Author(s)

T. Ooms

Abstract

When we reflect on the contemporary housing with care and dwellings for an ageing population we focus on the following key concepts: affordability, with a quality of space that has a homeliness embedded in the spatial and social fabric and offers options for collective living. It also has to have strong relations with the surroundings, offering a continuity of care (care landscape), with a diverse spectrum of typologies that provide room and space for personal development and self-respect enhancement. That is a great deal to take on board, and yet, this is the outcome of our conversations with our clients who are dwell care organisers that are planning to develop a new dwell care project. An architectural project that wants to live up to this ambition primarily has to facilitate and create possibilities. These kinds of projects will not be about solving problems but rather about creating opportunities. This paper will showcase an architectural proposal that recently has been developed in the context of an architectural competition in the Flemish region of Belgium. The paper will focus on how an architectural design could address the issues put forward and how considering the project as a network could contribute to the quality of dwelling for an ageing population.

Keywords

ageing population, network, collective living, design, project