Sailing into memory
This project explores how later-life services can be reimagined to support aging populations through spatial strategies that prioritise dignity, connection, and care. It responds to observed limitations in current systems, including outdated housing typologies, social isolation, and environmental neglect, and argues for more inclusive and future-ready design frameworks.
The proposal introduces a cruise-based nomadic living model tailored specifically for older adults, offering four distinct route types—affordable, luxury, medical, and seasonal—each accommodating diverse lifestyle and care needs. This alternative living mode integrates affordability, climate responsiveness, and accessible healthcare both on board and in port cities, while challenging conventional stereotypes around aging. The cruise environment is designed with attention to mobility, shared living, comfort, and green integration.
Whitehaven, Cumbria, is reimagined as the home port, where coastal infrastructure supports a narrative of healing and memory. Four key interventions reshape its identity: the Eternal Dock, combining cruise docking with memorial diving and reef restoration; the Connection Hub, integrating mobility, social programming, and end-of-life dialogue; the Story Bench, enabling spontaneous intergenerational exchange along a scenic route; and the Echoes Hall, a secular ceremonial space surrounded by tree burials for ecological renewal.
Rather than treating aging as a passive decline, this project reframes it as a stage of active engagement, mobility, and reflection. Through the integration of infrastructure, environment, and memory, the design positions architecture as a mediator between individuals and collective narratives—linking personal journeys, social participation, and ecological stewardship. It offers a speculative yet grounded model that expands the possibilities of aging with agency, belonging, and care.
