Housing for the elderly – a guide to best practice

A WelHops study some years ago assessed the needs of the elderly regarding the buildings and surroundings in which they wish to live. Still as relevant today as it was when it was carried out, this study ran from May 2005 to September 2007 as part of a European INTERREG IIIC project. Taking part were partners from Italy, Sweden, the UK, Spain, and Hungary.

The project objectives were to: -

• Develop a set of recommendations for the planning of a wide range of living accommodation for the elderly.
• Create an Internet portal containing analyses, reports and accepted best practices.
• Set up a network of experts.
• By applying the above ensure the provision of optimal accommodation solutions for the elderly who want to keep on living independently at home for longer.

The first step was to categorise the available housing units for the aged found in the partner countries and in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. These were then analysed and all the items were evaluated to be ranked on a scale of “good” to “worse”. The recommendations for building new housing for the elderly and for the renovation of existing housing extracted from this assessment were laid down as guidelines and tested in practice in three pilot projects.

The results showed that the elderly are able to live independently, at home for longer; this can give them a higher quality of life and sense of well-being; it can also significantly decrease the sense of being institutionalised and over-dependent. A number of additional factors were noted – people felt that their particular needs were being addressed and this made them feel more independent and better about themselves; greater exchange in the neighbourhood meant that loneliness was less of an issue.

This project’s main report has become a practical and useful guide that includes many recommendations on how to successfully draw up plans for new buildings or for renovating existing buildings for the aged. It comes in four parts:

• Section A: The home
• Section B: The building in addition to the home
• Section C: Spaces pertaining to the outside of the building
• Section D: Urban context

This article focuses the recommendations regarding electrical installations and some technical innovations. Throughout, any thoughts and comments about the report are differentiated by being highlighted.