A chance meeting with an extraordinary 90 year old started renowned Cornell University gerontologist Dr Karl Pillemer on a journey exploring the trials of life and aging. Nicola Donnelly, CARDI's Communications Officer, writes:

For five years, Pillemer sat down with more than 1,000 older Americans—most of them between the ages of 70 and 100—to talk about lessons for living well.

The result is a bank of valuable and pragmatic advice from older people who have lived through extraordinary change and development in American society and forms the basis for Cornell University's Legacy project and new book 30 Lessons for Living. It features compelling interviews from older people detailing their experiences and lessons relating to key areas of life including marriage, love, work and parenting. Response to the new book has been outstanding:

the PBS Newshour devoted a segment to the book, with interviews with two wonderfully wise elders.

Jane Brody also published a terrific column on the book in the New York Times.

You can also view some of the interviews here:

See more here: http://legacyproject.human.cornell.edu/category/meetelders/

Pillemer directs the Cornell Legacy Project (http://legacyproject.human.cornell.edu/) and is author of the new book 30 Lessons for Living (http://legacyproject.human.cornell.edu/the-book/).

With 10,000 people turning 65 every day in the United States the question about how to age and where to age are now more important than ever. This generation of "boomers" born between 1946 and 1964 are increasing challenging traditional models of "senior housing" in care homes and new models of how to live as we age are emerging. Nicola Donnelly, CARDI Communications Officer, considers a new book on the topic:

In Unassisted Living, a new book by Jeff Rosenfeld, professor of gerontology at Hofstra University, and Wid Chapman, principal of Wid Chapman Architects examine some of these new models.  Unassisted Living documents the shift away from the senior housing that promoted disengagement toward architecture and design that promote active aging.

The two completed their research by interviewing architects, designers and older people, and ultimately identified six different lifestyles, ranging from a new interest in urban life to strategies for living “off the grid” thanks to advances in telemedicine and other electronic communication to multigenerational living that reflects the complexity of contemporary families.

The book is organised in six sections, corresponding to the concerns and special interests of older people—those who intend to remain in an urban setting, those concerned with sustainability, those with complex families and non-traditional households, and those who seek a community based on spirituality or shared interests.

The book also demonstrates the heterogeneity of older people and their different needs and desires  in realtion to their living environments. It also contributes greatly to understanding the benefits of exploring new models and shows the benefits of disciplines such as architecture and engineering working with gerontologists can help develop better models of living in old age.

Read more about the book in this New York Times interview

You can also read more about emerging trends in housing and design for older people in the US at AARP