Glass-House Chats: Designing Multigenerational Places

Co-hosted with Pat Scrutton, Intergenerational National Network

In our society, activities, services and many of our places have been shaped to cater for the specific needs of distinct stages of our lives. We find surprisingly few opportunities to connect with people of different ages outside our family circles. Instead, we generally find ourselves studying, working and socialising within our own age group.

Our co-host for this WEdesign crossover Chat is Pat Scrutton, Coordinator at Intergenerational National Network. Together, we’ll explore how we can create more spaces to connect with people of other ages, and how this might benefit us as a society. We’ll consider the potential improvements to our health and wellbeing, our social, economic and cultural lives, and to our natural environment.

About Glass-House Chats

Glass-House Chats are monthly hour-long online spaces for conversation and connection, to ask questions and explore ideas, approaches and methods, share learning and meet others.

Series 6 sees us collaborating with a range of inspiring people and organisations who will co-host sessions with us. Each guest co-host will help us bring focus, expertise and experience to conversations about different aspects of the design of places. From empathy to sustainability, we’ll unpick some of the successful ingredients of design and explore what great design can achieve.

About our Co-host

Pat Scrutton has a background in community development. She retired in 2009, but continues to co-ordinate the Intergenerational National Network in Scotland. In recent years, she has also become involved in a number of research projects related to active ageing and ageing in place, always from an intergenerational perspective, with the Universities of Dundee, Stirling and Glasgow, and Heriot-Watt University.

How to Take Part

Glass-House Chats are open to anyone with an interest in the event topic. No specific experience or expertise is required to join the conversation. We believe that our Chats only benefit from a wide mix of voices, interests and experiences.

These free online events are kept intentionally small so that everyone taking part can jump in and join the conversation. Where possible, we encourage participants to keep their cameras and microphones on, to pose questions and ideas, and to share stories and links.

To create a safe space for open discussion, the Chatham House Rule is applied. Key discussion points are collated, anonymised and shared after each session.

How to Book

Glass-House Chats are free events, but places are limited, so please register only if you plan to attend.

Please note:

We will record the Chat session to help with capturing the conversation, but this recording will not be made publicly available or shared outside The Glass-House team. Following the event, we will publish a blog capturing key discussion points, but rest assured that no-one will be quoted directly, and no participants will be named. Please feel free to email us at info@theglasshouse.org.uk if you have any queries.