Senior Housing Universal Design as a Development Factor of Sustainable-Oriented Economy

Abstract

Elderly and disabled individuals constitute over 25% of the population with a perspective of reaching 35% in 2040. This trend triggers the dynamic development of the silver economy, which aims to satisfy the needs specific to this social group. One of the cornerstones of that sector concerns appropriate housing, which—as for now—is often maladapted, making daily activities highly demanding. This problem should be addressed in a systematic and sustainable manner. A current solution is to adjust the existing flats, which is suboptimal, due to high costs and technical limitations that in many cases, cannot be overcome. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that a primary design of living spaces suitable for senior citizens (barrier-free flats) is more beneficial from the socio-economic perspective as compared to the adaptation of existing houses. We analyzed the economic and social costs/benefits of the contemporarily available flat adjustment strategies and the primary design of barrier-free houses. We found that the implementation of standardized design principles at the stage of architectural design can reduce yearly costs of the national economy by ~PLN 385 billion (> 19% of Poland’s GDP), making the universal design senior housing an efficient response to the arising requirements of our aging society.