On Tuesday 18 June Architecture and Design Scotland, Scotland’s design champion brought together experts from across the country to Dumfries, to discuss how we can work together to create more age friendly places in Scotland.
The event, held in Easterbrook Hall at The Crichton, took place in partnership with The Crichton Trust and brought together representatives from the public and third sector with the aim of sharing learning and improving collaboration.
The keynote speaker at the event, Minister for Equalities and Older People Christina McKelvie said: “I’m delighted to be delivering the keynote speech today. This conference supports the Scottish Government’s ambition for older people to enjoy full and positive lives in homes which meet their needs. This also ensures people can remain part of, and continue to contribute to, their communities and so helps tackle social isolation and loneliness.”
Creating Caring Places for every generation
The event forms part of a programme led by Architecture and Design Scotland called Caring Places, developed in collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnerships. The work looks at how town centre living provides an opportunity to create great places that work for our ageing population. Earlier in 2019 it published Town Centre Living: A Caring Place – which captures learning to date. The report is available on www.ads.org.uk
Speaking about the event Steve Malone, Principal Architect with Architecture and Design Scotland said, “For the past year we have been taking a creative look at how we can use design and innovation to make more of the places we already have – especially in town centres. We have also looked at how the people who will use the places are fully involved in shaping where they will live and how they will be cared for. At this event in Dumfries we will look particularly at the benefits of creating places where people from all generations live together – helping create more caring and sustainable places”
What makes a great place to grow old?
The event was supported by The Dumfries and Galloway Care Campus Project, which is hosted by The Crichton Trust in Dumfries. It was set up in 2018, with a remit to explore what would make Dumfries and Galloway a great place to grow old.
Gwilym Gibbons, Chief Executive of The Crichton Trust said: “One of the greatest challenges we face in rural areas is how to care for our aging population. The Care Campus Project was set up to work with local partners to explore the future of rural communities in Dumfries and Galloway. We were therefore delighted to welcome Architecture and Design Scotland to Dumfries and Galloway and to learn more about their innovative Caring Places project and to explore what this means for our local towns and rural communities.”
The work on Caring Places has been done in collaboration with Scotland’s Towns Partnerships and earlier in 2019 A&DS published a report – Town Centre Living: A Caring Place – which captures the learning to date. The report is available on www.ads.org.uk.
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