CE Pro July 2023 - 10

Wellscapes
HEALTHFUL LIGHTING | AIR | WATER | SOUNDS | ECOSYSTEMS
ASID Develops
Resource for Agingin-Place
Education
New Senior Living Resource Guide was
authored by the American Society
of Interior Designers' Committee on
Adaptive Living based on input from
healthcare and design communities.
By Nick Boever
In an exciting development
for senior living and
aging-in-place advocates,
the American Society of
Interior Designers (ASID) has
released its first-ever Senior
Living Resource Guide.
Developed by ASID's
Committee on Adaptive
Living the guide is a collection
of input from medical
doctors and healthcare
specialists paired alongside
architecture and design principals
to reimagine the ways
in which environments can
contribute to healthy aging
while also providing structured,
practical solutions for
building professionals working
with senior populations.
" As the population of older
adults continues to increase,
designers must pivot their
work in order to foster
supportive spaces that tackle
the needs of this community, "
says Khoi Vo, CEO of ASID.
" The work produced by
the ASID Committee on
Adaptive Living delivers a
10 | CE Pro July 2023
thoughtful resource for practitioners
as we address our
responsibility to improve the
independence and wellbeing
of this population through
the built environment. "
The committee was
formed in 2022 in response
to the dramatic impact
COVID-19 had on seniors
in both commercial and
residential environments.
Consisting of ASID-nominated
design professionals
across North America, the
committee's main goal
currently exists to address
the many issues affecting
seniors in anticipation of
the ever-growing senior U.S.
population.
The Senior Living Resource
Guide is the culmination of
that work thus far has addressed
challenges and hardships
such as social isolation,
the spread of illness, lack of
leisure options and a lack of
choice in living environments.
With these issues as the
basis, the committee has
Integrators and trade partners interested in the ASID
resource can purchase and download it for $99 at asid.org.
structured the guide around
eight guiding principles of design:
promotion of autonomy,
alleviating isolation, prioritizing
connectivity, facilitating
engagement, integrating
wellness, elevating building
systems, emphasizing attainability
and leading stakeholder
collaboration.
The guide then uses these
principles to outline multiple
strategies to support
adults aged 65 and over in
shared public thresholds,
semi-public thresholds and
private thresholds.
While the current guide focuses
mainly on senior living
communities, the Committee
on Adaptive Living has
announced it will be issuing
a companion guide later
this year that will address
residential living formats.
This will include guidance for
single family, co-living, and
modular applications, and
mixed-use typologies.
The companion guide will
utilize a universal design
approach for all household
zones, using their principles
of design for healthy community
living.
While mainly aimed at
interior design practitioners,
the principles outlined
within the guide look to
touch upon many aspects of
the built environment that
directly intersect with integrators
from promotion of
autonomy to the elevation
of building systems.
Whether or not that's true
is to be determined, however,
in the meantime, CE Pro has
reached out to ASID to get
a little extra insight into the
contents of the guide as it
might relate to integrators.
We'll update readers with any
additional information once
we hear back.
Either way, the guide itself
marks a major step within the
building industry as professional
organizations begin
to promote formal practices
centered around universal
design principle.
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CE Pro July 2023

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