NET4Age-Friendly collaborated in the organisation of the innovative workshop for the New European Bauhaus Festival, on 9 April 2024.
This was a SHAFE Foundation event, which featured an interactive workshop focused on designing the perfect neighbourhood for the New European Bauhaus. SHINE 2Europe has teamed up with AFEdemy, NET4Age-Friendly, and the SIRENE and AFECO projects to offer a multifunctional event, where participants from different fields worked together to design the ultimate inclusive neighbourhood.
The session was moderated by the founders of SHAFE, Carina Dantas (SHINE) and Willeke Van Staalduinen (AFEdemy). The SHAFE approach – Smart Healthy Age-Friendly Environments – was implemented through the COST Action NET4Age-Friendly, which currently has more than 700 members in 51 countries.
To better idealise this neighbourhood, the session focused on a middle-class family from the European Union called Garcia, made up of grandparents, parents and children. Like other European families, the Garcia family has many strengths and happy moments, but also faces challenges such as cognitive decline, mobility problems, loneliness, diabetes and mental health problems.
The Garcia family wants to have a new home in the New European Bauhaus. The challenge for the participants in this workshop was to find solutions so that the Garcia family can have an easier, healthier life and increase their well-being. What should their home look like? What facilities make up the neighbourhood’s sustainable housing and infrastructure to support mobility and cognitive challenges? How are problems such as diabetes or mental health addressed in architecture and digital solutions? How is a healthy lifestyle supported and ecological behaviour promoted at the same time?
Based on extensive co-creation work with citizens on smart, sustainable and inclusive environments over the last five years, SHAFE has identified the members of the Garcia family as personas. The collection of personas represents the diverse European population that wants to own or find a home in Europe.
SHAFE, the Garcia family and inspiring examples of the New European Bauhaus were presented during this meeting. The participants have chosen the 5 most inspiring examples and define the requirements for each member of the family to find their place in the neighbourhood.
The meeting resulted in a White Paper including text, drawings and images of good practices and opportunities for the Garcia family to live in the New European Bauhaus neighbourhood, which will be published soon.