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HDL Living Archive

Helsinki Design Lab's roots stretch back to 1968. In 2008 Sitra resurrected the initiative and operated it for five years. We are now closing this chapter of the project's life, and in doing so creating a living archive. Our intention is to open up the work of HDL as a useful platform for others who carry forward the mission of institutional redesign.

The full website will remain in place until at least the beginning of 2015. You are free to copy, remix, and extend the content here using a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. Below we've curated a shortlist of useful posts from this site's history.

  • Basics
  • What does "lab" mean to HDL?
  • Defining our mission
  • How did HDL choose projects?
  • Marco explains strategic design
  • The 'bus schedule' story
  • Booting-up
  • Recruiting rules of thumb
  • Qualities to recruit for
  • Creating this website
  • Establishing a visual language
  • Operations
  • Projects as probes
  • The pivot
  • Going beyond 'open'
  • Cultures of decision-making
  • On Post-it Notes and Powerpoint
  • Examples of our work
  • A typical week at HDL
  • Sketching in the middle of a project
  • Small events
  • And of course the projects...
  • ... and publications
  • Other resources
  • UNICEF's guide to Innovation Labs
  • Labs: Designing the future
  • Dark Matter and Trojan Horses
  • HDL
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Ageing Studio (2010) Dossier The Challenge

This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Ageing
This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Ageing

As the average age of Finland and many societies in the developed world steadily rises, the basic assumptions of daily life are being rewritten. This change affects not only the members of this ageing population, who are facing increasing competition with a constantly growing peer group, but also by those individuals and communities who provide care and support for the elderly. As Baby Boomers retire, every level of society will be affected—from the individual to the institutional—with particular attention focused on the interfaces between these different groups.

The coming of this “Silver Wave” is coincident with broader structural changes occurring globally. Post-war welfare institutions are subject to additional stresses as they confront unfamiliar conditions such as expanding markets and competition, increasing diversity and fluidity, and new understandings of citizenship, participation, and social relationships. Welfare systems will have to evolve along with the constituencies that they serve if both are to continue with dignity into the twenty-first century.

The Nordic Model has garnered particular attention because of its manifold successes. Tight integration into social fabrics and deep penetration into economic foundations make the Nordic Model unique among welfare systems. It is unclear if such a structured, embedded model is flexible enough to accommodate the onset of these structural challenges.

Models that prove too rigid or brittle will likely fail under mounting pressures. An agile response will require that the “how” be as flexible as the “who” is diverse and numerous. Success suggests three major shifts:

  • Broadening the emphasis of care beyond institutions;
  • Repositioning our understanding of the elderly as a norm
    rather than the exception;
  • Intensifying our attention to social wellness in addition to
    biomedical health.

The future of social welfare systems—their scope, structure, and form—is in flux as societies continually struggle to provide for the well-being of all its citizens. This state of flux is particularly important as the Silver Wave fundamentally shifts the dependency ratio, a term used to describe the balance between productive and dependent members of society.

Providing adequate care for the elderly, while also preserving their dignity, will be one of the earliest challenges for exist- ing welfare systems. Handling the ageing challenge will yield broader insights for understanding how society at large cares for itself. Harnessing the untapped potential of the elderly as a value-producing segment of society, rethinking societal and institutional roles and responsibilities, and devising new ways to measure progress and set targets constitute key areas for future development.

The basic terms of the discussion remain open for definition. For instance, “old age” can be described in a multitude of ways: although a biological definition may be the easiest to evaluate, it can also be limiting. To recast ageing as an opportunity rather than as a problem—to change the very understanding of “elderly” is where we must start any conversation about the future of these welfare systems and the populations they support.

Source: HDL Challenge Briefing on Ageing 1.0

Latest from the Ageing Studio (2010) dossier

Part pin up board, link list, white paper, and notepad, the HDL Dossiers are a tool to capture information and knowledge related to our Studio focus areas as they continue to evolve on an ongoing basis.

More from this dossier

  • Ageing Studio Summary
    A scene from the final presentation of the Ageing Studio. Photo: Ivo Corda. The profile of the coming generation of the aged in Finland will...
  • The Kainuu Regional Experiment
    Currently in Finland there is considerable desire for reform at all levels of the welfare system, from the highest levels of government to the most ...
  • The Cost Of “Old Age”
    “Old Age” currently accounts for approximately 30% of total social welfare expenditure (Facts about Social Welfare and Health Care in...
  • Social And Service Networks
    An elderly person also faces an array of options concerning the social fabric and service networks they will be connected to—who provides the...
  • Where to live?
    The question of where to live is perhaps the most fundamental decision affecting the elderly and the infrastructure systems connected to these...
  • Preparing For The Wave
    The following three descriptive models are conceptual starting points for considering the pressures that the Silver Wave will put on the welfare...
  • Opportunity Space
    This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Ageing With one of Europe’s most rapidly ageing populations, Finland faces a...

What is HDL?

Helsinki Design Lab uses strategic design to uncover the "architecture" of large-scale challenges and develop more holistic, complete solutions for improvement. We strive to advance knowledge, capability, and achievement in this discipline, regardless of geography or nationality. HDL most recently operated 2009-2013 and is now closed.

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