Aging, Independently

AIA New York’s Design for Aging committee hosted urbanists and architects Melissa Q. Navarra, Tai-Li Lee, and Dr. Esteban Beita Solano to explore the living patterns of senior citizens in Manila, Taipei, and Tokyo. Navarra, whose work focuses on urban poverty, explained that existing government programs to move residents of informal settlements into more secure housing are not designed with multigenerational households in mind. Lee built on the ways that urban development regimes have historically managed senior living, where postwar apartments in Taipei offer housing security but lack elevators and other amenities. Facing high costs of living and lacking better options, many residents remain in such imperfect situations. Solano agreed that high costs of land and housing are also problems for seniors in Tokyo, but he sees the ubiquity and reliability of transit as well as a culture of respect and assistance as factors in the high quality of living enjoyed by the elderly there. The Q&A pivoted the focus of the discussion to New York City: in the words of moderator Ruth Finkelstein, “We have a lot to learn from each other if we stop exoticizing each other’s approaches.”