A universal space for ageing. : Demographic changes, eldercare and competitions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

• In the context of an ageing world, theories on welfare regimes as well as their influence on architecture for ageing come of relevance. The key mechanism in these theories is the perceived level of decommodification in society, i.e. various financial measures that the individual subject initiates personally in order to prepare for different stages in his/ her life: bringing up children, education, health and sickness, professional career or retiring from professional life. One concrete measure is special accommodations for dependent and frail older people, here termed residential care homes (RCH). Decommodification is supposedly most developed in welfare regimes originating from social democratic values, similar to Nordic countries, like Denmark, Norway and Sweden. During the 20th century, these countries have used architectural competitions in order to harmonize socio-political ideals with the architectural realization of RCHs. The present study explores the organizational forms of 77 architectural competitions that were organized in these countries during the period 2000-2011. A sub-sample of 9 competition programmes, three from each country, were analyzed concerning the presence of welfare goals and other prerequisites for the design task in the programming brief. The sample was assembled through key word searches in open and restricted databases. Based on the full sample, restricted competitions appeared as the most used form for RCH competitions. The sub-sample suggested that language and ideological capital, originating from the realization of the Nordic welfare state, adds an additional restriction. Hence, the overall conclusion suggests that that existing socio-political ideals for architecture for the dependent and frail aging process tends to block the integration of international findings on universal space for ageing well. 

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Architectural competitions

ageing

Nordic countries

residential care homes (RCH)

organizational forms

Arkitektur

Architecture

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)