CSPA 3rd Semester Students Observed the International Day of Older Persons

On December 14, 1990, following up the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, the UN General Assembly made October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons. The day has since been observed globally to sensitise people to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century, to recognize the contributions of older persons and to examine issues that affect their lives.

As part of our ongoing endeavour to sensitise our budding architects to the needs of the ‘not so fortunate’ sections of our society and to develop appropriately sensitive architecture, the 3rd sem B.Arch. students have been assigned a design project for an “Old Age Home”. An essential stage in the process was a live case study of the “Kartar Aasra”, an old-age home for the destitute which is located near the Lake Club, Chandigarh. Students interacted with the inmates to understand their physical and emotional needs so that the same could be translated into aspects of functionality, user requirements, user sensitivity, spatial segregations, and indoor-outdoor relationships of the spaces. The students also identified other user groups and stakeholders such as the management, support staff, administrative staff, visitors, volunteers and interviewed them to have an idea about their daily routine life and kind of spaces required or being used by them. The study widened the perspective of the students.

The group included faculty members Shruti Behera, Kanika Narwal and Manisha Jaidka.