Some Observations on Population Health,
Intelligent Design and the Residential
Architecture of Food
Mark Del Aguila
markdelaguila@gmail.com
Obesity and the independence of older adults are issues of increasing concern, both economically
and to population health. It is proposed that these diverse issues are in fact related and both can be
addressed through architecture which integrates kitchen activities into an urban food chain.
Suitable foods are available for home storage, preparation and consumption, but the knowledge,
time and preparation required are a challenge for many. If household kitchens were minimised to
refrigeration and cooking, meal preparation could be sourced through proximal, technological and
service connections between the home and local businesses. With automated cooking, the necessity
for busy people to prepare and cook meals or the barrier cooking presents to health and
independence of older adults, or persons with specific health requirements, can be eliminated. For
people with the time, capacity and inclination to cook, a minimal kitchen configuration could be
designed with pre-prepared ingredients (as opposed to pre-prepared meals) sourced for meal
choice.
Approaching issues of population health by embedding the residence in context is not new. Access
to clean water and cooking fuel, or disposal of household effluent and rubbish are addressed
through public utilities which integrated household needs into a larger urban infrastructure. The
walk to the well is replaced with water pipes, and electrical wiring and drains connect the residence
to electricity grids and sewerage treatment plants. Urban planners embedded the residence within
an urban infrastructure to address population health issues caused through challenges of daily living.
For most people, the residence is the central location, the hub of daily activity. Essential daily
activities such as meal preparation, house cleaning, clothes washing and personal care needs occur
along-side leisure, recreation and entertainment. Each of these activities can involve complex tasks
which can become challenging for older adults. While assistive technologies have been developed to
address many of these challenges, the promise of intelligent homes has not born the envisioned
success. Technologies in kitchens, bathrooms and living areas have added layers of complexity and
have not been widely adopted by older adults or the population in general.
The following discussion is focused on re-engineering the urban food chain for ageing populations
through a combination of technology and design. The central assumption of this example is that
challenges presented by meal preparation can be addressed by embedding the kitchen within the
urban context can be extended to other forms of urban habitats. While intelligent design can
address issues of independence in urban centres with sufficient access and infrastructure
technology, the presence of technology is not pre-requisite. In emerging urban environments, design
of the residence as an integral part of the urban food chain should be carefully considered to avoid
repeating the impact of kitchen design on population health.
Intelligent Design for Ageing Populations
In cities and towns around the world, population dependency ratios are shifting from young to old
and the ratio of working persons to retired persons decreasing. At a time when the availability of
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carers and care workers is decreasing, the population prevalence of persons with cognitive and
physical impairments is increasing. Within this context, population ageing presents an opportunity
for intelligent design to provide a housing alternative to institutionalised care facilities.
Intelligent design accrues benefits for the resident when interactions between the resident and the
residence are minimal and daily life is enhanced. If the kitchen is minimised to refrigeration and
automated cooking, and meal preparation operated through proximal, technological and service
connections between the home and neighbourhood based businesses. Dietary requirements and
meal preferences logged; pre-prepared meals purchased online and collected or delivered. Sensors
used to monitor cooking cycles and after dinner, dishes placed in the exit bin to be removed with the
next delivery or returned to point of purchase. The necessity for busy people to prepare and cook
meals or the barrier cooking presents to health and independence can be eliminated.
In this example, the existing approach of residential technologies being developed in isolation of
design and context is replaced by an integrated approach. Intelligent design accrues benefits for the
user by maintaining outcomes (healthy meal) while simplifying the complexity of the core activity
(meal preparation). In a reconfigured kitchen designed for embedded technology, three
interdependent questions are addressed to simplify task complexity for both the user and the
technology.
1. Reduce the number of behavioural steps required to complete the activity.
2. Simplify the physical environment to reduce barriers for both the user and the application of
technology.
3. Combine design and technology to configure a footprint for daily activities.
The reduction in the number of steps required to complete activities simplifies the complexity of the
task and simplifies the complexity of the technology required to complete the task. The environment
is barrier-free for both the resident and the technology. Automation and action sequencing are
enabled because the environmental press of the physical environment is lowered, making the
required behaviours less complex. For the architect, there is a shift from design that incorporates
technology to intelligent design that simplifies technology to enable independent living.
Market Conditions
With intelligent design, the kitchen is positioned to address emerging population health issues and
become the central control and communication hub in the residence and positions the residence in
the digital economy. This position is supported by current market conditions:
o
Consumers and governments are looking for opportunities to increase nutritional intake,
reduce food waste and improve packaging and recycling;
o
Governments are looking for alternatives to care facilities to enhance community-based
independence of older persons;
o
Supermarkets and local restaurants are increasingly providing nutritionally balanced ready
meals and home delivery services;
o
The food industry being one of the largest industries in the world, and ensuring hygienic
distribution and consumption is essential to industry growth;
o
In housing designs, kitchens are becoming smaller and more integrated with living areas; and
o
A kitchen is required in every residence and every resident needs to eat.
Building on an emerging consumer acceptance of nutritionally balanced ready meals, ready-to-cook
ingredients and home delivery services, two broad types of intelligent kitchen designs are
envisioned. In fully automated kitchens, preferred pre-packaged meals are automatically cooked.
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This configuration would be suitable for older adults, persons with impairments, and persons with
limited time to cook. Older adults are at an increased risk of developing health issues after
consumption of chilled, ready to eat foods. These types of food are consumed in higher proportions
by this age group due to the minimal handling and preparation it requires in homes with
conventional kitchens. The digital kitchen ensures that the chill chain integrity is maintained
throughout. It also addresses nutritional issues as over-reliance on a limited range of foods will
impact on the overall health and wellbeing of the ageing population. With the need for extensive
food preparation removed, the kitchen encourages consumption of a wide range of foods. Both food
safety and nutritional aspects of meal consumption are addressed.
In a minimal kitchen, the configuration is simplified to minimal cooking, preparation, refrigeration
and cleaning functions. Pre-prepared ingredients (as opposed to pre-prepared meals) are available
for consumer meal choices.
Opportunities
As the residential and consumer end point of the food supply chain, intelligent kitchens can:
o
Record meal preferences appropriate to personal taste and dietary requirements;
o
Enable communication with the food supply chain;
o
Co-ordinate partial or fully automated cooking appliances in the home;
o
Log nutritional intake; and
o
Provide every home a technology hub to network the home.
Previous incarnations of counter top and fridge door computing have had limited impact because
these products existed in isolation of architectural designs that embedded the kitchen within a larger
food supply and delivery infrastructure.
Intelligent design will limit future public health expenditures and provide economic opportunities in
a number of industries. For example:
o Construction: new build and renovation of private housing, and serviced apartments in
retirement communities and tourist resorts.
o Food Industry: food preparation, packaging and distribution
o Manufacturing: household appliances and automated cooking
o Technology: communications gateway, health monitoring, networked robotics
Extended Benefits
While this example addresses the needs of community based older persons, the wider appeal of an
integrated food supply chain cannot be underestimated: There are many people approaching
retirement wishing to downsize their living space, busy people and busy families with time
constraints, and people who do not want to cook. Across the population spectrum, intelligent design
will generate lifestyle benefits that extend beyond the food supply chain, beyond kitchen design and
be more than housing for the elderly.
The extended benefit of intelligent design is that each residence contain a control and
communication hub that can be leveraged to interact with any wireless enabled sensor or device in
the home. In line with resident needs, energy usage and temperature in the home could be
monitored, home based tele-health installed with medical devices and sensors able to deliver
physiological measures to service providers, or a gateway provided for multimedia broadband
services throughout the home. It could also support or networked robotic systems, home based
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work and emerging educational needs. Present and future needs enabled with plug and play in the
residence. Unique Residential ID’s.
Community Capacity
Neighbourhood based policies for issues of ageing, obesity, crime, delinquency, etc. requires a
workforce beyond traditional areas of ‘social care’ or ‘health care’. This requires a neighbourhood
skill set embedded in persons with whom older adults interact in everyday life: shopkeepers,
receptionists, hair stylists, librarians, bus drivers, contractors, recreation workers or local business
employees. The capacity of neighbourhood self-care is enriched by diversity of skill set. With
educational institutions providing home-based education for neighbourhood based workers in areas
of personal and professional interest combined with a generic discipline in community science, this
will build the requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies throughout the community.
Final comment
Local government planning which re-engineers the architecture of the urban food chain will enhance
community-based independence of older persons, improve population health, reduce food waste,
improve packaging and recycling, and create new local employment opportunities.
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