The senior living industry today is touched in all phases by one pervasive and sobering fact: Vast numbers of baby boomers are reaching retirement age, which is already placing great strain on the marketplace to respond with innovative designs, greater choice, diverse lifestyle models, and evermore efficient means for delivering healthcare and other critical services.

While considering all this, it’s easy to look only to senior living market standards for inspiration, even while aspiring to more innovative thinking. However, if true innovation is going to happen and continue to happen on a rolling basis for current and future generations of senior living providers and the populations they serve, then it’s time we looked for design trends and innovations from industries outside senior living.

The Clean Slate Project is a year-long effort by Perkins Eastman, and co-sponsored by J+J Flooring Group, to explore the senior living market through fresh eyes. The project aims to look beyond the standard market trends and “disruptors” and instead consider what other industries (e.g. healthcare, education, hospitality) have to offer, as well as how various agents of change within those industries can lead to innovations in senior living.

Whether we’re examining a line of new products, new approaches to project management, novel research topics that can inform new models of care, or something else entirely, the underlying premise of the Clean Slate Project is that there’s an opportunity to re-imagine senior living.


We plan to examine four key topics relevant to senior living—technology, aging in place, third acts, and worldwide systemic changes—and after 1 year, we’ll share our findings with the industry at large.

This article, the first in a four-part series, focuses on technology and its role in senior living. From artificial intelligence and robotics to virtual reality, people are engaging with the world (and the world with us) in new ways every day. So where does senior living fit into all this? Here are four examples of technology making an impact in senior living:

1. In 2017, Perkins Eastman conducted an industry survey of senior living providers and other consultants and found that the number one concern among a majority of the 200 respondents was the increasing difficulty in hiring and retaining staff. As more boomers enter retirement and transition into senior living environments, the demand for more caregivers will grow in kind, but there’s no guarantee that the latter will be able to keep pace. With relatively few qualified candidates to fill these jobs, technology is poised to fill this gap, potentially redefining how services are delivered, both at home and in residential care environments.

In long-term care environments, robotics is one area that shows enormous potential and is already finding applications in some countries. Japan was an early adopter in 2017, introducing its Robear, an experimental nursing care robot that’s capable of lifting patients from beds into wheelchairs. Electronics manufacturer Toshiba has also introduced a care robot, called ChihiraAico, which is an android made to look like a 30-something Japanese hostess. The robot was developed to communicate with older adults with dementia and features direct communication links to medical personnel.

2. Other automated services and devices—like ScriptPro, a robotic prescription dispensing system, and Care.coach, an app that streamlines patient care and communication using digital avatars that appear as pets—are designed with less acute healthcare demands in mind. Rather, these technological innovations are designed to act like a healthcare concierge, capable of delivering telemedicine, therapeutic engagement, medication reminders, and coaching/supervision. When combined with integrated devices like Amazon Echo and Google Assistant, which tap into the potential for smart home technology to serve as caregiver and even help alleviate social isolation and feelings of loneliness, these technologies can support preventative approaches to chronic conditions and health ailments.

3. Before the internet and social media, people were more limited in their ability to connect remotely with the world around them or to access information and services that were critical to their health and day-to-day well-being. That’s not the case today as new technologies are being created at breakneck speed to help address problems associated with physical and social isolation. Social media sites like Stitch and SeniorMatch cater specifically to older singles seeking companionship and connectivity. Ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber, not to mention driverless car technology, can help combat the problems of physical mobility and isolation. There are myriad ways that seniors can actively engage with the outside world, despite physical limitations, meaning they’re no longer relying on traditional senior living communities to achieve a sense of connectedness.

4. Some forward-thinking senior living providers are introducing various initiatives to assist residents in their efforts. Atria at Foster Square, a newly opened senior community located in Foster City, Calif., recently launched a first-of-its-kind partnership with Google Expeditions that allows residents to visit global destinations by using virtual reality headsets. This technology not only enables users to experience new places and sites, but also revisit places and experiences from their past—a sort of reminiscence therapy that can be particularly effective in treating older adults with dementia. Designer Jake Kahana has achieved something similar with his groundbreaking BETTVR WITH AGE project that was introduced at Dorot in Manhattan and features a series of virtual reality films designed to improve the lives of seniors with limited mobility and frail cognitive abilities.

As the senior living industry looks to converge with other industries like healthcare, transportation, education, and hospitality, it’s clear that the usual amenities one typically finds in care environments will no longer suffice. Care and service providers who are keenly focused on the resident experience must look to the kinds of technologies that are designed to connect people, both physically and virtually.

Emily Chmielewski is senior associate at Perkins Eastman (Pittsburgh). She can be reached at e.chmielewski@perkinseastman.com. Max Winters is an associate at Perkins Eastman (Pittsburgh). He can be reached at m.winters@perkinseastman.com.

Read the other articles in this series:
Decentralizing Housing Options
Redefining The Golden Years