Sean McNelis

Independent living units: Managing and renewing an ageing stock

Objectives:  To report on a key challenge (and its implications) that Australian not‐for‐profit organisations face as they manage and renew an ageing stock of independent living units (ILUs) for older people.

Researching housing in global context: new directions in some critical issues

Abstract Housing varies from society to society. As researchers, we seek to understand these various housing systems and their relations to broader economic, societal and global trends; we seek to identify the interests that drive housing, learn from successful innovations and propose practical innovations. The adequacy of our results depends upon the adequacy of our methods. This paper argues that current methods are no longer adequate to the task of dealing with the complexity of housing in a global context. It examines four critical issues: theory, interdisciplinarity, a scientific approach and making progress through collaboration. In doing so, it proposes a new approach to these issues. It also introduces a new framework for collaborative creativity, Functional Collaboration. This is a set of eight methods that integrates the diversity of current methods. It is a scientific, collaborative, cyclical and global approach oriented to progress in housing.