Arcadia was a region of ancient Greece that over time has become the name of an imaginary country, created and described by poets and artists, where happiness, simplicity and peace reign in an idyllic environment. What would be the 'Arcadia' of the XXI century? From this question was born the winning work in which Belén García López, 4th year student of design (accredited specialization in Product), presented with her team in the project of design thinking of Ikea 'Next Gen Seniors: redesigning the city of the future for the longest-lived society in history'.
In 2050, according to the HelpAge Global Aging Index, Spain will be one of the most aged countries in the world. "In this context, IKEA, Madrid Design Festival, Barcelona Design Week and Valencia World Design Capital have worked throughout the year with professionals, students from design and citizens from all over the country to weave joint alliances, reflect and redesign the city of the future for the longest-lived society in history," explains Belén García López.
On November 2, a committee of experts composed of representatives of the three festivals that have participated (Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia), the designer Inma Bermudez (award National design of 2022), and Laura Duran, a member of committee IKEA Management, chose the two best proposals: one that could be immediately implemented, 'FRËSKA'; and another with a vision for the future, 'Arcadia', the project of Belen Garcia Lopez's team. Ikea will leave the documentation of both projects in open source so that any municipality or organization can put them into operation.
"With 'Arcadia' we propose a outline of floors to convert disused or abandoned buildings into residences of the future open to the city. It is a kind of gradient from private to public, in which the lower floors have public services where elderly people can feel useful to society and the upper floors are private mini-dwellings that represent the continuity of the home," explains the student of design.
The project has been developed in three design thinking phases. In the first, held at the Madrid Design Festival, the strategic design consultancy SoulSight investigated the problem and defined three challenges that would serve as framework of work. Belén García's team was assigned 'Occupation, diversity and our sense of time'. In the second phase, held at Barcelona Design Week, students and professionals from design joined the project team. In this one, they assigned a challenge to each group of work, which were formed in an intergenerational way by three students and two professionals of design seniors. They also created "The Thinking House", a space for reflection, bringing together citizens to propose the first ideas. In the last phase, all the teams traveled back to Barcelona to present two proposals according to the assigned challenge : one focused on the present and the other on the future. The jury selected the future idea 'Arcadia' from Belén García's team to participate in the final. "In early November we traveled to Valencia, where a press conference was made to tell what our project and the other finalist ideas consisted of, as well as to be part of a exhibition in the high school of Architects of Valencia," says the student of design.
