Built on Experience – Housing environments with room for ageing

The home is central to our life, yet housing remains largely absent from debates about an ageing society. Rarely do they address the physical settings that form the foundation of everyday life: the homes and the neighbourhoods. The conversation concerning the challenges and potentials that come with population ageing most often focuses on staffing and technology. The book places those settings at the centre and argues for seeing the built environment as a condition for living well as an older person.

It is structured in four parts – Afsæt, Hjem, Sted and Beboer (Point of departure, Home, Place and Resident) – and gathers contributions from researchers and practitioners across architecture, ethnology, gerontology and the health and social sciences. The chapters range from the welfare state’s ageing paradox and the development of housing needs, through the transformation of the home, care technology and life in the neighbourhood, to architecture for an age-friendly society and citizenship for people living with dementia.

The book aims to widen the gaze from individual homes to coherent housing and urban policy and from the logic of the system to the diverse needs of residents. It aspires to inform politicians, professionals and citizens who work with or take an interest in how we can build for an ageing society.