Innovation: Casa alla Vela inter-generational housing

Italy

AAI Domains:

• Independent, healthy and secure living (independent living, physical safety, financial security, mental well-being)

• Participation in society (social connectedness, voluntary activity care to older adults)

Ageing populations and changing social structures will require the development of social innovations in housing and social care. The role of the family as informal carers is gradually changing along with the role of women in the workforce, while the relatively high cost of long-term care institutions providing support and nursing care for older people could prove financially challenging. There are strong reasons for the development of new forms of housing provision that can promote the autonomy of older people and develop new forms of social ties and integration.

The Casa alla Vela (the sailing house) is an ergonomically and environmentally efficient apartment block in the city of Trentino (population c.530,000) in northern Italy that is a socially innovative co-housing development operated by SAD, a cooperative social welfare organisation. It consists of a dozen high quality single room apartments that are divided between older people who are struggling to live independently in their own home and who are likely to enter long-term institutional care and selected students who are in need of affordable accommodation and who voluntarily agree to provide support to the older residents.

The apartment block has highly developed communal spaces for cooking and social activities that are encouraged to simulate the living arrangements of a large family. Older residents share the costs of food with cooking performed by residents and/or carers with older people carrying out as many daily activities of life as they can manage independently or with support from carers or the SAD coordinator who provides lifestyle coaching and support. Older residents benefit from ambient assisted living technology such as fall detectors, an emergency helpline and video call equipment to communicate with family and friends available as part of the ‘Suitcase’ project being conducted in the area when the apartment opened in 2014.

There are numerous innovative features of Casa alla Vela, including the promotion of inter-generational social interaction and solidarity within a non-hierarchical community. It is a good example of the sharing economy in action with mutual support that reduces social isolation and loneliness that can affect people of all ages, the sharing of living costs and the maintenance of older people’s capacity in a supportive and age-friendly environment. It is part of a developing co-housing network across Northern Italy that is developing solutions to the challenges of an ageing population in the context of changing family structures.

In relation to active ageing, Casa alle Vela encourages active ageing by preventing carer burnout through the promotion of the autonomy of older people to enable independent living with financial security in a well designed and highly equipped apartment block. It promotes voluntary activity and care giving to older adults among the student residents while also building stronger social connectedness that enhances mental well-being for both groups of residents. It is an innovative example of a public-private partnership that promotes mutuality and sharing for the benefit of younger and older people and their families while reducing the demand for high cost institutional care.

Websites

Secondo Welfare

UNECE policy brief (PDF, 504KB)