Elongated engawa defines this community welfare center in Chiba | Spoon & Tamago

As Japan’s population continues to grow older—one in 10 residents are aged 80 or above—care for the elderly becomes an increasingly important issue. And while elderly populations are typically seen as a burden, there are places around rural Japan that offer glimpses of a more hopeful future. One where innovators and designers are demonstrating what’s possible, not with robotic caregivers, but with a fundamental redesign of what care for the elderly could look like.

Typical nursing homes have always been highly transactional. Families pay the facility an agreed upon rate and, in turn, the facility looks after them until the end of their life, in a secluded area removed from society. But does this truly allow the elderly to live out their life on their own terms? With dignity and respect? Surely there was another way. That was the thinking that led Mr. Ishii, a caretaker who practices a style of care that allows people to live their lives normally, even with serious conditions like dementia, to establish “Long House with an Engawa.”

Located in Chiba prefecture, “Long House with an Engawa” is defined by a long and narrow veranda inspired by an engawa, an element of traditional Japanese architecture that occupies a liminal space between inside and outside. “The building contains outdoor spaces between three main functions,” explains architect Kentaro Yamazaki. “A café and workshop for local residents, a ‘living room’ for the elderly, and a tatami room and bath that echo a traditional hanare (detached room).”

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