Document Type

Conference Paper

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Architecture engineering, Robotics and automatic control, Automation and control systems, 6.5 OTHER HUMANITIES

Publication Details

Lifelong Housing Design: User Feedback Evaluation of smart objects and accessible houses for healthy ageing in Proceedings of The 9th ACM International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments – Corfu, Greece 2016 ACM Digital Library ISBN 9781450343374 http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2910674.2935828.

Abstract

According to the latest research by the European Community and ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) surveys, Europe has the highest average age for its population. According to those data, in the near future, it could be necessary to move from a welfare model based on the centralization of care systems, to a system based on the distribution of certain healthcare facilities [1]. This means that the ageing population is ever increasing, thanks to better lifestyles, innovative medical care and wider access to different services. This work seeks to observe and analyse key implications of architectural and interior design features and new, non-invasive, interactive technologies, related to user interaction design and usability of environments within the housing scenario. Those themes are particularly related to ageing people who live in autonomously or semi-autonomously within their own homes or assisted homes.

For example, according to the “community care” approach, people could live as long as possible in their familiar environment, by bringing health and social care services into people’s home, providing assistance for everyday needs and re-activating the potential of local communities. Two vital aspects of the life of an individual, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle despite ever- changing conditions, are domestic autonomy and good sustained relationships within the neighbourhood. This leads to an interesting research issue: could houses and smart appliances have the potential to improve autonomy and people’s quality of life? Which kind of methods, tools and scenarios could enhance well-being and healthy conditions, while reducing time and costs?

Data, analysed in different scenarios, starting from a worldwide and then focusing on Europe and Italian context, provides a clear view of house’s architectural and technological features and user feedback, useful to define a future household scenario suitable to meet the needs of a growing population.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1145/2910674.2935828


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