DEA 5700

Designing Age Friendly Environments

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course focuses on the role of the built environment in fostering healthy development and aging across the lifespan, as well as examining how designed environments can support or limit healthy development and aging. Specifically, it will examine the relationship between children and older adults and their everyday environments at three scales: the city/community, individual spaces/interiors, and at the product/technology level. Through presentations, readings, fieldwork, site visits, design case studies, and community-engaged projects, students will critically explore age-friendly frameworks, and research and design strategies to gain an appreciation of the potential impacts, as well as opportunities and challenges, of designing age-friendly environments. Students will also be introduced to effective strategies and tools for assessing the age-friendliness of communities, spaces, and products, and translating findings from research and best practices into successful, supportive designed environments for children and older adults.

Enrollment Priority Open to: graduate and senior undergraduates of any program. Graduate students to have completed at least one course in Research Methods. Undergraduate students to have completed at least two years of undergraduate instruction, and at least one course in Research Methods. Enrollment preference given to: HCD majors or graduate students. Recommended prerequisite: (graduate) DEA 6200. Recommended prerequisite or corequisite: (undergraduate) one or more of the following: DEA 1500, DEA 2700, DEA 2730, DEA 3510, DEA 3550, DEA 3770, DEA 4500.

Distribution Requirements (D-HE, LAD-HE, SBA-HE)

Exploratory Studies (CU-CEL, CU-UGR)

Last 1 Terms Offered 2025SP

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