Agile Dwelling Units for an Aging Population

As the number of older adults continues to grow rapidly, the need for personalized, innovative, and responsive housing solutions is critical to support individuals’ social, emotional, financial, and physical needs. This research deploys an outcomes-based design approach to explore ways in which Agile Dwelling Units (AgDUs) with integrated Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used to prolong older adults’ ability to live independently and age in place. A multidisciplinary team of industry experts, design practitioners, and scholars, worked collaboratively across three focus areas – human factors, health technologies, and design – to model a process that supports the contextual understanding, exploration, and deployment of AgDUs for an aging population. Using Dallas, Texas as a case study, developed methodology and research was applied to a one-semester academic studio course, in which architecture students designed initial prototypes to create healthy and flexible living spaces that adapt to the ever-changing needs of one’s lifespan. This project models an integrated process between designers and non-designers that is necessary when addressing complex urban systems. Shared knowledge synthesis and innovation generated in collaborative practice with allied disciplines is equally as important in architectural education as it is in practice, to prepare students to be socially responsive and relevant professionals.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AIA.Inter.22.10

Volume Editors
Gail Napell & Stephen Mueller

ISBN
978-1-944214-42-13