Rouyer, Alice and Casula, Marina (2016) “Humanicité” and “IlÔtomie” : two French examples of urban projects taking on the aging challenge. In: Congrès de l'ENHR (European Network for Housing Research), 29 juin 2016, Belfast.

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Abstract

In recent years, many public reports have made adapting cities and housing a key element to cope with the challenge of aging . The issue of the living environment for elderly people has become a recurrent topic in local authorities’ local housing programmes". Both public and private property developers offer a wide range of home solutions , which, each in their own way, aim at satisfying the needs of the growing elderly population. At the same time, the "silver economy" has become the new panacea for economic development In this context, several innovation consortiums and experimental spaces, named “Living labs for health and autonomy”, have made an effort to develop living environments specifically adapted for the elderly by using connected objects at home. Nevertheless these kind of projects are sometimes integrated into new urban projects.

Our study focuses on this new form of urban projects that make the connection between two objectives of territorial policies: (1) to produce suitable housing to meet new needs of aging people (2) to respond to territorial development goals by promoting new technology for aging people. These two processes converge in their approach to the user / inhabitant, mixing the contributions of participative town planning and user-orientated innovation models.

We will examine two examples : Humanicité in Lille and îlÔtonomie in Toulouse-Blagnac outlining the genesis of these projects, and putting forward the benefits and limitations of these initiatives.