What Will the Built Environment Look Like in the New Century?
Residential aesthetics will continue to be predominant within the industry. The backlash to the institutional look of nursing homes will continue, but geographic vernacular will also provide some variety in what many feel has become an industry too focused on gingerbread and Victorian knock-offs. Good architects will continue to explore innovative ways of providing an icon of “home,” combined with a built environment that creates “community” within a congregate setting. The assisted-living resident of the next century, having spent his working life afraid to say “hello” to the neighbors across the street, will embrace designs that bring him together with his neighbors in a secure neighborhood with all the amenities of a community. This will probably also mean that the large congregate spaces we are used to seeing will be broken up into smaller congregate spaces of the same use scattered throughout the facility. Thus, neighborhoods will naturally evolve, and those neighborhoods will com
