Atlanta architectural firm John Portman & Associates is no stranger to China, having designed some of the country’s first major mixed-use developments in the early 1990s.
At that time, China was a young market economy poised to churn out two decades of breakneck growth. Now an aging population threatens to stall that momentum in the coming decades.
Portman is now using what it learned in the early days to inform plans for a new class of buildings that aim to deal with this problem.
The firm was selected by a subsidiary of Taikang Life Insurance Co., the nation’s largest life insurance provider, to provide design consultation services for the Songjiang Continuing Care Retirement Community, an upscale elder-care center in Shanghai.
The development is to include nearly 3 million square feet of space, including an on-site hospital and units with various living configurations to fit the needs of residents, as well as their family members and caretakers, which are often one and the same.
Elder care has become a major concern in China, which famously passed a law in July requiring children to visit their parents twice a year and take care of them financially.
Chinese groups like Taikang have looked to the United States for best practices on elder-care facilities. The insurer last year led a delegation to Atlanta to visit Lenbrook, a retirement community in Buckhead, for the second straight year.
Global Atlanta spoke with Walt Miller, principal and design director at John Portman & Associates, about the opportunity this new market category presents and the challenges of designing a facility that allows residents to “age in place” while providing for their social and medical needs, including issues like alzheimer’s disease.
Global Atlanta: How big is the upscale elder-care real estate market becoming in China? In other words, where does Portman see this segment going?
Mr. Miller: Designing for an aging population is a hot topic worldwide, certainly in our core markets geographically: the U.S. and China. “Universal Design” has become a popular term – designing for a person’s/family’s life cycle so that the living space for parents with young children is suitable as the children grow into young adults, and also as the parents age or take in their own aging parents.
This particular project is targeted to families that are unable to take in the elder generation, but still desire a community designed to allow them to age in place. Thus, the varying levels of independence and care offered within the complex.
Global Atlanta: What are some of the design challenges of the CCRC and how do they differ from other Chinese real estate designs?
This is such a large project; the size alone posed a challenge in the integration of all the components. There are six high-rise towers just in Phase I. Creating amenity spaces big enough to handle all these people but still relate and appeal to the individual was an interesting design challenge.
Perhaps the most difficult component to deal with was the hospital. It needed to be integrated into the project, but also stand alone in the sense that it is intended to serve the community at large as well as the residents of the CCRC.
Global Atlanta: It seems that you have added flexibility to the design to accommodate different preferences.
We were charged by our client with creating a Continuing Care Retirement Community that offers several different housing options so individuals can select the lifestyle that fits their personal needs, knowing there are different levels of care all within the same community. Residents can be assured that if their needs change, the appropriate level of support is available.
Global Atlanta: What Western touches are desired in developments like this?
Mr. Miller: Perhaps more interesting are the uniquely Chinese influences. For instance, we noticed on a sunny day in Shanghai, everyone is walking under umbrellas. The Chinese prefer not to sit in direct sunlight. That prompted the sunscreen design that bridges our complex.
Modern-day China has adopted what used to be considered a more Western lifestyle – living in high-rises, central air and heating systems, sophisticated vertical transportation options, etc. This complex would now be considered world-class. We have all become more alike in today’s global society.
Global Atlanta: How do family considerations come into play?
China’s one-child policy has necessitated a cultural shift. Smaller family sizes make it more difficult for the younger generation to be able to care for their elders, as had previously been custom. Two people to care for four people with no siblings to help share the load is a challenge.
Also, with the increased financial independence of the older generation comes a desire to live among their peers. It has become a status symbol to have the freedom to choose (and to be able to afford) not to live with your children in old age.
Additionally, China has become more of a mobile society. Children now may live and work far away from their parents. The parents may not wish to leave the community that they consider as home in order to move in with their children.
All these factors have come into play to create a change in custom in China.
Global Atlanta: How has Portman’s other projects in China and elsewhere helped facilitate this project?
This community and the number of people to be accommodated becomes similar to “hoteling” in terms of amenities offered, such as housekeeping, food service, fitness and spa facilities, etc. The challenges are similar to those in a suite hotel or a hotel with serviced apartments. Certainly we have successfully designed a number of hotels and hotels with serviced apartments.
The similarities presented have prompted hotel companies, such as Hyatt’s Vi brand to serve this demographic.
The Portman design philosophy has always been to design for the people who will be using the space. Understanding people and their response to their environment has helped us and influenced the design for this project. As always, serving people is our motivation.
