House of Generations

Only 2 percent of adult Danes live today at the same address or road, like their grown-up children, grandchildren or parents, but many more dream about doing so. A new Danish survey shows that every third would like to live close or together with their relatives, and even more - 80 percent - see only the benefits of living close to the family.
The Aarhus Municipality project "House of Generations" is a vision for creating a framework for relationships across all generations, for meaningful encounters and for rewarding neighbourliness.
Three of Aarhus Municipality's magistrate departments participate in the project: Health and Care, Children and Youth, and Social Conditions and Employment. A public housing association that provides student dorms also participates in the project.
The physical framework will be a building with a total area of approx. 25,000 m², located at Pier 4, at Aarhus' harbour areas.
The building will be a multi-generational house comprising a mixture of flexible public housing units for students, the elderly and residents who require care (elderly disabled people and people with acquired brain injuries). The building will be connected with common areas located in close proximity to where people live, a flexible day care centre (nursery and kindergarten) as well as common facilities, which also function as a community centre for the local area.
This paper shows how Studio Design and Social Innovation at Aarhus School of Architecture has, in conjunction with Aarhus Municipality, used design methods aimed at understanding and describing the needs of the user groups. The intention was to use the results in the subsequent building programme to be sure that the building and public spaces has the power to transform and improve how people work, learn and live.