DESIgn for all methods to cREate age-friendly housing
DESIRE will provide professionals in the building industry and home furnishings sector with the tools and skills to apply Design4All methods as an integral part of the design process, with the aim to create or adapt age friendly housing as a solution for the wellbeing, comfort and autonomy of the older adults or dependents at home.
About the project
Europe is ageing. According to the World Health Organisation, the physical and social environment are key determinants of whether people can remain healthy, independent and autonomous long into their old age. Therefore, housing is an important determinant for active and healthy ageing. However, a large part of the housing stock in the EU has not been designed to accommodate the needs of older people. That said, a great opportunity for the building and home furnishings sectors remains open. What is needed is to enforce innovative actions at training level to overcome skills mismatches and promote new design guidelines focused on older adults' needs.
Design for All (D4All) has been recognised as a tool to ensure accessibility, wellbeing, physical and mental health for older adults and enable a conscious use of the analysis of the needs as requires the involvement of end-users (Human-Centred Design). In addition, DESIRE will be based on a restorative and ergonomic environmental design in order to detect the interactions between humans and the built environment. This will ensure that, firstly, older adults and, secondly, future generations can remain longer at home while ageing with equal opportunities without facing physical and social barriers in age-friendly housing.
Objectives
DESIRE aims to provide professionals in the building industry and home furnishings sector with the tools and skills to apply D4All methods as an integral part of the design process to create or adapt age-friendly housing as a solution for the well-being, comfort and autonomy of the older adults or dependents at home.
- Define the conceptual framework of the DESIRE training course and overcome skills mismatches on D4All at VET and labour market level
- Develop an innovative training course on D4All to meet the emotional, cognitive and social needs of older adults while driving new opportunities in the habitat sector.
- Raise awareness about D4All and age-friendly housing in habitat professionals and general society as a key determinant of active and healthy ageing.
- Foster interactions and knowledge exchange in the design process between cross-cutting links such as Science (Architecture, Ergonomics), Social Sciences (Anthropology, Physiology) and Arts (Design, Habitat) to develop competitive and innovative products and services.
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Partners
This initiative brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts of architects, ethnologies and social anthropologist, Habitat VET providers, ageing, human and mental health consultants in the built environment form Slovakia, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia
Contact
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DESIRE – DESIgn for all methods to cREate age-friendly housing, project number 2020-1-SK01-KA202-078245, is a European project funded by the Erasmus+ programme, with duration from December 2020 to November 2022. This website reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
