DEA 5700

Designing Age Friendly Environments

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

This course focuses on the role of the built environment in fostering healthy development and aging across the lifespan, as well as examining how designed environments can support or limit healthy development and aging. Specifically, it will examine the relationship between children and older adults and their everyday environments at three scales: the city/community, individual spaces/interiors, and at the product/technology level. Through presentations, readings, fieldwork, site visits, design case studies, and community-engaged projects, students will critically explore age-friendly frameworks, and research and design strategies to gain an appreciation of the potential impacts, as well as opportunities and challenges, of designing age-friendly environments. Students will also be introduced to effective strategies and tools for assessing the age-friendliness of communities, spaces, and products, and translating findings from research and best practices into successful, supportive designed environments for children and older adults.  

When Offered Spring.

Permission Note Open to: graduate and senior undergraduates of any program; undergraduate students who have completed at least two years of undergraduate instruction, and at least one course in Research Methods. Enrollment preference will be given to: HCD majors or graduate students.
Prerequisites/Corequisites Prerequisite: (graduate) one graduate research methods course.

Distribution Category (D-HE, LAD-HE, SBA-HE)
Course Attribute (CU-CEL, CU-UGR)

Comments Recommended prerequisite: (graduate) DEA 6200. Recommended prerequisite or corequisite: (undergraduate) one or more of the following: DEA 1500, DEA 2700, DEA 2730, DEA 3510, DEA 3550, DEA 3770, DEA 4500.

• To understand the role and benefits of creating environments which are inclusive of and address the needs of young people and older adults.
• To explore and critique age-friendly frameworks and design strategies, with the aim of developing effective approaches and practices for designing environments for children and seniors.
• To gain experience carrying out critical environmental assessments, and considering implications for children and seniors, and more broadly for design and planning fields.
• To benefit from and contribute to community-engaged projects to support age-friendly environmental design.
• To further develop critical thinking and reflection skills, as well as group facilitation and presentation skills, through participation in class discussions and helping to curate course content.

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