Why do we abandon great design when it is for ’the elderly'? | Jeremy Myerson | TEDxWhitehall

With populations around the world aging rapidly, we need to re-think how we design for older people. We can keep older people safe, but trapped in gilded cages. Or we can design to keep them active and fully integrated in society. Professor of Design Jeremy Myerson makes a powerful case for the latter.
Jeremy Myerson is a design writer and academic. He is the Helen Hamlyn Professor of Design at the Royal College of Art, a Visiting Fellow in the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at the University of Oxford, and Director of the WORKTECH Academy, a global knowledge network on the future of work. He co-founded the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the RCA in 1999 and was its director for 16 years, helping to pioneer the practice of inclusive design in response to population ageing. He is the author of many books on design and innovation, and is a former editor of Creative Review, DesignWeek and World Architecture. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@thecarentsroom5256]

This is a fabulous lecture. Nectar yo our ears. Please please please can Jeremy's aspirations and questions become mainstream and give us all hope for a stylish future. Well worth a watch and certainly confirms that others share our cries that "ageing doesn't need to be grey!"

[@BoomingEncore]

What a great talk! Challenges our current thinking and attitudes about aging and design.

[@37macherie00]

Awesome talk, hopefully it'll get more views

[@estate_renewal_project_2015]

That's because they were designed for function by e.g. physios and Occupational Therapists, also they are provided free by the NHS or through Social services budgets.

[@brega6286]

Poor and unsafe design causes elders to have to relocate to nursing homes prematurely.

[@rkp3909]

10:33 migrant labour? what is wrong with migrant labour
?

[@37macherie00]

exactly. ugh, i wish Japan wasn't so rife with nationalism right now...

[@razsbags]

Yes Yes Yes Worldwide! Seniors design is mostly bland & boring.