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Against the background of an ageing population, the theory of universal design and barrier-free living is gaining traction. A new book on the subject, out next month, also suggests that older consumers are the ultimate arbiters when it comes to bad design. Yolanda Zappaterra investigates
'Age is not an illness' blasts designer Diana Kraus in Oliver Herwig's book Universal Design: Solutions for Barrier-free Living. Another page is devoted to another quote, this one by James Irvine, who says, 'good design is universal design'. Both comments are, of course, indisputable, and both are important to design, as this fascinating book makes clear in a number of unexpected, useful and intelligent ways.
As a range of social statistics show, society and its needs are changing. By 2030, people in their 40s today will be the relative majority, with greater spending power, leisure time, property and wealth than the elderly have ever had, and more years to enjoy them. Intelligent, vocal, politically powerful and technologically savvy, 'whoopies' - or well-off older people - will drive the desire for 'universal design' as defined by Ron Mace, the late founder and programme director of The Center for Universal Design in North Carolina, US, who saw it as 'the concept of designing all products, buildings and the built environment to be usable to the greatest...