Disconnected London

Data design agency Signal Noise approached me to design a piece for their 'Place your bets' exhibition in the London Design Festival. The theme was the future of London based on predictions from various data sets including ageing. On a social level, one of the biggest challenges facing society today is building a health and social care system that can provide holistic, person-centred care and support for an ageing population.

'Disconnected London' focuses on dementia and the ageing population using recent NHS data to map out dementia prevalence, loneliness, deprivation and life expectancy in each of the boroughs. This data is then used to predict dementia cases in 2030 where we see a dramatic rise in people living over 80 years of age.

In March of this year, the UK government announced a 'Challenge on Dementia 2020' which identified that 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have dementia in the UK. The most important predictive factor of dementia is age. By 2030, of the 419,200 people over 80 living in London, up to 69,867 may suffer from dementia.

Smarter cities offer us the potential to enhance society but are we willing to reconnect with our ageing population?