The Role of an Architect in Creating the Image of an Elderly-Friendly Sustainable Smart City

Abstract

The idea of sustainable smart city has extensive scientific literature where the architects’ role in designing built environments, being a physical platform for implementing “elderly-friendly” solutions, is poorly referenced. The main objective of the article is to define the role of architects in creating the image of sustainable smart cities, focusing on senior citizens. The paper surveys the available literature on the subject and describes pilot studies carried out at the indicative level among the students of one of architecture faculties in Poland, based on the design thinking method. The studies demonstrate how students imagine intelligent elderly-friendly cities in the future from the architects’ perspective. In addition, examples of other studies with the students of that faculty are presented. Following the analyses combining the conclusions of research and pilot studies with the students, a tabular summary of the architects’ tasks and roles were provided—these were divided into six building blocks of a smart city and as a reference to the elements shaping the image of cities, districts and buildings. This is a new, innovative classification of architectural issues. The perspectives for further desk research and field participatory research were indicated, which should, in the future, translate into a novel holistic approach to the problem.

Design Thinking for Innovation in Sustainable Built Environments and the Integration of an Inclusive Foresight and Design Thinking Framework

“…There are four papers directly related to smart buildings: (1) a study of the role of architects in creating the image of an elderly-friendly sustainable smart city using the DT method [29]; (2) a conceptualization of smart buildings that provides new service opportunities, guided by a DT approach [44]; (3) a new approach for eliciting and defining problems for sustainability-oriented innovation using the DT and systemsmapping approaches [49]; and (4) the design of smart building operations and maintenance management service systems using service design and systems DT as a guide [51].…”

Strategy in smart cities and social inclusion of the elderly

“…Resultan de gran importancia las alianzas entre el sector público y el privado, y que estos no vean por sus propios intereses o monopolicen la tecnología por parte de las empresas o el gobierno, sino que sean de acceso público. Además, es necesario contar con plataformas web y aplicaciones digitales que consideren la inclusión de los adultos mayores para que se familiaricen con los espacios y sirvan de ayuda dentro de los hogares y fuera de ellos (Rizzo & Deserti, 2014;Tymkiewicz, 2019;Yamamoto et al, 2010). Tymkiewicz (2019) afirma que, para que una ciudad sea amigable, necesita reunir los siguientes puntos establecidos por la Organización Mundial de la Salud:  La diversidad de los adultos mayores.…”

“…No es una tarea imposible de realizar; sin embargo, mientras persistan los intereses personales de los gobiernos, así como de las empresas líderes en ciertos sectores tecnológicos, no se logrará el mínimo cambio para proporcionar los entornos adecuados. La tecnología puesta a la disposición de los adultos mayores ofrece una amplia información inalámbrica (Pulli et al, 2012;Tymkiewicz, 2019), que puede ser utilizada para la toma de decisiones en favor de este grupo. Yamamoto (2010), por su parte, explica los pros y los contras de las aplicaciones tecnológicas que en ocasiones limitan la vida cotidiana; por ejemplo: el servicio de comida a domicilio que promueve la pasividad del adulto al no comprar los suministros ni participar en su preparación, y que al no existir esa interacción, se genera un aislamiento social que causa tristeza y ansiedad, además de afectar la salud física, mental y emocional del individuo.…”

Architecture and Engineering: The Challenges—Trends—Achievements

“…The author demands that the image be created primarily by architects. He claims that the roles and tasks faced by architects change, which he highlighted in his article [4]. He refers to the so-called six building blocks of a smart city.…”