Seniors Housing Demands a Communal, Active, Amenity-Driven Model
Published in Seniors Housing Business
In an article published in Seniors Housing Business on 7/18, FK Architecture Managing Principals and Owners Kimberly Hellekson and Ken Linehan write there is inadequate housing for the estimated 30 million people who will require long-term senior care by 2050. However, despite the perhaps-frightening statistic, Kim and Ken view this issue as a special opportunity for the design industry.
“Builders must work in concert with healthcare operators and other collaborators to ensure enough room for care and the right kind of care,” the authors wrote. “The coming decades offer tremendous advancements in senior living design, construction and implementation of senior living to make the golden years even more rewarding.”
The firm aims to meet founder Bob Koch’s belief that senior living facilities should be designed around communal living rather than a “warehousing” model. Accordingly, in addition to ground-up spaces, Kim and Ken share that their firm is already renovating existing facilities to be “cooperative and socially oriented living spaces” with modern amenities meant to stoke socializing rather than isolation.
“The issue of senior living resides right at the intersections of economics, geography, culture, healthcare and, yes, construction,” they said. “These facilities must be designed with the resident in mind first and foremost. And they must be implemented at scale given the large, and increasing, number of people who will require this type of residency.”
Read the story in full; click here.