Improving ageing resilience of current and future housing

The World Health Organisation reported that people aged 65 years or above will account for 1.5 billion of the world’s population by 2050, rising from 524 million in 2010. Ageing population brings together a series of implications and co-morbidities: non-communicable diseases; elderly related impairments; physical or cognitive impairments. Current demographics make architects to reflect on the future of housing. The question is: How to design houses able to support social inclusivity for elderly people? How to adapt the housing stock considering the increasing dependency of the ageing population? The relationship between the built environment and health has been widely studied in the general population. Furthermore, studies on the effect of the built environment, especially on elderly people are spreading. This project aims to identify the features of the home environment able to support elderly people to age positively and live independently in their community. Existing evidence on the impact of the built environment and housing on elderly people were interrogated and the adaptation of existing dwellings were investigated to identify current models and trends. Initial findings show that, even if interesting projects have been developed, there is still the need to support innovative housing models to enable current and future housing stock to support elderly people to age positively and live independently in their community.