WSU, Institute of Gerontology Fall 2024 Colloquia Series is pleased to present:

Associations Between the Built Environment and Proactive Ageing 

by

Oskar Jonsson

Assistant Researcher, Active and Healthy Ageing Research Group, Centre for Ageing and Supportive Environments (CASE), Lund University, Sweden

ABSTRACT:

In later life, more time is spent at home and the importance of the home environment increases. Home environments constitute important contexts for proactive aging and the delivery of health care and social services to older adults and people aging with functional limitations. Proactive aging refers to the process relating to a person’s goals, functional capacities and opportunities through which the person strives to maintain well-being. Appropriately designed housing and its proximity to community and social services are strongly associated with a good quality of life and allow comfort and safety for older adults. There are complex interactions between aspects of housing and health, impacting, for example, home- and neighborhood-related identity and attachment. Having a home with more personal identity, attachment and meaning strengthens the abilities and opportunities for meaningful activities, thus supporting proactive aging. To reach a broader understanding of person-environment relationships, this presentation combines three types of interaction between individuals and home environments – instrumental, non-instrumental, and non-physical – and five constituent concepts, i.e. accessibility, usability, aesthetic experience, the experience of meaning and emotional experience. Theoretical frameworks/models for person-environment relationships are synthesized and combined. The presenter proposes to classify accessibility and usability as instrumental person-environment interaction, aesthetic experience as non-instrumental interaction, and experience of meaning and emotional experience as non-physical interaction. At the same time, acknowledge the potential of the three types of interaction to embed cues and choices to accommodate the widest variety and number of people throughout their lifespans.

BIO:

Research

Oskar Jonsson is particularly interested in studying issues concerning human-environment interaction. To reach a more sustainable society, an effort is to enable both people and built environments to age with dignity. His research concerns ageing and health in relation to the design of public environments, housing and household goods.

In addition, Oskar Jonsson is interested in questions about how the different forms of knowledge; research-based knowledge, people's lived experience and practitioners' practice-based knowledge can be integrated and translated into action.

The research areas are the arts and sciences of design and health, without being discipline specific. Oskar Jonsson’s prior education includes a PhD in Industrial Design, an MFA in the History and Theory of Design, a BSc in Furniture Design and a Journeyman in Cabinet Making.

Thesis

Oskar Jonsson’s doctoral thesis "Furniture for Later Life" focused on how older adults act on, are influenced by, reflect on and appreciate furniture in their homes. The aim was to improve the conditions for the design of furniture with and for older adults and the housing forms in which they live with their own experiences as a point of departure.

Jonsson, O. (2013). Furniture for later life: Design based on older people’s experiences of furniture in three housing forms (Doctoral dissertation). Lund University, Sweden. http://www.lu.se/lup/publication/4146752.

 Outreach

Oskar Jonsson is appointed as Impact Officer for the National Graduate School on Ageing and Health (SWEAH).

Teaching

Teaching includes course elements on universal design and degree project supervision for the Occupational Therapist Program. Oskar Jonsson has been co-supervisor for PhD student Joakim Frögren who successfully defended his thesis in 2023. Prior experience includes teaching in the fields of furniture culture, furniture design and knowledge production at Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies, Linköping University.

ZOOM LINK: https://wayne-edu.zoom.us/j/96351998346?pwd=bNDLrx8MPsHY5vIKqaoRo7vetg7hzd.1

Meeting ID: 963 5199 8346

Passcode: 404190