THE SLOW MARCH OF TIME
EDITORIAL
DESIGN RESPONSES TO A GROWING AGEING GLOBAL AND LOCAL POPULATION
By Archt. Shahdia Jamaldeen
As birth rates plummet and longevity rises, we enter 2026 facing a new challenge: the slow and unavoidable march of time and human evolution. Population demographics often morph and mutate in response to socioeconomic upheavals such as wars, famine, natural disasters and financial crashes. The Great Depression in America saw a severe decline in population and brought about considerable changes to family composition, while the current genocide in Gaza has seen painful and horrifying human loss resulting in victims claiming that reaching old age feels akin to a miracle. Through these tides and ebbs of time, architecture remains as a presence that continues to evolve alongside the action.
Sri Lanka’s conservative culture dictates that the elderly are to be respected and cared for – and most standard nuclear families within this multicultural collective engage in living conditions and spatial compositions that place their ageing family members within their bounds. However, with changes to healthcare, advancements in medicine and treatment and high levels of migration, the nation now faces an expanding population of those aged 65 years and above – the older cohort of dependents. This social imbalance seems to be having an effect communally, culturally and architecturally.
For too long, elder access design and thoughtful interventions have never been purposefully implemented and instead only applied as an afterthought. These include policies for public spaces conducive to elder activities, community centres and gathering spaces geared to elevate lived experiences, and strategic green spaces created to enhance quality of life, inevitably leading to better health outcomes and a reduced burden on the caregiving age group.
Architecture can still be harnessed as a powerful tool in combatting age related decline in memory and mental faculties through specific, tested ways – which we explore both locally and internationally in this issue. The content explores elder care design and implementation, as well as policies that could be adopted – an urgency made all the more apparent in Sri Lanka, especially in the aftermath of loss following Cyclone Ditwah.
It seems Sri Lanka is yet to begin making formal, thoughtful and specific interventions and designs that are equipped towards this clearly growing category of dependency. While it is easy for investors and developers to target trends and population groups in markets that are virile and energetic, there is one thing that everyone seems to forget quite easily: time stands still for no one and everybody – should fate will it – will grow old eventually.
Time makes everything old; but it also makes everything true
Marcel Proust
