Building H Newsletter | Engineering Longevity at Scale
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation recently ranked the countries that would have the longest life expectancy in 2050. The list includes some usual suspects – rich nations like Switzerland, Norway and Singapore, perennial contenders like Japan – but also the less wealthy southern European nations of Spain, Italy, and Portugal. How these less affluent countries have created the conditions for longevity is the subject of a recent article in The Economist: Why southern Europeans will soon be the longest-lived people in the world.
At a time when longevity is getting a fair amount of attention in the US, whether it’s through the self-help books focusing on personal actions that can extend life or the research on how to stop or reverse aging processes, it's interesting to see the article focusing on the basics – and the importance of social policy and culture. Spain in particular is profiled and several characteristics are identified:
everyday movement – Spain leads western Europe is steps per day, but also has less “activity inequality” than many countries (like the US)
urban density (and generally lack of suburban sprawl) that creates opportunities for active transportation (i.e walking and biking) habits
the level of social activity that’s core to the culture – and also facilitated by the dense urban design (the Spanish are among the world’s leaders in spending time with friends and family)
family members living together across generations (ironically driven in part by a tough economy that forces many young people to live with their parents)
What’s also striking from the article (and fairly obvious to anyone who’s wandered through Madrid on any weeknight) is that Spanish culture isn’t exactly anchored in a philosophy of deprivation for health reasons; if anything it emphasizes enjoying life in the moment, especially when those moments can be enjoyed with others.
On another note, we’re happy to announce that we’ve added a new design to our collection of speculative designs of services that foster healthy behavior. We worked with designer Elliott Wortham to challenge a team of students from the University of Washington’s Human Centered Design and Engineering Department to imagine future environments that would make consistent good sleep almost inevitable. Their solution – a smart home service named Solis that controls lights, temperature and much more – all optimized for sleep. Check out their vision on our website.
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