Jerome is a Korean-Canadian with a background in Interior Architecture. The experience he gained after living in five global cities, has allowed him to have a multifaceted understanding of culture, urban space and its architectural design. The emphasis of his study has always been the correlation between space and life beyond space. He has experience working for residential design firms and he is looking forward to furthering that practice after his time at SAIC.
Urban Inter-Generational Living Strategy for Upcoming Demographic Shift
“Advanced forms of urban multi generational housing can reinvent how we understand family structure and its housing type.”
The goal of this project is to explore and redefine the elder-friendly housing in an urban settings with inter-generational living as the primary strategy. As the world population of seniors is projected to surge, increasing from 530.5 million in 2010 to 1.5 billion in 2050, it is crucial to find a strategy to address the needs and demands of these foreseeable demographics. The family unit is the smallest structure of our society. A considerable body of research indicates that social engagement has a positive impact on health, longevity and even survival after adverse health events. This indicates the importance of adequate social engagement and support amongst kinship networks. This importance of kinship, in the framework of social interaction for one’s well-being, can be best influenced in the area of inter-generational living. While families are of obvious importance to life in older age, there are various ways one generation can support another in a family. For this reason, I believe urban multi-generational housing is a perfect platform for reevaluating and transforming the value of family in today’s society.
