Had a lecture about Social Change Design and I want to have a discussion with people. As the time goes on, the life style has been changed, that effected our society in someway. Here, the issue is 'Live Alone'. Is Live alone good or bad? how it connects to design?

In Europe, people who live alone and under 35 years old spend on more than 20% personal care and 40% food of total (RESEARCHANDMARKETS, 2003). Although some living alone people are satisfied with their lives, living alone also creates some problems and negative effects to some particular group, such as disable people and elderly. For example, elderly cannot to do much heavy housework, so they may need others’ helps. For People, who are not good at communication, living alone may results social isolation. They may feel lonely and they need to find ways to communicate with other people.

Living alone does not mean to live lonely and it also does not mean that living alone people have to live on a mountain or in a cave. Living alone’ here means that people live by themselves and to enjoy freedom, to be master of themselves (Hanh, T, 1998). Therefore, living alone has positive affects that help people to live better.

Living alone also brings up some negative effects. One is that when living alone people get in home, there is no one say hello to you. They eat alone and no one chat to them. When they are sick, they will feel lonely. Moreover, living along may cause communication problem, particular for some people who are not good at communicating. If they live alone, they will total lost opportunities to chat and finally they may be isolated.

Now, the design needs to be related to that situation, which is Live Alone. Our design should be human centre design. Therefore, live alone and live together give designers two tasks to achieve. For example, space, food, movement, inspirit, behaviour and so on. All are need to be considerd as a part of design.