Project Collins: Addressing Loneliness in Elderly Care Homes
- DLX Design Lab
- 24 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 12 minutes ago
Addressing Loneliness in Elderly Care Centers
January 2025 - April 2025
In collaboration with: AS PARTNERS Co., Ltd. (https://www.as-partners.co.jp/)
Loneliness is one of the quietest yet most urgent challenges in the world’s rapidly aging societies. People particularly at risk are those in socially and economically vulnerable positions, such as those who are unmarried or divorced, in poor health, have low household incomes, or have limited social connections.1 Furthermore, a 2024 survey found that approximately 40% of respondents reported experiencing feelings of loneliness.2 In Japan, where one in three people will be over 65 by 2040,3 we ask: how can design spark joy and connection inside elderly care care facilities?
Conducted with elderly care facilities operator, AS PARTNERS, and multiple research labs at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo, Project Collins set out to explore this loneliness and the future of care in our aging society.
Background and Inspiration
As Japan’s population ages, the question of how older adults experience daily life and connection is no longer distant, but one that will soon touch every household. AS PARTNERS operates more than 25 elderly care facilities in the Tokyo metropolitan area and confronts these challenges every day, making them an ideal partner in this work.
Together, we aimed to explore new approaches to address loneliness in elderly care facilities, with a particular focus on future scenarios in the year 2040. Using a futures-oriented design approach allowed the team to look beyond immediate challenges and imagine long-term possibilities, ensuring today’s ideas could remain relevant and adaptable for the care environments of tomorrow.
Research and Process
Through on-site field research in care facilities and close exchanges with residents and staff, the DLX Design Lab team gathered valuable insights about loneliness, challenges in an aging population, and daily life in a care home. This helped us better understand their lived experience.
One resident explained that moving in meant making difficult sacrifices:
“When I moved here, I decided to cut ties with my university friends.”
“I gave up all my hobbies.”
Another spoke of the guilt she felt in everyday life:
“I feel bad asking staff for even small things, like going for a walk.”
These voices, and others, revealed how entering a care facility often involves not only physical relocation, but also the loss of relationships, routines, and independence. Reducing isolation, we also learned, is not only about companionship, but also about unlocking richer daily experiences, improving mental and physical health, and restoring dignity and belonging.
Following these exchanges and gathered insights, AS PARTNERS, DLX Design Lab members, and University of Tokyo researchers came together in an ideation workshop. It became a rare moment of collective imagination, where diverse perspectives were shared openly and new possibilities for trust, dignity, and connection began to take shape.
Final Concepts
The ideas that were generated during the ideation workshop were synthesized into five concepts and shared back with top management at AS PARTNERS. The ideas ranged from lighthearted playful games that spark spontaneous laughter to scientific biosensors that gently tune into residents’ emotional states.
This work brought together partners from various lived experiences all focusing on a design futures challenge. Through it, much was learned including that designing with elderly care facilities requires balancing creative exploration with the everyday realities of care. We also learned that genuine collaboration across residents, staff, and researchers is what gives the concepts both practicality and heart.
This work challenged us to reimagine elderly care not as a place of gradual decline, but as a community of seniors enjoying connection, dignity, and growth. Because of the futures design oriented approach that was taken in this work, Project Collins is a small but impactful step towards addressing loneliness in elderly care centers not just for today, but for tomorrow.
