Searching for Innovative Design: Architectural Competitions in the Silvering Swedish Welfare State

Abstract

The new millennium has seen an increased interest in appropriate housing for the senior part of the Swedish population, defined as those aged 65 years and older. In 2010, the Swedish government launched a 2-year program called “Growing Old, Living Well” that targeted the living conditions of not only older people with few or some needs for homecare services, but also the smaller group of dependent and frail older persons whose everyday living depends upon regular caregiving. The program promoted architectural competitions as a tool for innovation. This article assesses the outcome of 3 architectural competitions that were carried out by 3 municipalities in accordance with the program. It concludes that existing notions about appropriate space for aging populations prevailed, since the competition briefs evolved from existing data and consequently allowed for only a low degree of innovative thinking. Hence, the relationship between architectural design and older people's age-related needs was only addressed indirectly. Further work needs to be done in the area of housing for the Swedish silvering welfare state in order for this factor to become an essential criterion for creating innovative architecture and urban design.

KEYWORDS:

• appropriate housing for senior citizens
• architecture and eldercare
• architectural competition
• competition brief
• social welfare goal

Notes

¹The governmental program was preceded by a meeting with representatives of the Swedish Social Ministry in November 2009, which was initiated by Christer Neleryd, executive director of the Äldreguiden (Guide for the Elderly) program that the National Board of Health and Welfare launched during the period of 2007–2010; Magnus Rönn, associate professor at the School of Architecture, the Royal Institute of Technology, and the author of this article; and Susanne Iwarsson, professor at the CASE Research Group, Lund University, who presented the idea of organizing several architectural competitions with research-based competition documents.