Debra Whitman is an economist and expert on aging issues. As AARPs chief public policy officer, she leads global policy and research to help communities, lawmakers, and the private sector make aging easier. She has also served as staff director for the Senate Special Committee on Aging and as a researcher in the Social Security Administration.Below, Whitman shares five key insights from her new book,The Second Fifty: Answers to the 7 Big Questions of Midlife and Beyond.Listen to the audio versionread by Whitman herselfin the Next Big Idea App.1. Zip codes determine how long we live.On average, Americans live only 76 years. Our lives are shorter and less healthy than those of people in our peer nations and people in many poorer nations. However,wherewe reside in this country dramatically affects our lifespans. Between the longest-lived county, Summit in Colorado, and the shortest, Oglala Lakota County in South Dakota, there is a 20-year difference in average lifespan. And residents of West Virginia tend to develop chronic health conditions two decades earlier than those in Wisconsin.These disparities are linked to the social drivers of healththings like education, income, access to affordable health care, and zip code. Social drivers account for 60 percent of our longevity. The rest is split about equally between genes and the healthcare we receive.Not surprisingly, higher incomes equate with longer life: men in the top one percent of wealth outlive men in the bottom one percent by 15 years. There are disparities by race, too: Asian Americans live nearly 20 years longer than Native Americans.Certain state policies help drive health and longevity. These include the more obvious laws, like higher tobacco taxes, which reduce smoking, but also those related to minimum wage and paid family leave. We need to use this countrys abundant resources to create environments that support all of us in living healthier and longer.2. Health isnt just what we eat and how many steps we take.We can all take action to improve our health and extend our lives. Youve probably heard about the five healthy habits: a good diet, exercise, a healthy body weight, no smoking, and little or no alcohol. People who practice four of the five habits gain eight to ten years free of major medical problems such as cancer and heart disease.But mindset has a big impact. Harvard epidemiologist Becca Levy found that people with the most positive perceptions of aging live more than seven years longer than their peers with the most negative attitudes. The positive thinkers have fewer strokes and heart attacks, higher physical functioning, and shorter recovery times after illness or injury.The other big health enhancer in aging is relationships. Healthy relationships are linked to better immune functioning, lower blood pressure, and lower levels of inflammationall critical to good health. By contrast, prolonged isolation has roughly the same impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Researchers from the Harvard Study of Adult Development found that the best predictor of physical and mental health for people in their eighties was not cholesterol level or blood pressure but having had good relationships in their fifties.3. Cognitive change is normal as we age, but cognitive decline is not inevitable.Americans tend to overestimate the likelihood of dementia. About half of us believe we will probably get it when only about 15% of people between 75 and 79 have even mild cognitive impairment. And our chances of getting dementia have declined over the last decade, likely because of improvements in nutrition, health care, education, and lifestyle.The Lancetrecently identified 12 modifiable risk factors that account for about 40 percent of dementia worldwide. Some of thesesuch as air pollution and inadequate educationneed to be addressed by the government and the private sector. But many relate to individual behavior.Adopting the five healthy habits I mentioned earlier could help lower dementia risk with aging by up to one-third. Sleep is important, too. People who sleep seven to eight hours a night are significantly less likely to develop dementia than those who sleep five to six hours. Nurturing relationships and staying socially active lower the risk, as does strengthening the muscle of our brain with activities that involve memory, attention, and reasoning.Some cognitive faculties improve as we age: our grasp of meaning and the connections between ideas and our ability to think constructively. We tend to become more emotionally resilient. Our brains continue to change in our second fifty, but not all of that change is decline.4. Older workers are a boon to the economy.When I was a kid, the norm for many Americans was education, followed by a few decades of work, followed by retirement. The reality today is different. More older Americans are working than ever before, even as we see our skills become outdated with no opportunities for reskilling. The average age of retirement continues to creep up. Working while retired is the new norm, and many Americans will never be able to retire.Helping older people stay in the workforce benefits individuals, employers, and the economy. Among older workers, it slows cognitive decline and keeps people socially engaged. Employers with multigenerational workforces see more innovation and higher productivity in both younger and older workers. And older workers help grow the economy. Research has shown that age discrimination that pushed older Americans out of the workforce cost $850 billion for one year in lost wages, salaries, taxes, and consumer spending.But not everyone can keep working indefinitely, and we must better support those who cant. For people who want or need to keep working, we must address the barriers they face, such as outdated skills, caregiver demands, and ageism. About half of Americans are laid off or pushed out of jobs at least once after turning fifty. In the changing work landscape, we allworkers, employers, and lawmakersneed to reimagine what it means to earn and learn over a lifetime.5. We canand mustmake it easier to age well in America.The programs that support us as we age desperately need updating. Social Security hasnt been touched in 40 years, and our safety net programs remain stingy compared to those of our peer countries. The cost of long-term care in the United States can bankrupt people.We need a comprehensive Plan for Aging Well in America that tackles these challenges. This plan should address the disparities that cut the lives of some Americans short while others live comfortably into their nineties. It must ensure affordable long-term care for older people who are ill or disabled, while helping all of us stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.Too often, we operate from a scarcity mindsetthe belief that supporting longer, healthier lives for older Americans will drain the resources needed for young people or that supporting young people is not connected to health in later life. But investing in our youngest citizens makes them more likely to be healthy adults. Creating a better society for older people lays a foundation for future generations.Improving health care, income, employment, and long-term services costs money. But the less we invest now, the more we will spend later to care for people as they age. And the benefits of such investments arent only economic. A healthier and more financially secure second fifty means less physical suffering and psychological stress, and more freedom to enjoy those final years.This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.

Dezeen Courses: for our latest courses roundup, we've selected six US-based courses covering a range of subjects including fashion design, historic preservation and urban design.This roundup includes both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at institutions across the US, available to American and international students alike.Below are six US-based courses featured on Dezeen Courses:Advanced Digital Media at Tulane UniversityThe Advanced Digital Media course atTulane Universityin New Orleans encourages students to critically engage with use of computational and data-driven methods of architectural design.Find out more about the course Master of Science in Historic Preservation at School of the Art Institute of ChicagoThe Master of Science in Historic Preservation course at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago uses the city of Chicago as the basis for theoretical and practical enquiry.Find out more about the course Post-Professional Master of Science, Advanced Urban Design at Cornell UniversityThe Post-Professional Master of Science, Advanced Urban Design course at Cornell University provides students with the knowledge to design environments that bring positive change to public spaces.Find out more about the course Master of Business Innovation in Service Design at Savannah College of Art and DesignThe Master of Business Innovation in Service Design course at Savannah College of Art and Design equips students with contemporary knowledge and skills around service design to lead organisations in both private and public sectors.Find out more about the course MFA in Fashion, Body and Garment at the School of the Art Institute ChicagoThe MFA in Fashion, Body and Garment at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago challenges students to explore fashion in a broader context, addressing its relationship with technology, sustainability and the wider community.Find out more about the course BSc Architecture and Inventive Technologies at University of Southern CaliforniaThe BSc Architecture and Inventive Technologies course at the University of Southern California empowers students to create designs for the built environment with interdisciplinary learning in science and technology.Find out more about the course Dezeen CoursesDezeen Courses is a service from Dezeen that provides details of architecture, interiors and design courses around the world.Click herefor more information.The post Six US-based courses featured on Dezeen Courses appeared first on Dezeen.

Architectural studio CAN has extended a terraced London house with a palette of wood and hemp and a large curved window that aims to redraw its connection to the garden.The Stoke Newington home, named Verdant House in honour of its jungle-like outdoor space, has been expanded with a timber-framed side and rear extension to meet the needs of a young family.CAN has renovated Verdant House in Stoke NewingtonVerdant House's original floor plan included a long galley kitchen with a low ceiling and a "failing" conservatory that was too hot in summer, too cold in winter and cut off the garden from the main house."The clients wanted a more interconnected ground floor that was much more focused towards the garden and allowed them to adapt the spaces as they grew as a family, open-plan but flexible," CAN director Mat Barnes told Dezeen.It is clad in corrugated panels of hemp fibreCAN has introduced an open-plan living, kitchen and dining area in the timber-framed extension, within which the floor is lowered by 20 centimetres from the rest of the home to create a sense of openness.Its interior is dominated by natural materials including an exposed glue-laminated timber (glulam) structure, which CAN said aligns with the client's request for a "forest-inspired" palette.Its centrepiece is a curved windowThe extension's structure comprises 85 per cent glulam while the exterior is clad in panels of corrugated hemp fibre designed to change colour and texture as it weathers over time. It is topped with a meadow-planted roof.Verdant House's centrepiece is its sweeping curved glass window looking out to the garden, which references a Victorian shop front. It is intended to reconnect the home its outdoor space after the old conservatory had left them "disjointed".The window is modelled on Victorian shops"Many Victorian shops used curved windows on either side of a central doorway, which allowed uninterrupted views into the shop window as a customer entered," explained Barnes."Why not do this from the inside out?"The clients requested a "forest-inspired" interior for Verdant HouseThe window's position next to the oversized glazed door now gives the owners dual aspect views, meaning they can view their garden up close and the northwest sky at a distance fromthe same chair.It was custom-built for the house and presented the team with several challenges, including making it large enough for strong visual impact but small enough to squeeze through the tight terraced house.Read: CAN adds fake mountain to Edwardian house in south London"As it's such an unusual item and we only found one supplier who would make it for us at a cost that was sensible," Barnes added.To add flexibility to Verdant House's open-plan layout, CAN introduced full-height hemp fibre curtains and Douglas fir shutters that allow the family to open and close off spaces as their spatial needs change.Bolted green trusses support the kitchen roof lightThe heart of Verdant House is now the light-filled kitchen, featuring a roof light supported by bolted green trusses. CAN also designed cabinet fronts, crafted from chiselled oak boards and stained with rich, dark-toned linseed oil."The project was about creating a soft but high-impact design that is personal to the client and celebrates natural materials," said Barnes."Every part of this home is crafted with intention, from the trusses in the kitchen to the way materials and textures come together to create a space that reflects the client's tastes and the way they want to live."Verdant House is named after its jungle-like gardenBarnes founded CAN in 2016, having previously been an associate at Studio 54 Architecture.His first solo projects include a blue and white striped house extension and a renovation of his own home in south London complete with a fake Disneyland mountain.The photography is by Rick Pushinsky.The post CAN relinks Verdant House with garden using statement green window appeared first on Dezeen.

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) recently transformed a former Aldi store into an extraordinary museum. This isnt something we see usually, but it is interesting to see the firm convert a humble store into something quite so impressive. The former store will be completely transformed into a paper museum with a light-filled space.A visually intriguing and eye-catching roof will top the structure, and remind you of a massive piece of paper, that seems to be draped over the building. It is located in Jutland, Denmark, and currently, there arent any photos of the original store. But we have caught a glimpse of the current museum building. Dive in!Designer: Bjarke Ingels GroupThe building occupies around 900 sq m, but it will be increased to double the size to host workshops, events, teaching rooms, offices, and storage facilities. The pre-existing building walls will be equipped with a new acoustic-regulating layer of paper art on the exterior. This paper art draws inspiration from origami, and it will include loads of glazing.The timber sourced will be from the same wood used to produce the paper. The museum will host paper-related exhibitions, and currently, it also includes a Paper-Plane airport and paper boats for children to interact and play with. It will be exciting to watch the exhibitions and events the museum will hold in the future.Paper art is about creating three-dimensional shapes and complex images from a monochromatic two-dimensional material a sheet of paper, said BIG boss Bjarke Ingels. By treating the roof surface as such a single sheet of folded paper existing and new functions are brought together in one unifying gesture. The expressive is accentuated by the clear, complexity arises from simplicity. And an obsolete supermarket finds new life under the floating curved roof.The Museum for Papirkunst is a fine example of how many architectural designs and firms are undertaking initiatives to conduct massive and ambitious renovations. They are taking steps to improve existing buildings and elevating them, instead of building new structures and creating more pollution. This is a commendable effort on the part of majors firms and designers.The post BIG Transforms A Former Aldi Store Into A Visually Stunning Paper-Inspired Paper Museum first appeared on Yanko Design.

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