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Have you ever wondered what the age of 40 would look like in a few minutes?
According to census data, 20% of US residents will be 65 or older. Such figures are part of what motivates the use of age simulation suits, which allow designers to experience the physical handicaps of old age while navigating in public spaces.
Samantha Flores and Mike Steiner with the New York-based architecture firm Corgan, everyone has donned the suit – which weighs about 30 pounds and adds four simulated decades – in public places like an airport to better understand the challenges that older adults face when their movements.
According to them, the idea behind the experience is to apply this first-hand understanding to make the design of their buildings more empathic and more accessible.
"One of the things we really took away from the staff who went through the scenarios is that having hearing and vision loss is really isolating," Steiner said. Here NowThat's Robin Young. "So even though I was at the airport [and] I had no flight to take, I did not understand half of the ads. The losses you suffer can be a little overwhelming. "
The combination called GERT – abbreviation of gerontology, study of aging – is manufactured by a German company and includes weighted velcro components that attach to the chest, arms, hands and legs of the wearer. Then come headphones inducing hearing loss, a neck brace, a pair of glasses to simulate a visual impairment and, finally, shoe covers to the feet intended to evoke a feeling of nervous loss in the extremities.
"The simple fact of knowing that it really helps you understand a little more empathy every time you design," says Flores.
Highlights of the interview
On the operation of the combination
Mike Steiner: "It's a series of straps that reduce your mobility and a series of weights that simulate what happens when you get older, you actually lose muscle mass, so your body feels heavier. elbow patches that mimic a reduced movement in my body. " elbow. As you age, you lose dexterity and fingers, so these gloves simulate the loss of dexterity.
"We have weights at the ends, both at the wrists and ankles, so it helps your body feel as if your limbs are heavier, and under my shoes is what's called overshoes." These simulate a part of the you lose the nervous context that you have at the bottom of your feet and which indicates you where is the ground.
"These glasses simulate a general loss of vision. [The headphones,] As the hearing loss continues, you can hear less and less. The suit itself weighs about 30 pounds, then weighs about 5 pounds on each wrist and 10 pounds on each leg. "
On things that they have encountered while wearing the suit at the Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport
Samantha Flores: "The first thing I noticed was that it takes longer to get to different places, so the need to rest and to sit down has a huge impact: having more benches, more seating to sit in. Generally, we design these halls as open spaces allowing many people to move, but there is not really a place where hang on if you have lost your balance or if you just need a moment of rest. "
On the tendency of the elderly to look at the floor when navigating a building
Steiner: "The shine of the ground tends to grab the attention of people, people who have fallen once are much more focused on not falling back.Of course, as architects, we are very aware transition changes, because it's a code requirement.But knowing that there will be circumstances in which we will need to use ramps, we want to be very aware that these are delimited in the best way we can, so that they do not take people by surprise. "
"I was a little shy, because it reduces your speed, it makes you feel like you're about to be crushed."
Samantha Flores, on her experience wearing the costume
Using escalators while wearing the suit
Flores: "When we tried the combination of age at the airport, it was [was] difficult to climb the escalator if it is a two-step escalator. So we started recommending three-step escalators in all of our public spaces at airports. This means that it gives you an extra step that is flat before you start going down. "
How it feels to wear the costume
Flores: "I was a little shy, because it reduces your speed, which makes you feel like you're about to be crushed."
If wearing the suit has changed their way of seeing the challenges that older people face just to get around
Steiner: "Somehow – and I say it because I'm lucky to have a family that has had a lot of people in the 90's to the hundreds." Something like this has made more accessible to our industry. "
Flores: "Having a friend with multiple sclerosis and understanding that traveling with us is a challenge, she has to plan months in advance, she is not in a wheelchair, she does not have a wheelchair. She has a disability that people simply do not understand. "
Marcelle Hutchins produced this interview and edited it for broadcast with Robin Young and Todd Mundt. Jack Mitchell has adapted it for the Web.
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