We are very excited to welcome Dr Katherine Brookfield to our final Prokalo of the semester – join us for this seminar, discussion and drinks!

The role of the home in the active and sedentary behaviours of older adults

Tuesday the 26th of May  – Back to our normal location: Minto House Common Room – 5pm followed by drinks

 Abstract

This presentation will relate findings from one aspect of the ongoing, 3-year RCUK-funded research project Mobility, Mood and Place based at the University of Edinburgh and led by Professor Catharine Ward Thompson (http://www.mobilitymoodplace.ac.uk/).

Inactive lifestyles have negative health consequences while time spent sedentary (sitting and lying) is related to morbidity and premature mortality. Older adults often form the most sedentary segment of society with almost 70% of individuals aged 60 years or over spending more than 8.5 hours of their waking day sedentary. Much of this behaviour may be practised at home where this group can spend extended periods. Older adults also present low levels of physical activity. Even household physical activities, low-to-moderate intensity habitual activities performed in and around the home, can be beneficial for this group while they can constitute much of an older person’s total physical activity. Despite this context, the home’s role in the active and sedentary behaviours of the older population appears critically understudied. Drawing on interview and focus group data collected from a diverse sample of older adults, this presentation engages with this issue. Aspects of the home which aid or impede a more active, less sedentary lifestyle are identified. Simple design recommendations, devised to support older people to lead more active lives at home, are presented and the implications for policy considered.

Biography

Katherine Brookfield is the Project Manager and a Research Fellow on the 3-year interdisciplinary research project Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP) funded by Research Councils UK. She has held a number of academic research positions and teaching posts and, outside academia, has worked for several major organisations in the public and private sectors. Her research interests include planning and development, participation and citizen activism, wellbeing and quality of life.

 See you there!

The Prokalo Team

Prokalo is very excited to welcome Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Director of Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and Founder of AY Architects to The University of Edinburgh…

Presenting…

Dialogue with Chance

Tuesday the 12th of May 5pm, followed by discussion and drinks

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION: Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre in the Old Medical Building 2^nd Floor of the Medical School in Teviot Place (enter by doorway 1 from the quadrangle ) Rm No. 2.520

Abstract:

With reference to my book Architectures of Chance and recent projects at AY Architects, I will discuss the role of chance in architecture as aesthetic experience, critical method and a design practice in its own right. Through projects that are self-initited, situated and anticipatory, I will explore some of the aleatoric possibilities of architecture, touching upon the poetics and ethics of chance as a deeply social condition.

Bio:

Yeoryia Manolopoulou is an architect, educator and design researcher. She is founder of AY architects and Director of Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where she leads the MArch Unit 17 and supervises creative and practice-led PhDs. In 2013 AY Architects were mid-listed for the Stirling Prize, awarded a RIBA National Award and won the Stephen Lawrence Prize for Montpelier Community Nursery. Yeoryia is the author of Architectures of Chance (Ashgate, 2013) and founding editor of the online publication Bartlett Design Research Folios.

We are very humbled to welcome Dr Manolopoulou and hope that you will join us for the penultimate Prokalo of the year!

See you there, The Prokalo Team