SBO project with a primary societal finality: HOUSE. Innovating housing for older adults and subjective wellbeing (FWOSBO40)

Population ageing is one of the most important challenges of the 21stcentury (United Nations, 2019). Also in Belgium, the number of olderpeople is growing: in 2019, 25.3% of the population was >60 years. By2050, this will shift to 32.9%. In 2019, 5.7% of the population was >80years. This number will reach 10.5% in 2050. These sharp increases willsignificantly impact our housing sector, which at present is not adaptedto this heterogeneous population, and will challenge current and futurehousing policies. The context wherein people live will always need toaddress objective architectural parameters, but there is a growingrequest to also consider issues about people’s subjective wellbeing(SWB). The SBO project HOUSE starts from the observation that today,there is a lack of knowledge on the influence of housing design featureson the SWB of current and future generations of older people.Four research objectives are proposed: (i) Identify heterogeneity amongolder adults (ii) Understand how innovative housing (concepts andcharacteristics) could contribute to older adults’ SWB (iii) Test andvalidate the housing for older adults’ SWB-evaluation instrument (iv)Develop and evaluate spatial scenarios for innovative housing for olderadults’ SWB. The expertise gained through the research will generate 2utilization key-end products: ‘Assessment Packages’ (diagnosticinstruments allowing stakeholders to perform an assessment analysis oftheir (design of a) home environment regarding its strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and threats as to its SWB-potential) and a‘Design Decision Support Tool’ (enabling better informed decisionmaking for stakeholders engaging in SWB housing renovation ordevelopment). As to dissemination, demonstration projects, trainingpackages and diverse publications, conferences and a website willenable sharing insights on housing of older people and SWB.

Keywords:wellbeing, adults, housing

Disciplines:Elderly care

Project type:Collaboration project