Jonas E Andersson

Architecture for the silver generation: Exploring the meaning of appropriate space for ageing in a Swedish municipality

This paper focuses on an architecture competition for the silver generation, namely those aged 65 years and older. Twenty-seven Swedish informants were interviewed using an interviewing guide that included a photographic survey. The informants emphasised aesthetic dimensions in architecture for the prolongation of ageing in place and independent living in a residential home. This study highlights the individual adjustment of space, and the integrated location in existing urban settings near nature. Based on the findings, a habitational model for exploring the appropriate space for ageing is formulated. It suggests that architecture through location and spatial features needs to generate positive associations with the users.

Architecture and the Swedish welfare state: three architectural competitions that innovated space for dependent and frail older people

ABSTRACT In 2012, three architectural competitions were held as part of the strategic programme ‘Living Well, Growing Old’, launched by the Swedish government in 2010. The intention was to use the innovative quality of the architectural competition in order to conceive future-oriented built environments for the ageing Swedish society. In Sweden, several architectural competitions with a focus on space for dependent and frail older people have been organised over the past century. Architectural design has been incorporated into reforms for social care of older people. This study focuses on the relationship between architecture and socio-political visions in three architectural competitions, realised in 1907, 1948 and 1979. The study demonstrates that architectural competitions within this field are more than a list of functional and spatial requirements for architects to respect. Instead, they are socio-political statements that define spatial frameworks within an ideological view on how ethically to provide care for dependent and frail older people in a welfare regime.

Touching up Communal Space of a Residential home set-ting. : A Comparative Study of Tools for Assessing Changes in the Interior Architectural Space

This study focuses on the interior remodeling of two Swedish residential homes for dependent seniors. A regular maintenance operation was turned into a color intervention project, and the residents stayed during the process. The aim of the study was to assess the changes in terms of supportiveness for elderly individuals with cognitive or functional impairments. The settings were evaluated prior to and after remodeling. Architecture profession method and the Therapeutic Environment Screening Survey of Nursing Homes instrument were used. The conclusion is that a supportive architecture was not achieved, due to a restraining focus on color instead of the relation between aging, color, and homeliness. On the other hand, the architecture profession method and the Therapeutic Environment Screening Survey of Nursing Homes instrument proved to be useful complementary tools for assessing interior changes in architectural space.

Standardizing Human Abilities and Capabilities Swedish Standardization with a Design for All Approach

Several standard works in Sweden from the period 2000–2017 have been focused on converting visionary welfare political goals into down-to-earth-oriented guidelines for subsequent realization and implementation. The present paper is focused on the conversion of general welfare goals into standards that apply to areas that require a trans-disciplinary approach to address accessibility issues in built environment, services and transportation. The study suggests that standardization with a design for all perspective becomes an interpretive work in which words and phrases are contemplated in relation to the ethical stance of the national disability policy. This framework is situated at the very interface between real-life settings and visionary thinking. Consequently, participants in standardization works revolving around design for all activate several individual knowledge fields of ethical, ideological, practical and theoretical nature. In communal discussions between the participants, the development of standards proceeds through an analytical work that is like an iterative creative process that uses concepts, phrases and words as instruments. The overall conclusion is that standardization with a design for all approach has left the strict focus on products and started to target the design process in view of a built environment, products or services that are centered on the fit between the design and a wide range of human abilities.

Searching for Innovative Design: Architectural Competitions in the Silvering Swedish Welfare State

The new millennium has seen an increased interest in appropriate housing for the senior part of the Swedish population, defined as those aged 65 years and older. In 2010, the Swedish government launched a 2-year program called “Growing Old, Living Well” that targeted the living conditions of not only older people with few or some needs for homecare services, but also the smaller group of dependent and frail older persons whose everyday living depends upon regular caregiving. The program promoted architectural competitions as a tool for innovation. This article assesses the outcome of 3 architectural competitions that were carried out by 3 municipalities in accordance with the program. It concludes that existing notions about appropriate space for aging populations prevailed, since the competition briefs evolved from existing data and consequently allowed for only a low degree of innovative thinking. Hence, the relationship between architectural design and older peoples age-related needs was only addressed indirectly. Further work needs to be done in the area of housing for the Swedish silvering welfare state in order for this factor to become an essential criterion for creating innovative architecture and urban design.