Profiling the Housing Stock for Older People

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Profiling the Housing Stock for Older People

• The Transition from Domesticity to Caring

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The Research Team

• Principal Investigator
• Dr. Julienne Hanson,
• The Bartlett School of Architecture, University
  College London,
• Co-investigators
• Professor Mike Rowlands,
• Department of Anthropology, University College
  London,
• Leonie Kellaher,
• CESSA, University of North London
• Research Assistant
• Reem Zako
• The Bartlett School of Architecture, University
  College London,
• Anthropologists on the project
• Caroline Holland
• John-Sebastien Marcoux
• John Percival

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Research Aims

• The main aims of this research are
• To gather detailed information about the housing
  circumstances of older people across England for
  managers and architects to use in planning
  housing for the future
• To understand, through discussion with older
  people themselves, the ways in which housing
  design and layout can help or hinder arrangements
  for care and support, whenever this may become
  necessary
• To produce, and make widely available, a report
  and guidelines for all concerned - architects,
  planners, managers, older people, their relatives
  and carers which reveals what older people prefer
  and need in their housing
• Most importantly, this research intends to be
  responsive to the voices of the informants as
  they describe their ideas and aspirations about
  the kind of housing and support they want as they
  grow older.

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Sampling

• Sampling has be taken within a transect through
  the South-East of England from East Anglia
  through Central London to Dorset and through the
  North-West of England from the Fylde coast
  through Merseyside Greater Manchester to rural
  Cheshire.
• Based on primary research in 6 localities in 2
  regions of the country.

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B R A C K N E L L T H E S A M P L E
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B R A C K N E L L T H E P L A N S
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A Case Study in Bracknell Mrs B.

• Brief family profile and housing history.
  79 year old widow, living alone in 4 bed
  house, her home for 43 years...
• Health.
  Has arthritis, a
  prolapse, shoulder replacement and mobility
  problems.
• Community Connections. Cannot afford to attend
  day centre more than once a week..
• Family Connections with Home.
  Visited every 4-6 weeks children's games
  still in their old bedrooms...
• Friends Connection with Home.
  Friends have died or moved on...
• Support Services Connection with Home
  Home Help cleans and shops once a week...
• Plans and Perspectives on Moving Home.
  Needs to move but identity suffers with loss of
  "family home" ...

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Uses of Space within the Home Perceptions of
Space within the Home.
Aids and Equipment. Daily Routine.
Sits by the "glory-hole" eats in dining room so
won't get "slapdash".. Having necessary things
near at hand makes place look "cluttered"....
"I've got the house but that doesn't buy a
bath-seat". Bathes at
night as physically easier to get dry in bed...
Relationship With Objects
Changes of Use of Space and Allied Activities
within the Home.
"Trappings" are valued but can be traded for
companionship...
Spare room for ironing board stair-lift used
for transporting laundry...