Sheffield Hallam re-imagines the 100-year life at London Design Festival

Sheffield Hallam's Lab4Living exhibition at London Design Festival

An exploration of the role of design in re-imagining the 100-year life is being showcased by Sheffield Hallam University at London Design Biennale this month, as part of London Design Festival

The interactive exhibition presents a body of design research to enhance health and wellbeing for an ageing population, developed by the University’s interdisciplinary research group Lab4Living. It is part of the Festival’s EUREKA showcase.

One-in-three people in the West can now expect to live until 100 years old, according to latest ONS data.

Lab4Living’s Re-Imagining the 100-Year Life gives a voice to people about their experiences of ageing through film, photography and creative writing.

Nick Dulake, Prof Paul Chamberlain, Noémie Soula and Ursula Ankeny present Lab4Living work at an event showcasing British innovation at 10 Downing Street

The installation allows visitors to reflect on and navigate the transitions that ageing brings to the meaning of home, relationship with the natural environment and the essence of what it is to be human.

EUREKA is a showcase spotlighting the ground-breaking creative thinking taking place inside university research departments for society and the economy, while examining the role of institutions in nurturing the next generation of problem solvers.

Lab4Living is one of a small number of UK university design research centres to have been invited to create an installation for the event.

Following last week’s Biennale launch, Lab4Living was one of only five exhibitors invited to present work at a reception at No.10 Downing Street hosted by Lucy Frazer MP, Secretary for State for Culture and Media. The reception was to showcase British innovation.

Professor Paul Chamberlain, Director of Lab4Living at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “Central to Lab4Living’s approach is engaging with diverse communities of stakeholders from the outset of a research project.

"Our methods focus on the experiences of service-users to inform alternative futures and generate pathways to impact. Here in this immersive exhibition we present some of the many often conflicting voices engaged in the research.”

The fourth edition of the London Design Biennale, which runs from 1-25 June 2023, brings together design projects and research from across the world to London’s Somerset House.

The Lab4Living exhibition has been supported by Research England and Sheffield Hallam University and developed with Optical Jukebox.