News ‘It takes a village’: Intergenerational Living in the City

‘It takes a village’: Intergenerational Living in the City

Features, News

April 28, 2023

By Manisha Patel, Partner at PRP

As the affordability crisis continues, we are witnessing the escalation of an intergenerational societal trend: growing levels of loneliness and social isolation.

This is impacting all age groups: many young adults are unable to afford to socialise with friends amidst rocketing rent and energy bills, parents are unable to re-enter the workforce due to soaring nursery prices and elderly people are spending more time alone because travel costs are sky-high. Even children have been affected; Childline has reported a significant increase in the number of under-11s calling the support line due to loneliness. Unfortunately, we find the cost-of-living crisis pulling us apart when we need each other the most.

To combat this, we need to draw from the social ingredients of the past. Modern society and city-dwellers can learn a lot from traditional village ways of living: a sociable, community-centred lifestyle in which each generation would lean on and support each other; a culture shared by many of our ancestors across the globe. As the saying goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ – although, I’d take this further. It takes a village to nurture happy, healthy communities, from childhood through to the later years of life.

The built environment has the power to bring people together. It also has the capability to segregate communities and generations. Too many new developments are effectively zoned in terms of age and wealth, with affordable tenures separated, elderly people housed in isolated retirement villages, young professionals in blocks of small one-bed apartments and students in out-of-city campus-based accommodation. Architects need to challenge this; by embedding the principles of intergenerational living into design, we can encourage our cities to evolve into places where people of different age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds come together to live, work, play and socialise.

PRP’s regeneration of Truro’s Pydar district for Cornwall Council aims to achieve exactly that. Truro has a fantastic community of creatives and rich cultural heritage, but faces a shortage of housing for local people. The city struggles to retain its young talent (who often relocate to larger cities with more career prospects) and effectively goes to sleep at 5pm, when the centre becomes deserted. Spaces for people to come together and socialise are much needed. We worked closely with the Council, its development arm, Treveth, and local residents to develop a holistic, people-centred solution driven by community participation and collaboration.

The resultant design will transform an underutilised brownfield site adjacent to Truro’s historic core into a vibrant, intergenerational neighbourhood and revitalise the wider city and its night-time economy. This will bring much-needed new homes for local people in a diverse range of tenures, affordable office space for digital start-ups, restaurants and cafés, artisan retail space for local creatives, a hotel and a new state-of-the-art campus for Falmouth University – Pydar’s strategic anchor tenant.

This 5,000m2 creative hub will host the university’s technology-focused courses, house over 700 students, researchers and university staff and bring an estimated £50m of spending to Truro in the first ten years alone. It will also be open to the local community and small businesses; providing flexible workspace, state-of-the-art equipment, coffee shops and a marketplace for doing business. By weaving education, innovation, enterprise and public engagement together, this entrepreneurial living and learning environment will act as a catalyst for the growth of a vibrant local community and Cornwall’s wider economy.

Inspired by the community-centred values of traditional village settlements, the masterplan has been carefully designed to foster intergenerational living and create a sense of ‘place’. The university building is strategically positioned at the centre of the new neighbourhood to encourage students to integrate with the local community. It opens up onto Pydar Square; an accessible, intergenerational space bringing together leisure, education, restaurants, employment, retail and residential uses to cater for all ages. This new public square will be connected to Truro’s city centre and the River Allen by a series of green, playable routes that encourage people to spend time with each other outdoors and be active.

Guided by ‘15-minute city’ and intergenerational living principles, our design for Pydar has all the ingredients to constitute a traditional ‘village’ in its own right. New education and employment opportunities will encourage young people to live in Truro, who will in turn boost the wider city’s struggling night-time economy – creating a virtuous cycle. Furthermore, a diverse range of home typologies, accessible, playable public realm and community-focused amenities will ensure all generations and household types can live happy, healthy and connected lives in the inclusive new neighbourhood.

The impact we envisage this having on Truro is transformational. Pydar has the potential to revitalise the city as a bustling, vibrant destination which is rich in culture and activity whilst encouraging all generations to come together to work, play, socialise and, most importantly, support one another. I believe it demonstrates the opportunities and obligations that we, as architects, have to significantly enhance the lives of not just individuals, but whole communities. It’s a power that we must use to bring people together and encourage the growth of inclusive, vibrant neighbourhoods.

This feature first appeared in Architecture Magazine.