Co-Aging – Rethinking how we work and live together
We are living longer, staying active for more years, and moving through life paths that are more open and unpredictable than ever before. At the same time, millions of people are transitioning out of paid work into a new phase of life. Many want to shape this phase consciously, create meaning, and stay engaged. Some want to start again. Yet most of the structures we live, work, and learn in were not built for this reality.
The most significant transition movement of the past decades
Based on a study by the Institute of the German Economy, around 16.5 million people in Germany are expected to retire by 2036. This means the country is experiencing the largest transition movement of the past decades.
Transitions are among the most fragile phases of life, and we are often poorly prepared for them. What challenges individuals also affects society as a whole. When large numbers of people simultaneously change or lose their roles, the social balance begins to shift.
When people with experience, curiosity, and skills are missing, a vacuum emerges. Orientation is lost. Energy dissipates. Ideas stall.
Age diversity connects what would otherwise drift apart. It holds things together when certainties begin to crumble. And it makes society more resilient, because multiple perspectives remain in motion.
Yet most of the structures we live, work, and learn in are not designed for this reality.
This is exactly where Co-Aging comes in
Together with BEYDES New Working Culture, Age Bombs is launching a pilot project to demonstrate how work, learning, and living can come together across life stages and lived realities and how this energy can extend beyond the building into the city.
To make this possible, we want to bring people from different life stages together in a shared space, a place that shows how age diversity works in practice: through encounters, through doing things together, and through formats that provide orientation.
Why Co-Aging?
Many people today experience situations where age — consciously or unconsciously — suddenly becomes a barrier:
Loss of role – structure, meaning, and a sense of belonging break away when work ends.
Lack of participation – skills and experience have no place to land.
Loneliness – people remain internally isolated, even when others are present.
Digital exclusion – technology shuts people out when they are not brought along.
Disconnected living environments – housing, cities, and everyday life no longer fit one’s current life stage.
Missing role models – there are too few examples showing how age diversity can work in everyday life.
And closing these gaps requires spaces where multiple life realities are present at once.
What Co-Aging @ BEYDES enables
Co-Aging @ BEYDES makes age diversity tangible. It opens a third place where participation begins and new roles can emerge. A place that shows how people can become effective together without age defining their value or role.
BEYDES becomes the ideal starting point for this. A place that connects coworking and neighborhood life, and already serves as a vibrant environment for working and living together.
This is where people plug in.
This is where capabilities surface.
This is where new roles take shape.
This is where connection builds.
This is where action begins.
BEYDES becomes a creative ecosystem and a central hub of a neighborhood where people support one another, share knowledge, shape spaces, and accompany life transitions.
How Co-Aging @ BEYDES creates impact
Co-Aging provides orientation. People can experience and understand where they stand and where they want to go. To support this, facilitated spaces are created where individuals can clarify their next steps and prepare for new roles.
Co-Aging makes impact visible. When stories are shared — about learning, loss, new beginnings, or later opportunities — they create images that encourage others and show what age diversity can look like in real life.
Co-Aging opens connection. When people share what they can do — whether hands-on, creative, or organizational — knowledge becomes accessible. Skills that would otherwise remain unused begin to make an impact.
Co-Aging @ BEYDES creates impact in two directions
If BEYDES is the creative ecosystem and central hub, the city becomes the resonant field with its own formats. Through walks, mapping formats, and pop-up interventions, the city is invited to open itself to new perspectives. So people can see how places, pathways, and neighborhoods change when age is taken into account.
As impulses move out into the city and return with renewed energy, a living cycle takes shape.
What happens next
Co-Aging @ BEYDES grows through people who want to get involved, have something to contribute, and are curious about what a new, age-inclusive way of living and working together can look like and who want to rethink age and aging with us.
Anyone who would like to support the idea of Co-Aging @ BEYDES is invited to fill out the online questionnaire (German). The responses will help us develop relevant formats and better understand what each person needs and what they would like to contribute.
If you leave your email address in the questionnaire, we will keep you informed about the next steps.
Access the online survey here. (German only)
