Where will you live once you grow older? Will your city take care of you? How to design for the elderly, and for those who care for them?

The documentary Where We Grow Older (CCA, 2023, 30 min) looks at how the growing aging population is reshaping architectural and social constructs and questions the role of urban design and politics in facing these challenges. The film investigates two models — in Barcelona and Baltimore — of how care and housing can be reconceived in light of prolonged lives: public housing as part of municipal policies and infrastructure—where the city is the caretaker—and the creation of a new architectural model that offers care in a single building managed by private entities not only to the elderly but also to their caretakers—where the building becomes the city.

This film concludes a three-part short documentary film series and investigation, conceived by CCA Director and Chief Curator Giovanna Borasi, directed by Daniel Schwartz, to examine how changing societies, new economic pressures, and increasing population density are affecting the homes of various communities. While the first film What It Takes to Make a Home (CCA, 2019, 29 min) addressed homelessness, the second film When We Live Alone (CCA, 2020, 27 min) examines the ways in which people live alone.

Where We Grow Older will screen on 6 October at the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, as part of SHORTS: Autumn of Our Lives, a program that also presents the short films She Waves at Me (Inge Daniels, 2022, 20min) and Wrinkles (Daisy Ziyan Zhang, 2023, 10min). The screening will be introduced by Jakob d’Herde, currently working on a PhD concerning older people ageing in place in Flanders, Belgium.

Friday, 6 October 2023, 5:15pm

LantarenVenster Otto Reuchlinweg 996 (Wilhelminapier) 3072 MD Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Purchase tickets here.