Intelligent Domestic Ecosystems: innovative housing models for fragile elderly

• Main Authors: Antonio Magarò, Adolfo Baratta, Fabrizio Finucci
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 2021-03-01
• Series: European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes
• Subjects: intelligent domestic ecosystems; fragile users; housing for elderly; active and assisted living; safe and inclusive housing
• Online Access: https://cpcl.unibo.it/article/view/11498

Fragile users represent a category in which the elderly population is included (fragile elderly). In 2017, there were 962 million people over 60, half the number expected by 2050, and many of them have disabilities. During the recent health emergency, frailty was discriminating for access to therapies creating the risk, not yet evaluated, that the mortality rate of fragile users could be increased. This is because, even when not infected, the fragile elderly people were denied access to the hospital spaces they needed. The contribution would describe the state of the art and the first results of the research conducted at the Roma Tre University which aims to study innovative housing models for fragile elderly people capable of promoting de-hospitalization avoiding the submentioned risk and improving the quality of life through the technological transfer of the Internet of Things from the ICT sector to the architecture one. First of all, it will define both the final user of the research, i.e. the fragile elderly through its historical genesis, and the tools of the research, i.e.  the intelligent domestic ecosystems as new integrated and interconnected housing models. Secondly, it will be described the research core aimed to design a prototype, realized with the use of open source and low-cost technologies.