How old is “old”? According to a 1,000-person survey completed by London’s Design Museum in conjunction with the pop-up installation New Old , old means 73.

But according to the exhibition’s curator, Jeremy Myerson, a sizable number of respondents dismissed the word “old” altogether, claiming that we aren’t “old” at any age–a sentiment that reflects shifting cultural perceptions of aging, and presents a new challenge for designers working towards more inclusive intergenerational design solutions.

“The question is how will we live these longer lives? Will they be years full of life, or just life full of years?”

Over the next several decades, the populations of many developed countries will begin to skew toward the elderly. In the U.K., the number of people age 85 and older is estimated to double over the next 25 years. In the U.S., people 65 and older make up about 14% of the population, a number expected to double by 2060. Older people already form a disproportionate amount of the population in Japan, where 25% of the country’s citizens are over the age of 65. The demographic change is indisputable. “The question is how will we live these longer lives? Will they be years full of life, or just life full of years?” Myerson says.

Because of these shifts in population, many aspects of society–from the workforce to transportation to where and how we live–will need to be redesigned with older citizens in mind. And designers, who tend to be young, need to imagine themselves as septuagenarians. “Instead of seeing aging as a problem and a demographic time bomb, the idea is to see that we can innovate our way out of it,” Myerson says. “It’s an opportunity as well as a challenge and designers have a lot to offer.”

The New Old exhibition itself reflects just how drastically ideas around designing for older people have changed over the last 30 years. New Old is inspired by a landmark exhibition from 1986, where artists and designers were asked to prototype products that would help the elderly maintain their independence at home and avoid assisted living. “In the 1980s, people were quite happy to design for older people as passive, housebound, retreated from economic contribution, just consumers,” Myerson says. “Ambitions for older age are much greater now.”

Designing for an aging population no longer means only thinking about safety and care in the home; now, older people need design solutions to help them participate in the workforce, get around town, and convince a youth-centered society that they still have a lot to offer. For New Old, Myerson commissioned a series of projects from top design studios to address the issues of identity, mobility, community, working, and living.

This collaboration between Fuseproject founder Yves Behar and the startup Superflex is an exoskeleton aimed at giving frail limbs an extra boost. Developed using military-grade technology originally intended to help soldiers carry their gear, the Aura Power Suit’s lightweight material is embedded with motors, sensors, and AI designed to lessen loads. The power suit could theoretically lie underneath a user’s clothes and make the trip to and from the grocery store a whole lot easier, making an active life for an older person who tires quickly or struggles to walk a bit easier to attain.