It would be easy to come up with a cynical marketing strategy targeting senior citizens when one thinks of the potential market they represent and will represent in the future in Western societies.  Life expectancy is now 82 years for women and 78 years for men, an increase of 10 years in the span of one generation.  Our dear old pensioners hold 75% of stocks and shares, dominate the income scale and have the lowest amount of debt.  Those sectors of the economy related to the home have all the more reason to take interest in this area because furniture and the other appliances that constitute our everyday surroundings are designed to suit people’s gestures and postures and increase their comfort, their wellbeing and their pleasure.  This statement is all the more true when a person is affected by handicap.  Although practical solutions exist, many of them are not adapted to the context in which they are put to use, especially the physiological context.  The effect of the hospital bed installed in your grandmother’s house is first of all traumatic before it can provide the services you expect of it.  Therefore isn’t it time that all the relevant actors joined forces to achieve two objectives: to design products that satisfy the practical needs of the person who uses them and to make them attractive so that they can be integrated into this person’s living space (reflecting their personality and bearing witness to the course of their life)?  This is where design comes into its own, since the formal expression of this discipline has to be the synthesis of function and emotion.  It is probably unnecessary to remind readers that the aesthetic codes of a medical environment have nothing in common with those we find in a domestic setting.  Nor that, despite certain misconceptions, senior citizens today are fairly open to contemporary design and can even be remarkably well-informed.  Allow us to predict that whatever is designed for a target audience of the “aches and pains brigade” will also prove of use to younger generations under the proviso that it isn’t connotated as being for the elderly.  After all, mothers with young children in buggies, roller-bladers and people with full shopping trolleys are happy about the lowered kerbs that were originally designed for disabled people in wheelchairs, aren’t they?
There is still so much to be done.
These are fascinating challenges for designers because they question fundamental notions of how things are used.  Rewarding ones too, because the response the designer comes up with brings not just satisfaction but also recognition.  A nice way of expressing the respect we owe our elders.

Gérard Laizé
Managing Director of VIA
 

	VIA and Innovathèque @ Meuble Paris 2008
24th-28th January 2008 Parc des Expositions Paris-Le Bourget, Hall 5, Loft Living www.meuble-paris.net For this inaugural edition of the Meuble Paris show and as part of its annual Designer Grants programme, VIA will present the Carte Blanche it has given the designer Jean-Louis Flechin, its ten Project Grants and its new programme, Partnership Project – Design and Mastery of Art, the result of a collaboration between Philippe Nigro and the Compagnons du Devoir. Along with its programme of Designer Grants, VIA will also present the 2008 edition of its Domovision® book which includes an analysis of the changes taking place in our living environment. Last but not least, VIA and the Innovathèque, who have been partners since their inception, have decided to use the same exhibition space.

Verona, 20th-24th September 2007
www.abitareiltempo.it

For its 22nd edition, the Verona trade fair took us on a journey through space, time and imagination through its exhibitions, installations and stands, each more elaborately stage-managed than the other.  Although Abitare il tempo is less cutting-edge in terms of new products than Milan, it merits its place on the international scene due to its focus on high quality furniture and interior decoration – with a very Italian feel to it.

The biennial show for hotel and catering professionals held in Milan reacts to the trends dictated in April at the furniture show.  Its major advantage is to present concepts that are a careful blend of solutions for interior architecture and marketing.  One more demonstration of the creativity and versatility on the other side of the Alps…

21st-24th November
http://idafij.or.jp

It is logical that a trade fair has to reflect its reference market, the lifestyles that determine the products on offer as well as potential social changes.  The Tokyo International Furniture Fair is a good illustration of this.  It is modest in size (21,355 m2 and 374 exhibitors) but gives a good indication of the local market.
 

The specific requirements senior citizens have to lead comfortable lives are opening up a wide range of areas for design to explore further…  Looking beyond this initial target group, these products’ practical and aesthetic benefits should make them attractive to consumers of every generation.
 

France has more than 12 million people over the age of 60 and the percentage of the over 75s continues to rise.  These senior citizens can “suffer” from cognitive, physiological and social/affective “deficiencies”.  For example, two thirds of people with reduced mobility are elderly.

In some cases it is possible to design products that aim to make up for these deficiencies in one are or another so as to restore a level of performance that is comparable to that of a person in full possession of their faculties.

The manufacturing process developed by Curvy Composites makes it possible to create an extremely light and resilient sandwich board.  But in particular it offers the possibility of having both the composite walls shaped  and all at a price and on a timescale that is incomparable with other processes.  This technique involves injecting a self-expanding PU foam between two plywood walls (pressed to obtain the shape).  Once this foam has polymerised, the final shape of the sandwich board can be fixed.  This material has good sound and heat insulation properties.  It is available in finish in all types of wood.
www.curvycomposites.co.uk

Solar’res is a mixed PU/bioceramic membrane that combines classic waterproof/breathing properties with a capacity to modify infrared wavelengths.  This intelligent textile reflects the energy emitted by the human body, which is 80% infrared waves (IR) and transforms it into far infrared waves (FIR).
These FIR will penetrate deep down into the skin (up to 4 cm) and heat up the body tissue in a similar fashion to the sun but without the harmful ultraviolet radiation.
This technology can be used for therapeutic purposes on any living creature whether man, animal or plant.
www.htconcept.com

The company System Mag produces a wide range of extra-powerful clips and fasteners for textiles: magnetic blocks, articulated magnetic strips, sheaths (for adjustable clips) and zips (long multipoint fasteners).  These products provide interesting alternatives to press studs or velcro strips.
These magnets have an estimated lifespan of more than 20 years.  They are resistant to the elements (water, snow, sand) and can be used at temperatures of between -50 and +90°C.  They make quick opening and closing (with one hand) easy.
http://www.systemmag.com

The Laville printing works have developed original know-how that mixes raised printing and classic flatbed printing.  The raised effect, which is created by despositing some polymer on the surface (with a degree of accuracy to the tenth of a millimetre), gives the ink visual depth and a high-quality feel.
Compared to techniques of embossing, the raised effect lasts for far longer.  This procedure makes it possible to superimpose raised print (graphics, texture) on any kind of printed material, just like braille is used on top of a text or a drawing, with an initial goal of creating documents for the blind and the visually impaired.
http://www.imprimerie-laville.com
 
 

The population is growing older and the number of people with handicaps is increasing. In the face of these facts, the “Design for all” programme attempts to integrate diversity into product design (televisions, household appliances…), services (access to information, means of exchange and communication, emergency services…) and environments so that these can be used by the widest possible range of consumers.