Design For Aging

Globally, the rate of growth for the 60-and-over population has surpassed that of every other generational group. This presents both an enormous design opportunity and a daunting challenge. In this section, we review diverse strategies and perspectives in the developing conversation around designing for aging.

- Laura Raskin

DESIGN FOR AGING— Q&A JONATHAN KIRSCHENFELD

Like many U.S. cities, New York faces a one-two punch in housing, with a deficit of affordable units and a growing number of senior citizens on fixed incomes. Metropolis’s Katie Okamoto spoke with Jonathan Kirschenfeld, an architect and founder of the Institute for Public Architecture (IPA), a nonprofit that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, about designing housing for seniors in New York. Kirschenfeld’s eponymous firm has made it a mission to prove that social housing can be good architecture.

Katie Okamoto: Let’s jump in with The Domenech, affordable senior housing in Brownsville, Brooklyn, that your firm completed in 2010. This was developed as a HUD [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] Section 202 project. What was the project context, especially since the 202 program—which is specifically for low-income seniors—hasn’t been funded since 2012?

Jonathan Kirschenfeld: I knew Common Ground [now Breaking Ground] was probably the most adventurous, innovative, ambitious developer of supportive housing in New York City, and I really wanted to work with them. I designed a C-shaped plan for the site, which was 80 feet wide by 155 feet deep; it was very difficult to get 72 units on it otherwise. When we presented to HUD, they said, “Are you in the right office? Do you know what we build here? We build matchboxes.”