Towards Non-Ageist Housing and Caring in Old Age

Shelly Cohen and Yael Allweil
Additional contact information
Shelly Cohen: The David Azrieli School of Architecture, Tel Aviv University, Israel / Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion IIT, Israel
Yael Allweil: Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion IIT, Israel

Urban Planning, 2020, vol. 5, issue 4, 155-170

Abstract: This article investigates aging-in-place among seniors who live with caretakers, particularly domestic workers who immigrate to Israel from poorer countries. In recent decades, new apartment designs are intended for families with children. Drawing on Dolores Hayden’s (1980) ‘Non-Sexist City’, we expound on Non-Ageist architecture for the aging population and migrant caregivers. We examine how this kind of residence can include additional and vulnerable groups in the population, such as seniors and their caregivers. Our study explores the design of Tel Aviv Metropolis apartments. We argue that typical apartment design affects the ethics of everyday living. Following Michel de Certeau (2011), our research observes everyday behaviors and creative tactics through which seniors and caregivers re-appropriate shared living space. Most seniors house caretakers in a room within the bedroom area of the apartment, for instance, while others use a separate room by the entrance. These practices point to hierarchy and equality as spatial aspects of typical apartments’ layout and their effect on their usage by seniors and caregivers. Our research explores the potential of a planning proposal—dividing the seniors’ apartment into a primary apartment and a secondary unit—suggested by the inter-ministerial government team in the National Housing Headquarters and by the Israeli Affordable Housing Center, an academic-social organization. We argue this division could enable better housing solutions for shared residency. Thus, the article combines qualitative research of residence in old age with analysis of the role of social values such as equality, autonomy, inclusion, affordability and communal values in old-age housing and care.

Keywords: aging; apartment design; architectural design; care; caretaking; equality; everyday ethics; hierarchy; Israel; work immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/3413 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:urbpla:v5:y:2020:i:4:p:155-170

DOI: 10.17645/up.v5i4.3413

Access Statistics for this article

Urban Planning is currently edited by Tiago Cardoso

More articles in Urban Planning from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().