The second in a series of guest posts from Matthew Hargreaves on his age friendly architecture project in Chorlton, Manchester.

To briefly recap, my project over the course of this academic year is looking at the regeneration of the South Manchester ward of Chorlton, and how ‘Age-Friendly’ a place it is to live now and in the future.  As part of this, I will propose my own architectural ideas for the area.  These will be based on consultation from the often overlooked members of the community, younger and older people, to ensure my designs for Chorlton accommodate the needs of people of all ages.

In my previous blog, I discussed how the use of a short film I had made proved to be a successful technique with which to provoke discussion about issues regarding age-friendliness.  To engage with some of the younger and older residents of Chorlton, I wanted to create an interesting situation again, to create a comfortable environment in which people would share their views about the place they live in.  From talking to people about the issues that matter to people in Chorlton, it would provide me with the information and local knowledge I believe is necessary in order to design an architectural proposition that responds to local needs.

To gather this information I held two consultation events in the area, one focused towards the views of younger people, one towards those of older people.   The objective of the event was simple, to ensure people of all ages and abilities could participate, which was simply to write or draw on a map of the area.  On these maps, titled ‘Your Chorlton’, and ‘Your Ideal Chorlton’, I asked participants to share their thoughts and opinions on places they currently like to go to, and suggest places they would like to go to if the facilities were there.

Photographs from the consultation events.  Left: with younger people at the shopping precinct.  Right: with older people at a local community group

 This activity proved to be a successful method to have a conversation with people and talk about the place they live and how it could be improved, with the map acting as a way of recording the interaction.  With both events I gathered a wide range of comments from both age groups.  Comments ranged from the small scale and pragmatic, “Shops need better wheelchair access”, the larger and more ambitious, “Move police station and bus station”, to the humorous, as one young boy wrote, “Better toilets [in the leisure centre], every time I go in there, there’s a dump on the floor :S ”.  

Comments gathered from older residents

From this large number of comments, I produced a series of drawings to visualise the data I received, and to compare the information between the two consultations.  This made it easier for me to communicate the findings to other people, but also revealed the similarities and differences between younger and older perceptions in Chorlton.  In this visualisation below for instance, I represented all of the comments using coloured circles, with green showing positive comments and red showing negative comments, to show an overall ‘perception map’ of Chorlton. This made clear how people feel about the area they live, where I learnt what places people like (i.e. to be retained), and what places they don’t (i.e. places that could be improved).  What is also interesting to note from these events, is that many of the suggested improvements to the area were mentioned in both consultations, showing that issues affecting younger people can also affect older people.  This overlap is apparent in the collage visualisation I made (click on link in next paragraph), which shows the various facilities that people suggested in the ‘Your Ideal Chorlton’ consultation.

Here, we see the facilities suggested by younger people with those from older people, and it is possible to see a considerable overlap between the two in the middle.  As with my initial analysis of the site, it is interesting to see how the issues that affect younger and older people have many similarities.  By producing this image, I now had a strong visual starting point from which to understand what my proposed architectural program should be, to help inform the development of my design.

These events show how it is important to consult people to discover what the real needs of people are, relative to where they live.  It has made me aware of the issues of younger and older residents specific to Chorlton, issues that would likely have been overlooked with more conventional means of practicing architecture.   By having this better understanding of the area, from the often unheard or overlooked members of the community, from an architectural perspective I am now better placed to produce proposals for Chorlton that responds to the needs of all ages.

Leeds Older People’s Forum is working with The Young Foundation (THYF) as a partner in their digital activism programme. Sophie Hostick-Boakye from TYF guest posts about it for us here.  

Activism /’aktɪvɪz(ə)m/ n. the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.

Activism can be based around a locality, common interest, or both. It could be targeting governments, businesses, local people, or everyone. It may be focused on drumming up support, raising money, increasing awareness, mobilising protestors or inciting change. Or it could be focused on a range of all of these aspects.

In the past, activism typically had to take place in physical spaces and in physical ways, such as paper petitions and demonstrations. However, the growth of the internet, social media and mobile technology has allowed people the world over to take part in civic action quickly, easily and from the comfort of their own homes.

The Young Foundation has started working with Leeds Older People’s Forum as part of the Building Local Activism project funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s People Powered Change activities. We are working with the Forum to help the Scanning the Horizon group to develop its campaigns, using digital tools as a major implement in lobbying for change locally.

But how can the internet be used to campaign?

There are a whole host of campaigns in action using a plethora of digital tools to get messages out and issues addressed. Here I outline a range of campaigns using a variety of tools.

Social Media sites

Some campaigns primarily take advantage of popular social media websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to build a community of campaigners who can add their voice to a campaign. Some of these aim to galvanise people to take action both online and offline wherever they are; others ask for primarily for online participation.  

One of the most recent and publicised examples of social media being used to organise national physical action is that of the Arab Spring Uprising. Information on public protests and stories of state oppression, police brutality and unrest were shared on Facebook and Twitter to help mobilise the masses and accelerate social protest.

Other campaigns use social media to highlight a concern and aim to get citizens involved in primarily online campaigning activity. For example, Turn Your Back on Page 3 makes use of Facebook to ask contacts to expose instances of the media hyper-sexualising women and to post pictures to Facebook of them turning their backs on page 3.

Beatbullying, a charity which empowers young people to stand up against bullying, used YouTube in 2008 as part of The Big Stand campaign. It called for people to make their own anti-bullying statements and upload them to YouTube before joining their friends and classmates to stand up as a sign of defiance against bullying.

Tailored websites

Other campaigns use tailored websites to get people involved in campaigning. For example, Leonard Cheshire Disability has set up the Action for Access campaign and developed a website to gather campaigners’ access experiences.

Campaigners complete surveys of their access experiences of shops, council offices and public transport, etc. before uploading their survey results to the website. This generates an accessibility star rating of the venue/service visible to all users, allowing campaigners to lobby for better access where necessary. Campaigners can also use their smart phones to complete surveys on the go, maximising the methods for people to get involved.

Online petitioning

While 20 years ago petitioners would collect signatures on paper, today petition websites bring citizens together online to create a mass movement for change. 38 Degrees brings together over 800,000 UK citizens to sign petitions on issues such as health reform and confusing energy billing.

In 2004, the government set up an online petitioning website (now called e-petitions) which allows individuals to start and sign up to campaigns to influence government policy. Where petitions gain more that 100,000 signatures the issue becomes eligible for debate in the House of Commons.

Community websites

There is an abundance of hyper-local community websites across the country. Leeds is home to numerous hyper-local sites, including South Leeds Life and Kirkstall Online. Some act as online directories and forums for local discussions, others as a place to discuss local issues that members want to address.

Other community websites have been developed to bring local people together to lobby decision makers on very specific issues. For example, the Elephant Amenity Network (London) is a hyper-local network of people and businesses campaigning against the council’s regeneration plans and to save local shops, social housing and open space. Updates and events are shared online and online maps and valuation tools have been used to map and value the urban forest of a local estate at £11.7m. Campaigners are trying to save the forest and prevent further damage to and felling of trees.

With a vast array of web tools, social media sites and mobile technology now available, digital technology can play a major role in all types of campaigns. However, using a variety of tools that are relevant to the campaign, and those who it is hoped will be active in it, is important in order to increase the campaign’s success and impact.

This is what we are hoping for in our work with Leeds Older People’s Forum. A collaboration with Media Trust has been set up to support a team of older people at the Forum to develop the skills and confidence needed to use social media tools and create a campaigning website reporting on issues of concern.

For more information on the project please contact Rachel Cooper: rachel@opforum.org.uk , or follow @leedsopf for regular updates. 

2011 finished on a real high when we participated in week long Yorkshire Evening Post feature about ageing in Leeds. This was quickly followed, on Christmas Eve, with an article about our City Centre Group. If you missed the articles here they are again (where they appeared online):

Leeds - A forgotten generation? Debt of gratitude in wake of crisis

Leeds - A forgotten generation? Money matters as authorities face an age-old problem

Leeds - A Forgotten Generation? The invisible but invaluable

OAP-unfriendly Leeds ‘losing out on grey pound’

We have a packed programme to kick off the new year:

Services for Older People

1. Free Will Writing Clinic for 50+’s

We are teaming up with law firm Ford and Warren to provide this new free service. Available in central Leeds in February, full details will be released shortly. If the pilot is successful we will continue to run it.

2. Elderly Debt Management Service

Demand continues to grow for this service. With  490 home visits made last year and a big increase in demand we expect this year to be another busy one.

Member Training and Support

3. Social Media Training for Member Organisations

A free one day session, ‘Hitting the Headlines’, in association with the Media Trust. This session will enable organisations to effectively use social media to raise their profile. Taking place on January 31st, for more information and booking click here

4. Neighbourhood Network Scheme Conference

The schemes account for approximately a third of LOPF’s membership. Some of these schemes asked us to organise a conference as an opportunity for them all to come together and explore issues of comment interest. This will take place on March 15th, details to follow shortly.

Information

5. LOPF Fortnightly News

A big success in 2011, the newly introduced e-bulletin achieved an active readership more than double the global average for e-newsletters. Keep reading for the latest news in 2012. 

6. Leeds, A City for All Ages - Curated Blog

This blog, launched late 2011, is a space for discussion and debate on ageing issues. We have a variety of contributors lined up for 2012. They are from across the country and offer a wide variety of topics but are relevant to issues we are concerned with here in Leeds.

 7. LOPF AGM

Our next AGM is on March 1st at Leeds Church Institute. Come along and find out more about what we have been up to and our plans for the year ahead. 

Strengthening the Voice of Older People and Older People’s Organisations in Leeds

8. Strategic Work

A core part of what we do - being the voice of older people and our member organisations in strategic planning - we expect the following to on the agenda at the beginning of 2012: Ageing Well Framework, Adult Health and Social Care Transformation, Intergenerational working, Age Friendly Cities and Clinical Commissioning Groups. 

9. Tour of Members

Towards the end of last year we began a round of visits to our members, there is just no substitute for a one-to-one conversation in the area a member is based in. It’s a good way for us to get direction from our members. Expect to see this continue throughout 2012.

10. ActivistSMS

Text messaging recently celebrated its 20th birthday. Over that time it has grown to become the most widely used social media tool. We are working with the Young Foundation on developing a free tool which anyone can use to contact and organise groups of people. The prototyping will take place in January. We’ll let you know when it launches. 

11. Flash Dance

Postponed from last year due to the weather expect to see people across all generations dancing together in central Leeds. As its a flash mob obviously the date, time and locations are currently secret but it will happen sometime between now and the end of March. 

12. Social Media Training for Older People 

A series of four social media training sessions for older people taking place throughout February. The training will develop skills and confidence in a range of social media tools to enable older people to become social reporters in their communities. For more details and booking here. 

Right, now I’ve scared myself silly with all the things we are up to over the next three months. Wishing you all the best for 2012. 

Rachel.

Professor Graham Mulley

In recent years, care homes have been branded as a national disgrace, working in a care home has been  seen as a poor job and few older people look forward to the prospect of living in a care home. This picture is unbalanced and unfair: care homes in the UK have many positive attributes.  Though most care home staff are poorly paid and are often poorly regarded, most are committed to providing good care and the majority do a lot of sensitive and skilled work.

Care Homes: The Facts

450,000 older people live in care homes in the UK.  100 people are admitted to care homes each day.

You have a 1 in 3 chance of being admitted into a care home if you are a woman, the odds drop to 1 in 6 for older men.

Dementia and stroke are the two main medical reasons for being admitted into a care home

It costs £650 per week on average to be in a nursing home

50% of people die within 6 months of being admitted into a care home

1 million staff are employed in care homes in the UK, the rate staff turnover is 12% (down from 19% nine years ago)

80% of care home workers are female, many care home workers earn the minimum wage (those with an NVQ Level 2 earn abot £6.50 an hour and  there is curently very little financial incentive in becoming more skilled).

History

There is evidence that some of the earliest examples of “care homes” was in Egypt in 375 A.D.  Early care was in monastaries and was usually given by monks (though there were a few examples of secular care homes in Byzantium). Following the dissolution of the monastaries in Britain in the 16^th century, care for old and infirm people declined drastically.  Gradually local parishes began to provide care for the most needy people.  In Victorian times, much care took place in Workhouses. Some of the current negativity around care homes stems from the stigma attached to being in a workhouse.

In the 1970s there were many long term care wards in hospitals, which offered regular medical and nursing care and were free to the patients.  This changed in the 1980s, when long-term care was moved out of hospital and most was taken on by the private sector. Most of  the long-term wards were closed.  The closing of long-term wards and moving people into care homes meant that many old people who needed comprehensive care became detached from the NHS and as a result became ‘locked out’ of the system.

Demography & Politics

Most people who live in care are aged 85+

The number of people aged 85+ will double over the next 20 years

There has been a big increase in the number of BME elders

1 million people aged over 65 are lonely

There are more obese older people needing care and specialised equipment.

Politicians have traditionally wanted long-term care on the cheap.

Surprises

The Royal College of Nursing did research which found that majority of nurses working in nursing homes were deeply committed, highly motivated and enjoyed working with older people.

A recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) report said that 77% of UK care homes were “good” or “excellent”.

80% of UK care home staff now have NVQ qulifications (whereas ten years ago only 20% had these qualifications).

Last year only 34 care homes were closed due to poor standards - out of a total of 34,000 (CQC figures).

Vision

Nobody should go into a care home without having had a comprehensive assessment by a specialist inter-disciplinary team:  many apparent “social problems”are medical problems in disguise (such as falling) and can potentially be treated and sometimes reversed.

Care homes should ideally have their own dedicated GP and Pharmacis.  Geriatricians should be allocated to care homes.  There is a need to cut down on the number of inspectors and improvements made in the design of homes.

Care home residents have few opportunities to be useful and this should be addressed.  More homes could set up residents’ committees, for example.  Homes need to look at new ways of involving more volunteers and unemployed young people.

Homes are starting to specialise in specific conditions (e.g. dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease). This could be developed further.

Pay and conditions for staff need to be improved.

This post is based on a talk by Professor Graham Mulley, guest speaker at the last Forum meeting

This is a re-post from back in October this year. We didn’t have the blog site then but the event is relevant to the city of all ages work so it makes sense to highlight it again here.

Post by Margaret Bell (Carers Leeds), Jayne Forster (South Leeds Live at Home Scheme) and Rachel Cooper (LOPF)

Each year, Leeds Older People’s Forum, its partners, members and older people in Leeds come together to celebrate the UN International Day of Older People.

The vision behind the International Day of Older People as stated by the World Health Organisation:

“A demographic revolution is underway throughout the world. Today, world-wide, there are around 600 million persons aged 60 years and over; this total will double by 2025 and will reach virtually two billion by 2050 - the vast majority of them in the developing world. In our fast ageing world, older people will increasingly play a critical role - through volunteer work, transmitting experience and knowledge, helping their families with caring responsibilities and increasing their participation in the paid labour force. Already now, older persons make major contributions to society.”

This year we changed our usual main event format, making it a grand finale event, to follow the community events and to enable us to join in with annual Leeds event: Light Night. The overarching aim of the Forum is to work towards Leeds being ‘a city for all ages’. One of our concerns, as informed by our members and older people, is that the city centre is aimed at young people.

There are many reasons that older people might not come into the city centre, especially at certain times, they are factors such as; transport, seating, paving, toilet facilities, personal safety and having activities on that older people want to go to. We wanted to use the opportunity Light Night provided to have a visible presence of older people in the city centre during the evening and to give more people an opportunity to share the event.

 There isn’t necessarily a broader public awareness about these issues, as can be seen by the comments section on the Culture Vultures website blog post on the events (see here: http://theculturevulture.co.uk/blog/speakerscorner/too-old-for-leeds-city-centre/ )

Community Events

This year we are trying to both take events to people’s neighbourhoods and bring people into the city. 30 different community events, in 19 different areas of Leeds will take place over a period of 9 days in the run up to the Grand Finale event on the 7^th October. An estimated 1068 older people participated in the activities. The community events include such activities as; curling, a heritage tour, reminiscence, live music, Indian folk dancing, Bollywood movies, Zumba, a Tea dance, Wii gaming, Cooking, Line dancing, Tai Chi, and Yoga.

Organisations applying for an IDOP small grant often use it as an opportunity to give older people a chance to try out new activities. This year one of the activities in the programme getting lots of interest was the Kurling at South Leeds Live at home Scheme. Jayne Forster, South Leeds Live at Home Scheme tells us more about it….

Kurling at South Leeds Live at Home Scheme

At South Leeds Live at home Scheme, Kurling is the latest craze!

Kurling is a form of the original curling game, but adapted so that it can be played indoors on any smooth, flat surface, such as a community centre, rather than on ice and importantly the game can be played by both able-bodied and disabled people of all ages.

Very similar to bowls, a circular target is placed on the floor and then players take it in turns to either ‘push’ the stone with a telescopic ‘pusher’ or roll it by hand on the floor, or for those less able they can roll it down a ramp from a seated position. The aim is to try and knock their opponent’s stone out of the way and into the highest score on the circular target. Its great fun and our members really love playing it and have a great laugh! Its great exercise for older people and as previously mentioned it can be played from a standing or seated position, so nobody is left out!

We first heard of kurling at a meeting with one of the other Live at Home schemes in Newcastle who had started playing it and commented on how successful it was in their scheme, so we decided to invest in some equipment and give it a go!

You don’t need a big space to play, but it has to be a smooth floor and not carpeted. We currently hold curling sessions once a month at Potterdale Day Centre and play on an ad hoc basis at our friendship clubs. We’re currently looking at holding a regular Kurling session on a weekly basis and establishing a team and you never know we may even develop a Kurling League!

Grand Finale

Margaret Bell, Carers Leeds, attended the whole event and was kind enough to agree to be our reporter. Here is her response to the event.

Friday 7th October was the Grand Finale of the International Day of Older People 2011. There had been many events throughout the city prior to Friday but this was the Grand Finale with a full programme starting with Silver ‘70’s from 2pm-8pm in Leeds Library Exhibition Space.  On display was a comprehensive selection of books and old newspapers to remind visitors of the ‘70’s decade. There were pictures of music groups including Abba, films ‘Diamonds are Forever’, ‘Star wars’, ‘Grease’ and Clint Eastwoods ‘Play Misty for Me’.  On the sporting front a reminder that Leeds United made a draw 2-2 in the F.A. Cup Final only to lose in the replay 1-2. For shopping Schofields and Lewis’s were popular department stores where most things could be bought.

The Queen’s Silver Jubilee caused much excitement with reminders of street parties and excursions to London by train and coach. On a more sombre note was the ‘winter of discontent’ and the discomfort and problems caused nationally.

Games, toys, clothes, personal photos  and souveniers of the Silver Jubilee were on display as were examples of the first decimal coins for it was in the ‘70’s that the ‘new coinage’ was introduced. Enthusiastic library staff were on hand to talk to visitors and to invite them to record their memories of that decade for future library use.  This was popular with those who were ‘youngsters’ at the time.

Refreshments available at the Library had a ‘70’s theme, reminding everyone of the food available at the time. A ‘70’s quiz had 9 categories including politics, home/decor (remember the avocado bathroom?) fashion (platform shoes) and food (Smash & Angel Delight). There was laughter and banter as Wesley Grant read out the answers.

From 4 to 5pm there was a Guided Tour of Leeds Civic Hall through the impressive Long Hall next to the Banqueting Room. This included a talk about the many and various ‘city treasures’ of silverware housed in glass cases, which run the full length of the hall. Included in the exhibition are war medals, which have been donated.

The tour continued with a visit to the Council Chamber where Mark Lenton gave an interesting and informative talk, pointing out that there are no lights in the chamber.  The Gladys Roberts and Jack Anderson Awards were presented by last years’ Lord Mayor Cllr Jim McKenna who was accompanied by his wife Cllr Andrea McKenna and Cllr Lucinda Yeadon, Exec. Board Member for Adult Social Care.

The winner of the Gladys Roberts Award was Wilfred Woodhouse with runners up Anne Veitch and Tak Lun Yung.
The Jack Anderson Award winner was Tom Mooney, runners up being Barbara & Ken Salter and Rose Evans.

The Guided mini-tour of Light Night events started at 5.30pm outside Central Library with Rachel and guides leading groups while Sean was busy with camera recording people and events as they were happening. The mini-tour led to Leeds Town Hall and the Bridewell Corridor and Victorian Cells in the forgotten depths of the Town Hall. Crowds of people of all ages patiently and slowly walked on flag floors along the cold and dimly lit corridor to the two cells which had amazingly been transformed. The Craft Garden showed exciting gardens fashioned by the talents of craft artists of Leeds Craft Club. Quite an experience!

Judging from the number of people in the city centre, Light Night and the International Day of Older People was fun, enjoyable and a successful event. To everyone involved in the preparations - THANK YOU.

There were no lengthy feedback forms at this event. We rang a number of attendees and members that brought groups of their members along. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive:

“Lovely, everyone from Caring Together in Woodhouse and Little London really, really enjoyed it…. It was a special event, some of our group got dressed up for their evening out, one of our members said that they couldn’t remember the last time they were in the city centre at that time in the evening. Organising a trip to Light Night sent the message to older people that they were wanted to be part of it.”

Lisa Hutton, Caring Together in Woodhouse and Little London

“It was a great sight to come out of the Leeds Central Library in the evening and see lots of older people, it’s not something that you normally see”

Ann Day, Leeds Libraries

“Excellent, everyone really enjoyed it, they had never been in the Town Hall or council chambers in the Civic Hall and don’t often get to go out in the evening.”

Chand Singh, Sikh Elders

IDOP – Leeds 2012

Planning for next years event is already underway. As with this year expect the  combination of city – wide community events and centrally held main event but with a few surprises thrown in. The focus will be the same – bring people together to celebrate older people in our city. We are exploring links between IDOP and European Year of Active Ageing for 2012.   

There will also be an opportunity to view the Silver 70s exhibition during January.

Lets kick off with our first post which comes from guest blogger, Matthew Hargreaves, from Manchester School of Architecture.

At the end of September LOPF Volunteer Miranda Miller and I attended an afternoon of mini workshops collectively called ‘Sharing the City’ . We were impressed with the involvement of the community in urban design and by such creative means at that. The project gives architecture students insights into the needs of all ages. Its great to see this happening in a field other than social work/care.

Chorlton, a ward of Manchester located south of the city centre, is currently in a process of regeneration as part of Manchester Council’s Strategic Regeneration Strategy for the city.  In Chorlton, younger and older people (using the council’s definitions for these groups; 12-24 for younger people, 50+ for older people) represents almost 50% of the ward’s population.  In fact, if you include the ages from 0-11 as well, it is 50%.  This proportion of younger and older people is true for most of Manchester and the UK.  It is imperative therefore, that the needs of half the population are fairly represented with respect to the planned regeneration of Manchester’s Wards and the architectural proposals related to it.  This is especially pertinent, as last year Manchester became a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Network of Age Friendly Cities.

I am an architecture student in the final year of my postgraduate architecture degree (BArch) at the Manchester School of Architecture, and am part of the msa-p unit.  I have chosen to focus on this issue, and in particular the Manchester ward of Chorlton, for my studio design work until May 2012.  My project is called ‘Chorlton for all Ages’.

I began this project by firstly trying to understand what makes cities good places to live for younger and older people, or in other words what makes a city ‘Age Friendly’.  There are a number of terminologies that are used to describe such places, examples being ‘Age Friendly’, ‘City for all Ages’ or ‘Living City’.  There is also a wide range of information available that explores what these factors are, two good examples being the World Health Organisation’s ‘Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide’, which predominantly focuses on factors for older  people, and UNICEFs information on ‘Child Friendly Cities’.  Although there are various terms given to such places, they cover much of the same ground, and it is also apparent that there is a lot of crossover between what makes a city ‘friendly’ for younger people and older people.  In the image shown:

(click here to open this pic as a pdf)

I have shown links between what makes a city ‘Child-Friendly’ and what makes it ‘Age-Friendly’, and it is clear that the issues related to urban design and city planning are almost the same for both age groups.  For example, pleasant outdoor spaces in urban environments are particularly important for both age groups; for younger people they are a place to hang out or do activities such as skating, where for older people they are important spaces to rest and can have a positive impact on wellbeing.

With this better understanding of Age-friendliness, I carried out site analysis of Chorlton, focussing on factors that are important for younger and older people.  This covered a range of issues including green spaces, public transport, car parking, house prices, health services and places to rest (pictured).   

(click here to open this pic as a pdf)

As part of my analysis of Chorlton and with particular attention to the existing public spaces, I also made a short film which acted as an easy to understand way of showing how some of these spaces are currently neglected.  The film used a playful mix of chalk drawings and stop motion animation to highlight some of the poor public spaces and obstacles in the area.  This video has since been shown to residents and was an accessible means to communicate some of the problems in Chorlton, and acted as a catalyst to provoke further debate on the subject.

At this stage in my project, I am in the process of gathering opinions and ideas by engaging and talking to residents of Chorlton from these often ignored age groups. Using innovative techniques, such as showing a short film to encourage discussion, can help draw out information from people that traditional ways of practicing architecture may overlook.  This draws from the ethos of my unit at the Manchester School of Architecture, msa-p, and previous projects where I have employed similar techniques. By developing my project having a continuous two-way dialogue with the younger and older people I am designing for, my final goal is to produce a design for the Chorlton District Centre that is truly made for all ages.

Well welcome! This blog, as you can see, is looking a little rough and ready on the looks front at the moment. Its going to stay that way for a little longer whilst we get rolling with some great, interesting content. We’ll spruce it up in due course as our journey with the Young Foundation, as part of their ‘Digital Activism’ programme (more on that soon), progresses. 

This is a place for debate on tackling the issues faced by people 60+ in Leeds, and; to showcase some of the great work going on in Leeds on beyond.