Author: Homes4Life

The European Commission would like to invite everyone to join and register to its newly launched Futurium community platform “Active and Healthy Living in the Digital World”.

It has been conceived specifically to support organisations and other related initiatives, such as the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Aging, the Active and Assisted Living programme, the More Years Better Lives JPI and all organisations, partnerships, hubs, clusters and projects working on innovation for active ageing, healthy living and better wellbeing with digital technologies. With the aim to promote collaboration, exchange, dissemination and break silos, the platform is open to all relevant initiatives and stakeholders working on innovation for health and wellbeing.

Through the platform, the European Commission aims to enhance visibility and dissemination of successful project results and best practices from all EU regions and to further support your community and ecosystems, contributing also to a stronger European Health- and AgeTech sector. The platform would also issue a monthlyNewsletter including events, news, best practices, funding opportunities, forum discussions and policy related information, to which we invite you to subscribe too.

What is so specific about the 11 pilot buildings across Europe which already tested the Homes4Life Certification Scheme ? What is their particular approach to age-friendliness ? How do they address the different clusters (Personal, Economic, Physical, Social, Outdoor Access) of the Certification Scheme ?

Have a look a the detailed Business Case of each pilot site on this page.

The Homes4Life certification scheme has already been tested on 11 pilot buildings across Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Poland and The Netherlands), both in Design and Operational phase.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Discover the Homes4Life pilots and their business case here.

A new publication co-authored by our partner Utrecht University in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is highlighting some of the outcomes of the research conducted in Homes4Life.

Abstract: A variety of innovative pilot projects are being implemented to improve the life-course resilience of existing and newly built home environments. We refer to these projects as “socio-technical experiments” that embody different kinds of promising futures and provide direction to current developments in the emerging domain of age-friendly homes. To take stock of this diversity within Europe; this paper provides an overview of 53 ongoing socio-technical experiments that are being conducted in the Netherlands, France, Ireland and Poland. We find that, besides the variation between European countries, there is a more important type variation in terms of the character of the experiments themselves and the differences in development direction that they propose. Our findings suggest that most of the innovations tested in these experiments are not primarily material or technical but primarily social or conceptual in character (i.e., new organizational modes or everyday practices that re-arrange social relations or new housing concepts that bridge the divide between ageing in place individually and a nursing home). This variety of innovations tested in the experiments can be categorized into seven distinct innovation pathways: (1) Showcasing Technology, (2) Innovation Ecosystem, (3) Sheltered Elite, (4) Specific Community, (5) Conscious Retrofitting, (6) Home Sharing and (7) Retrovation Challenge.

Read the full article at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031139 

On 27th January 2021, the European Commission has presented a green paper to launch a broad policy debate on the challenges and opportunities of Europe’s ageing society.

It sets out the impact of this pronounced demographic trend across our economy and society and invites the public to express their views on how to respond to this in a public consultation, which will run for 12 weeks.

On Thursday 28th January 2021, Homes4Life held its final conference to promote its main project outcomes and discuss upcoming perspectives.

The event featured a presentation of the Homes4Life Vision for age-friendly living environments, which has underpinned the development of the European Homes4Life Certification Scheme of ageing in place.

A roundtable involving MEP Kim van Sparrentak, Catherine Mc Guigan (Age-friendly Ireland) and Roslyn Molloy (Housing Agency) allowed to discuss latest trends and next steps, and a ceremony was organised to unveil the name of the 10 pilot organisations throughout Europe that were the first to test the Homes4Life evaluation framework, and to receive their pilot award.

The whole event can be watched again here.

The slides are also available to download below.

Part 1 – Homes4Life Vision and Certification Scheme

Homes4Life Final Event Slide Deck Part 1

 

Part 2 – Homes4Life pilot sites – Award Ceremony

Homes4Life Final Event Slide Deck Part 2

 

The co-design phase of the New European Bauhaus has officially started!

The launch was announced by Commissioners Gabriel and Ferreira during a press conference on January 18th 2021.

This event also coincides with the launch of the New European Bauhaus website, which will be the key tool of the co-design phase including three fundamental features:

1. A broad invitation to interested stakeholders and networks to organise conversations around the New European Bauhaus concept, supported by an “engagement toolkit”;
2. A harvesting tool to collect inputs through three complementary entry points:
   • Existing inspiring examples for the New European Bauhaus
   • Challenges and needs that the New European Bauhaus should cater for
   • Ideas for the New European Bauhaus action and community
3. A call to become Partner of the New European Bauhaus.

The New European Bauhaus is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative, convening a space of encounter to design future ways of living, situated at the crossroads between art, culture, social inclusion, science and technology. It brings the Green Deal to our living places and calls for a collective effort to imagine and build a future that is sustainable, inclusive and beautiful for our minds and for our souls.

Beautiful means inclusive, accessible spaces where the dialogue between diverse cultures, disciplines, genders and ages becomes an opportunity to imagine a better place for all. It also means a more inclusive economy, where wealth is distributed and spaces are affordable.

Beautiful means sustainable solutions that create a dialogue between our built environment and the planet’s ecosytems. It means to realise regenerative approaches inspired by natural cycles that replenish resources and protect biodiversity.

Beautiful means enriching experiences that respond to needs beyond our material dimension, inspired by creativity, art and culture. It means appreciating diversity as an opportunity to learn from each other.

Further information at https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/index_en

Workshop report now available at : https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3900/65/1/12

Homes4Life is proud to be a finalist of the SilverEco 2020 Award competition !

Our partner R2M Solution – Régis Decorme – had presented our project and its certification scheme for ageing in place in the “housing / dwelling” category of the competition.

In case you missed the award ceremony, it is available to watch again on YouTube through the link below !