/ Blog / Aging: breaking the taboo to innovate

March 7, 2025

Several factors contribute to this:

• Confusion between aging and dependency: Growing old does not necessarily mean being dependent. However, in the absence of nuance, the subject is postponed until it becomes an emergency.
• A performance-based society: It values ​​youth and productivity, making it more difficult to accept age-related fragility. Making aging invisible means protecting oneself from it, at least temporarily.
• A lack of representation and anticipation: Aging is perceived as a distant problem, rarely anticipated. The result? Delayed decisions that are forced rather than chosen.

One of the major challenges is to dissociate aging from dependency. Increased life expectancy, prevention campaigns, and medical advances allow many older people to remain independent until the end of their lives. Yet, the dominant image remains that of old age as synonymous with loss of autonomy, fueling feelings of rejection and fear.

This biased perception has direct consequences: poor anticipation, inadequate housing, and a lack of suitable options. Today, only 6% of housing is adapted to accommodate loss of autonomy, while more than 130,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths are caused each year by falls in the home.

Staying at home remains the preferred solution for the majority of seniors, but it can become a trap if the housing is unsuitable. On the other hand, nursing homes remain highly medicalized and poorly perceived, often associated with a total loss of independence.

Between these two extremes, alternatives exist but are still largely unknown:

• Senior assisted living facilities (RSS), which combine autonomy with adapted services.
• Shared housing for seniors, allowing them to maintain a dynamic and socially enriching living environment.
• Innovative forms of collective housing such as béguinages or the Babayaga model.

The invisibility of aging in our society is also linked to a lack of dialogue with those most affected: older people themselves.

An inclusive and participatory approach to marketing and design can change this. By integrating seniors, caregivers, and experts from the design stage, it is possible to:

• Better identify real needs and obstacles.
• Design housing and services that respect their aspirations (mobility, independence, security).
• Anticipate changing uses to avoid overly rigid or inappropriate solutions.

While current generations still postpone the anticipation of aging, this could well change with the increased provision of care. By 2030, one in four employees will be a caregiver. These caregivers, often in their forties or fifties, juggle their work, their children, and their aging parents.

This "sandwich generation", confronted daily with the difficulties associated with the aging of their loved ones, could lead to a change in outlook:

• Greater anticipation of adapting housing.
• A greater demand for flexible residential solutions.
• A desire for greater freedom and modernity, far removed from traditional models.

Rather than viewing aging as inevitable, it is urgent to adopt a proactive and positive approach:

• Better represent older people to avoid their exclusion from public debate.
• Promote adapted and inclusive housing solutions, incorporating universal design.
• Value the diversity of aging pathways, instead of reducing everything to dependency.

Aging is a major transition for our societies. It is time to move from a model we endure to a true culture of longevity, placing co-construction and innovation at the heart of solutions.

What if we made taking aging into account a lever for innovation and value?

• Jean Jaurès Foundation article dated February 28, 2025: « Le grand âge : un impensé français » (Old Age: A French Overlooked Issue).
• ObSoCo Newsletter dated March 7, 2025: « La France vieillit mais refuse de le voir ». (France is Aging but Refuses to See It).

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