The problem: segregated by design
In much of Northern European cities, housing is organized around age, life stage, and social role. Families, adults, and elders often live apart, while locals and expats occupy separate urban and social spheres. This has created a quiet form of segregation, subtle but deeply embedded in the structure of the housing market. As people transition through different life stages, they are expected to move, adjusting to fit predefined housing standards rather than allowing their homes to evolve with them.
From segregation to belonging
This research proposes a shift: a guide for rethinking how we design housing to support inclusion, continuity, and multigenerational living. It introduces ten core principles that promote adaptive, human-centered environments where individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and identities can live and thrive together. These principles are not prescriptions, but flexible tools, meant to inspire new possibilities for living that embrace connection, diversity, and change.
In the Netherlands, much of today’s housing is designed for specific life stages – childhood, adulthood, or elderhood. But as our lives evolve, so do our needs. Homes should be built to support the entire life cycle, adapting as residents grow older, change careers, start families, or choose to age in place.
Housing should support generational rituals, practices that connect people across ages and give everyone a role. Elders can teach, children can learn, and adults do both.
Common rituals include sharing food, which creates rhythm and connection;
storytelling, which passes on memory and identity; and music or dance, which energize bodies and spaces. Gardening links generations to nature and tradition, while cleaning together becomes a social act of care. Arts and crafts bring comfort and allow shared creation and appreciation. Daily rituals, like greetings or walks, build emotional rhythm. And games offer joyful, universal play that bridges age, language, and background. These rituals don’t require perfection, just space, time, and shared presence.
Another way to create a sense of ownership is calling people to intervene on the space, to leave their mark. Participatory design invites people of all ages to shape their space, creating homes that reflect collective life.
Seeing familiar faces and being seen builds social bonds and accountability. This can create community and social cohesion in any space, a kind of informal, communal surveillance. Casual visibility turns strangers into part of a social fabric.
Liminal spaces are realms between public and private. These in-between spaces hold an opportunity to blend boundaries and generate serendipity and interaction.
In every culture, people gather around things that capture attention and break routine. Spontaneity creates connection: how can we design the spontaneous?
People gather around objects that invite interaction, not because they’re told to, but because something about the design sparks use, sharing, or play. Social furniture acts like a magnet for presence.
Subtle spatial elements, like translucency, movement, texture, and natural light, can evoke a shared sense of time, presence, and transformation. Beauty creates emotional interaction.
Children, elders, and adults experience scale differently, a home designed around standard metrics often excludes diversity of bodies. Living should be inclusive to all types of bodies and abilities.
Some objects stay with us across our lives, for example, a table can host three generations. Finishes and materials must age well, showing usage as memory, not damage.
Contact
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