Age-integrated Housing and Neighbourhoods

Later life is no longer defined by fixed stages. Older adults vary widely, ranging from fit and active individuals to people living with severe dementia, with many experiencing periods of decline followed by recovery and regained strength. There is a need to rethink our welfare institutions and to develop new housing models and neighbourhoods that can accommodate this diversity within a growing ageing population – something that cannot be solved by architecture alone.

For this reason, the research network Age-integrated Housing and Neighbourhoods has brought together 14 researchers from Denmark, the rest of Europe and North America, spanning the fields of architecture, planning, gerontology, anthropology, technology and the health and social sciences. These fields are rarely in sustained dialogue, but drawing on shared studies of newly developed housing and neighbourhoods, the network has worked with the concepts of integration and segregation as a framework for how environments can support health, wellbeing and independence in later life. 

The work has unfolded through three seminars in 2024 and 2025, and a concluding symposium in October 2025.

The network’s discussions have been further developed into an edited anthology, structured in two layers. The first is a visual logbook with case studies of nine innovative projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Denmark. These are presented through critical analyses, architectural drawings and photographs by Torben Eskerod, and are supplemented by interviews with three leading architectural practices, Osar Architects, Mæ Architects and Nord Architects. The second layer consists of peer-reviewed articles that examine, across disciplines, the interplay between living environments, older persons, and health. The book will be published by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing in 2027.