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Exploring Gerontechnology for Aging-Related Diseases in Design Education: an Interdisciplinary Perspective 37th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2020) Exploring Gerontechnology for Aging-Related Diseases in Design Education: An Interdisciplinary Perspective R. Hua, T. Linnera, M. Schmailzla, J. Güttlera, Y. Lub, and T. Bocka aChair of Building Realization and Robotics, Technical University of Munich, Germany bDepartment of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract – Aging society is not only a crisis in the developed world but also a severe challenge in some emerging 1 Introduction economies. However, the awareness of population The worldwide crisis of population aging has drawn aging and gerontechnology is far from sufficiently the attention of more and more countries. According to addressed in the architectural design education in the United Nations, the percentage of global older universities. Therefore, an interdisciplinary population 60 years or over is expected to rise to 21% approach in design education is urgently needed to by 2050 compared to 13% in 2017 [1]. Many studies raise the awareness of the aging crisis among the pointed out that as the average life expectancy of the future architects, interior designers, and beyond. world's population increases, the number of people This article introduces a novel model of a design suffering from aging-related diseases increase as well. seminar offered by a German University, addressing Therefore, the significance of gerontechnology became population aging issues in the architecture prominent in recent years. The terminology of department. The syllabus, formality, and the gerontechnology was officially proposed at the 1st expected results of the seminar are revealed in detail. International Congress on Gerontechnology, Eindhoven, The participants are encouraged to apply Netherlands in 1991 [2]. It is a broad interdisciplinary interdisciplinary knowledge such as barrier-free domain that includes subjects such as gerontology, architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical assistive technology (e.g., medical devices, home engineering, robotics, medicine, psychology, and automation, companion robots, etc.), and inclusive business to achieve the goals of the seminar. Based design. Ever since its establishment, researchers and on the originality and degree of completion, several developers around the world continuously made students’ works are selected and reported, targeting contribution in this field. In architectural design a variety of diseases or syndromes related to aging, education, however, population aging and such as dementia, immobility, and tremors. Overall, gerontechnology does not seem to draw sufficient participants of this seminar are motivated and have attention. Furthermore, it is predictable that the ongoing positive feedback on this seminar, oftentimes coronavirus pandemic will fundamentally reshape claiming that they have seldom studied similar topics architectural design, challenging doctrines formed since in previous architecture education. This enables the Modernist Movement such as open plan and shared students from architecture as well as other fields to spaces in order to assist and protect habitants especially be better prepared to tackle the upcoming challenges the vulnerable elderly [3]. As a result, gerontechnology such as labor shortages and infectious diseases in a naturally becomes a powerful tool in this transition. rapidly aging world. Furthermore, the seminar Therefore, future architects and interior designers need creates novel concepts that serve as a win-win to be prepared to respond to the challenges that aging “honeypot” for both students and their instructors, society brings. In conjunction, architecture educators potentially sparking research topics and start-ups need to provide them with opportunities to study in the with concepts fostered in this seminar. related fields. Keywords – Aging-related diseases; Bauhaus 2.0; COVID-19; 2 Research aim Dementia; Design education; Gerontechnology; Interdisciplinary This paper reveals an innovative method of teaching interior design seminars in the context of aging society, 735 37th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2020) mimicking the environment of a business incubator, which distinguishes itself from traditional interior design studios. It involves cross-disciplinary knowledge in inclusive design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, medicine, psychology, and business, based on the key concepts and methods of a large European research project. The results of selected student projects addressing several commonly seen aging-related diseases or syndromes will be presented. Last but not least, the effectiveness and key learnings of this teaching process will be discussed. Figure 1. Various PI2Us developed in the 3 Methods REACH project Oftentimes, in an interior design or architecture studio, after reviewing exemplary designs, a certain Based on a variety of PI2Us, the project team design task is given to the students. Next, students and proposed a modularized smart home solution, namely instructors work together, pushing their sketches the Total Room Assistive Care Kit (TRACK) concept iteratively into final plans and renderings. In the end, (see Figure 2), which integrates PI2Us and key the design is presented in the form of posters and technologies in REACH to create a complete interior architecture models. living and care environment for elderly users in The seminar presented in this paper entitled different living environments such as home, hospital, “Incubator” is offered to the master level students and community [5]. primarily from an architecture background, also among other fields. Incubators are used in the innovation science and industry to specifically generate innovations or to systemize the innovation process. The aim of the seminar is to let the student study and develop their projects using interdisciplinary knowledge in a simulated environment of an incubator. The key concepts and methods of this seminar are based on the REACH project, a large European interdisciplinary research project aiming at developing customized healthcare systems to promote the elderly’s activity level and independence [4]. In REACH, a special type of smart furniture named Personalized Intelligent Interior Unit (PI2U) was developed, which seamlessly integrates the required functions (e.g., unobtrusive sensing and monitoring, training/gaming, nutrition, AI assistant, etc.) into the different living environments. The development process of the PI2Us (including but not limited to PI2U-SilverArc, PI2U-MiniArc, PI2U- SilverBed, PI2U-ActivLife) follows iterative design principles on both hardware and software levels, which allows the project team to optimize the products through prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining (see Figure 1). Figure 2. TRACK concept including real-life testing of the PI2Us 736 37th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC 2020) At the beginning of the seminar, the instructors 4.1 Dementia provide an overview of the key concepts and methods in the REACH project and give various lectures on topics The word “dementia” comes from Latin, literally such as the phenomenon of population aging, aging- meaning “without mind”. According to the World related diseases, gerontechnology with a special focus Health Organization, dementia is “a syndrome in which on the field of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), and there is deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour previous examples from both selected student projects and the ability to perform everyday activities” [8]. A and other relevant research projects such as USA² [6] large number of the world population is suffering from and LISA “Habitec" [7]. After, specific tasks are dementia, and Alzheimer disease is estimated to defined for all groups with expectations to develop their contribute to 60-70% of the cases. By 2015, roughly 47 own approaches and strategies of the solutions based on million people suffer from dementia and the number is the abovementioned concepts and methods. The expected to reach 132 million in 2050 [9]. In Germany, proposed solutions must be interdisciplinary approaches, for example, more than 1.6 million people were affected combining knowledge in barrier-free architecture, by dementia [10]. With no effective treatment currently mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, available to cure it or reverse its progression, the medicine, psychology, and business. Seminar and dementia epidemic has a significant negative impact in demonstration sessions are held in the chair’s laboratory. terms of physical, psychological, economic, and social By supervising the students’ work and evaluating their aspects, not only on the patients themselves, but also on intermediate presentations, the progress is ensured, and their caregivers, families, and society. Therefore, relevant questions are discussed. This process fosters innovative solutions are needed to mitigate the impact students’ awareness of subject-specific problems, and of this disease. In the following sections, three assistive furthermore, uncovers their personal weaknesses and systems, MAK, METIS, and Dooropener are proposed strengths. Through this problem-oriented approach, the by the course participants to address the severe course participants
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