Old' at the Boilerhouse Project at the V&A, curated by Lady Helen Hamlyn.
Wooden framed boards are filled with images and information, like this one of Iris Apfel (bottom left) – a New York style doyenne in her 90s
In part thanks to this pioneering survey, today's landscape of age-related design is colourful and varied. It's precisely for this reason, Hamlyn believes, that it's time for another exhibition. Writing in the foreword of the 'New Old' catalogue, she says: 'It is important to understand how much has changed in demographic and technological terms in recent decades, and how much will change over the next 30 years.' She invites us to approach the exhibition with an open mind.
This isn't difficult to do, thanks to a thoughtful exhibition identity, typography and layout, created by local design firms LucienneRoberts+ and Plaid London. Roberts ensures all graphic aspects of the exhibition engage with it's content. 'We were briefed to develop a system that was highly accessible, challenged prejudices associated with the show's subject matter and showed the truly positive aspects of later life,' she explains.
3D sculptural graphs, created by LucienneRoberts+, display information on age demographics
The brief shines through the finished result. Delineating wood-framed screens network their way though the space. They're covered with a large, clear typeface, developed specifically for the exhibition. One such wall is plastered with the question, 'When does old age begin?', where visitors are invited to pick a postcard, tick a box and hang their answer on the wall. This low-tech, inclusive interactivity targets people of any age, without patronising or alienating.
This inviting, friendly tone is carried over into the show's optimistic commissions. Refreshingly, they treat the dreams and social lives of older people with just as much importance as their health and mobility. Konstantin Grcic's outdoor 'Head in the Sky' project, for example, provides a mesh structure for 'outdoor working and thinking', that doubles as a safe space to think and enjoy nature for people of an older age. Accessed by a long wheelchair ramp, Grcic explains how the structure 'formally makes a clear reference to an outdated image of old people,' while the open roof 'symbolises departure and a new beginning'.
’ElliQ’, by Yves Béhar, Fuseproject and Intuition Robotics
In his typically visionary style, Grcic's project veers towards the conceptual. Others, like Yves Béhar and Fuseproject's 'ElliQ' design commission, are eagerly practical, and make use of cutting edge technological vernacular. Not dissimilar to an Amazon Echo (recently shortlisted for a Wallpaper* Design Award) or the Google Assistant, 'ElliQ' is an emotionally intelligent robotic companion, that uses speech and light to subtly convey emotion. Thanks to its sensitive, sculptural design, it's not as terrifying as it sounds. It looks more akin to a beautiful table-top object than an AI mastermind. Of its many functions, it acts as a look out for intruders and coaches older people into fulfilling daily goals, as well as performing home AI standards like playing music and accessing the internet hands-free.
Designs like 'ElliQ' and 'Head in the Clouds' serve to emphasise the fact that designing for the elderly doesn't have to be about plaid curtains and comfy chairs (although there's nothing wrong with the latter). Aided by Lucienne Roberts' punchy graphics, the exhibition takes the taboo out of talking about old age, and feels youthful, without being exclusive. It also hasn't come a moment too soon. With over half our children predicted to live to 103, we're living in the century of the centenarian. We must envisage a future that puts the 'grand' back into 'old age', as we all hurtle towards it.
’Head In The Sky’, by Konstantin Grcic, 2016
’Amazin Apartments’ design commission, by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin (Future Facility)
’Scooter for Life’ by PriestmanGoode helps people stay mobile for longer
’MiRO’ by Sebastian Conran and Consequential Robotics
INFORMATION
’New Old’ is on view until 19 February. For more information, visit the Design Museum website
ADDRESS
Design Museum
224–238 Kensington High Street
London W8 6AG
-
Beloved sushi restaurant Sōgo Roll Bar comes to Highland ParkThe sushi hangout begins a new chapter in its second location, becoming the perfect spot for a quick grab-and-go or a relaxed tasting experience in east LA
-
Japanese designer Shinichiro Ogata's latest venture is a modern riff on the traditions of his home countryAs he launches Saboe, a series of new tearooms and shops across Japan, we delve into Shinichiro Ogata's creative vision, mirrored throughout the spaces and objects, rituals and moments of his projects
-
These are Dover Street Market’s jewellery designers to watch, exhibiting at the London store all summerIn a special exhibition, Dover Street Market London is highlighting 36 emerging jewellery designers to know – shop our pick of their pieces
-
Design beyond humans: a new exhibition argues that the world doesn’t revolve around us‘More Than Human’ at London's Design Museum (until 5 October 2025) asks what happens when design focuses on the perspectives and needs of other species, from bees to seaweed
-
‘100 Years, 60 Designers, 1 Future’: 1882 Ltd plate auction supports ceramic craftThe ceramics brand’s founder Emily Johnson asked 60 artists, designers, musicians and architects – from John Pawson to Robbie Williams – to design plates, which will be auctioned to fund the next generation of craftspeople
-
‘Disabled people have always been here’: a new V&A show centres on disability in designCurator Natalie Kane takes us through five key exhibits from the London show, where design points the way to a more inclusive society
-
Malta’s London Design Biennale installation ‘reclaims death as a moment of reflection, not fear’Wallpaper* speaks with Andrew Borg Wirth, curator of Malta's installation, ‘URNA’, which reimagines cremation rituals
-
11 things that caught our eye at Clerkenwell Design Week 2025The Wallpaper* team bring you highlights from London’s Clerkenwell Design Week (20-22 May) – from public installations to product launches and a biscuit bar
-
‘R for Repair’ at London Design Festival displays broken objects, re-formedIn the second half of a two-part exhibition and as part of London Design Festival 2022, ‘R for Repair’ at the V&A displays broken objects, re-formed
-
‘Finding quality through the act of making’: Pearson Lloyd celebrates 25 years of designPearson Lloyd’s show ‘Change Making’ reflects on past designs from its archives, showcasing the influences on and evolution of the studio, from furniture design to the NHS
-
Tom Dixon marks his studio's 20 years with a show of design experimentsMushroom, cork, steel coral and more: Tom Dixon showcases an overview of his design experiments as he celebrates his practice's 20 years
