Flexible living to Age in Place

英国的房地产市场无法应对人口老龄化带来的挑战。许多人都在与衰老作斗争；一个主要的问题是他们的住房环境，（Hayes, 2018）。政府承认存在住房危机，并已承诺440亿英镑来解决这个问题。然而，他们的重点是供应，而不是这些房子如何满足社会需求，特别是老年人的需求。住房部门继续建造难以适应的房屋；它没有利用近年来在该地区发展起来的重要建筑和数字创新，这些创新可以使人们就地养老。数字和传感器技术——以及通过现代建筑方法（MMC）进行的适应性创新——具有改变游戏规则的能力。这些技术可以使新的和现有的家庭环境能够量身定制，以支持居住者的特殊需求，使他们能够保持独立，并尽可能长时间地生活在家中。这项技术的整合将为个人和社会节省大量的资金，并减少晚年环境和生活方式变化带来的心痛和压力。根据“关注年龄”组织的说法，如果房屋可以更容易地适应并推迟住宿护理，那么通过避免护理费用，每人每年可以节省26,000英镑。在英国，很少有开发商为老年人提供住房，因为它们被认为是昂贵的，而且在空间方面比典型的住房解决方案效率低，（Docking, 2019）。文献还表明，老年人不希望与年轻人隔绝，生活在退休后的贫民窟里。因此，适当的老龄化——由设计良好的、可访问的、适应性强的、技术支持的住宅来支持——必须成为该行业的目标。该项目在西汉姆花园村提供了七个地块，这是一个1500套房屋的创新住房方案。工业合作伙伴已经从140万英镑的预算中拨出56万英镑（8万英镑/套房子）用于技术创新，以支持独立生活，并为老年人提供综合福利和护理服务。这个备受瞩目的住宅开发项目是私人开发商（IDP Partnership, Plan B, Tolent, Karbon Homes（由Homes England支持）和诺森比亚大学）之间的合作。这里的目标是，如果成功的话，将一个由医疗从业者、建筑师、设计师、建筑用户和学者（具有建筑、健康、老年学、计算机科学和软件工程方面的专业知识）组成的共同设计团队聚集在一起，设计这些技术支持的原型房屋。这些住宅是一个独特的机会，可以探索如何通过集成执行器、现代通信系统、信息设备、环境和可穿戴医疗传感器以及可拆卸技术，将基于数字传感器的技术和自适应技术纳入新建和现有房屋的家庭环境。这些房屋将在整个生命过程中转变为灵活的支持性环境。该团队将拥有在房屋建造之前建立数字模型以测试创新的专业知识；一旦房屋建成，作为建筑性能评估（BPE）和使用后评估（POE）的一部分，如果成功，使用加速器资金，研究的真正验证将在技术的应用、测试和监测中看到。催化剂资金的预期结果将包括：1)共同设计“适应性住宅”；2)探索传感器和自适应技术，以及如何将它们嵌入设计中；3)开发市场知识，为可扩展性提供信息，并确定花园村以外的市场路线。4)建立改造现有物业的方法。

SummaryThe housing market in the UK does not respond to the challenges of growing old. Many people struggle with ageing; a principal concern is their housing environment, (Hayes, 2018). The Government concedes that there is a housing crisis and has committed 44bn to fixing the problem. Their focus, however, has been on supply rather than how these houses serve the needs of society, particularly for older people. The housing sector continues to build houses that are very difficult to adapt; it does not utilise the significant building and digital innovations developed in this area in recent years that could enable people to Age in Place. Digital and sensor technology- as well as adaptability innovations through Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)- have the capacity to be game changing. These technologies could enable the domestic environment, both new and existing, to be tailored to support the particular needs of the occupant, so that they could remain independent and to live in their homes for as long as possible. Integration of this technology would represent a significant individual and societal financial saving and reduce the heartache and stress of a change of environment and lifestyle late in life. According to Age Concern, if houses could be more easily adapted and residential care postponed, there could be a saving of £26,000 per person/year through avoidance of care costs. In the UK, there are very few developers supplying houses for older people, as they are deemed to be expensive and are less efficient in terms of space than typical housing solutions, (Docking, 2019). The literature also suggests that older people do not want to be isolated away from younger people, living in retirement ghettos. Therefore, ageing in place- supported by well-designed homes that are accessible, adaptable and technology-enabled- must be the aim within the sector.This project has been offered seven plots in Seaham Garden Village- an innovative housing scheme of 1500 houses. The industrial partners have set aside £560K (80K/house) of the £1.4 million budget to dedicate to technical innovation to support independent living and integrate well-being and care services to older people. This high-profile housing development is a collaboration between private developers (IDP Partnership, Plan B, Tolent, Karbon Homes (supported by Homes England) and Northumbria University. The ambition here is to use the catalyst grant, if successful, to bring together a co-design team that is comprised of healthcare practitioners, architects, designers, building users and academics (with expertise in architecture, health, gerontology, computer science and software engineering) to design these tech-enabled prototype houses.These dwellings are a unique opportunity to explore how digital sensor-based technology and adaptive technologies can be incorporated in the domestic environment, both new build and existing houses through integration of actuators, modern communication systems, information devices, environmental and wearable medical sensors as well as demountable technologies. These houses will be transformed into flexible supportive environments across the life course. The team will have the expertise to establish digital models to test the innovation prior to the houses being built; the true validation of the research will be seen in the application, testing and monitoring of the technology, once the houses are built as part of Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) and Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) using the accelerator funding if successful.The anticipated outcomes from the catalyst funding will include: 1) Co-design of 'adaptable homes'; 2) exploring sensor and adaptive technologies and how they can be embedded in the designs; 3) develop market knowledge to inform scalability and determine routes to market beyond the Garden Village. 4) establishing an approach to retrofitting existing properties.