Certification for ageing in place
Register Here for the final Homes4Life conference !
28 January 2021 | 09.30 – 13.00 CET
Participate to a roundtable with MEP Kim van Sparrentak, Catherine Mc Guigan (Age-friendly Ireland) and Roslyn Molloy (Housing Agency).
Then discover the Homes4Life pilot sites which were the first to test our certification scheme, with presentations from Bilbao (SP), Dublin (IE), Lodz (PL), Nice (FR), Treviso (IT) and Weesp (NL) !
The Homes4Life taxonomy and the KPI-framework of functional performance indicators for the age-friendly home environment are at the heart of the project. They translate the Homes4Life vision into structured, verifiable form and they are the basis on which the Homes4Life certification scheme has been built.
As a project team, we have always thought of the taxonomy and KPI-framework as instruments that constantly evolve and that are developed in co-creation with end-users, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders.
Visit the dedicated part of our website here to find out how you can contribute.
Between 6-9 October 2020, the 12th World Conference of Gerontechnology took place.
Originally planned to be held in Trondheim/Norway, the conference was organized as a full online event. Homes4Life participated in a session on “Housing and Daily Activities” with a pre-recorded video presentation by Frans Sengers and Alexander Peine (Utrecht University) entitled “Charting the Innovation landscape for Age-friendly housing in Europe”.
Frans and Alexander elaborated upon the diversity of Age-friendly home pilots and experiments across Europe — which they charted as part of the Homes4Life Innovation Analysis — and identified a number of challenges and opportunities for the Homes4Life certification scheme.
The session brought about interesting discussions about housing, technology and ageing in place, capturing various levels of analysis, such as neighbourhoods, homes, furniture, social alarm systems and the internet of things. It further underlined that Homes4Life is a vital part in an exciting global landscape exploring the intersection of digital technologies, places and ageing, and how it comes to shape our lives as we grow older.
Watch again the presentation below !
Save The Date and Register Here !
Our living environments have a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing. Ensuring their suitability and adaptability to people’s needs and preferences – including when these needs and preferences evolve over time – is one of the most effective approaches to respond to challenges brought to us by Europe’s ageing demographics. However, a huge share of the building stock is not adapted to permit to older persons to age in place.
To address this challenge, Homes4Life has contributed to the development of a new European certification scheme for Ageing in place.
The final conference of the Homes4Life project will feature high-level speakers who will discuss the Homes4Life Age-Friendly Vision and present Homes4Life key project outcomes. This will be followed by an award ceremony during which we will unveil the names of the 10 pilot sites across Europe which were the first to test the certification scheme.
Detailed programme and speakers will be announced early next year – stay tuned !
Our partner R2M Solution – Régis Decorme – made a pitch of the Homes4Life project in front of the SilverEco award jury on 26th November 2020.
Our project is indeed nominated within the housing category of the contest ! After the short presentation, interesting questions from the jury were raised regarding the typology of buildings addressed by the Homes4life certification, how the certification scheme builds on existing national certifications, and how will be shaped the post-project exploitation model.
Results of the contest will be unveiled on 10th December 2020. Meanwhile, it is still time to vote for us in the “prix du public” category here !
The recording of our workshop at Sustainable Places 2020 is now available !
On 30th of October, we met with several sister-projects to discuss innovation solutions and approaches to support health and well-being in living environments.
Participating projects : Homes4Life (H2020), TeNDER (H2020), SHAFE (Thematic Network), Hands-on-SHAFE (Erasmus+), NET4AGE-FRIENDLY (COST Action), AGE’IN (Interreg 2 seas), PHArA-ON (H2020), SmartWork (H2020)
Participating European Commission representative: Irina Kalderon Libal, Policy Officer Health Innovation and Ageing, European Commission
Further details about our workshop available here.
Our partner EUROCARERS – Nadia Kamel – presented the Homes4Life project at the online Czech conference on age friendly housing for seniors which took place on 11 November 2020.
The City of Lodz (Poland) is collaborating with our project in the testing phase of the Homes4Life Certification Scheme.
The city’ Multigenerational House has just been featured in the European catalogue of good practices in rehabilitating historical and cultural heritage.
By the end of this year, further details will be unveiled on our website about the pilot sites which have contributed to test the Homes4life Certification Scheme. Stay tuned !
The Homes4Life project organised a webinar on November 5. It aimed at presenting the last developments and status of the Certification Scheme, but above all, the objective was to interact as much as possible with the audience in order to collect their opinions and advice to improve the Certification.
After an introduction by the moderator of the webinar, Nhu Tram (AGE Platform Europe), Silvia Urra Uriarte (Tecnalia), coordinator of the project, reminded the scope and objectives of Homes4Life.
Hervé Duret and Christophe Gérard (Certivéa) presented then the current Certification Scheme, which has been tested in 10 pilot sites across Europe. They described into details its principles, i.e. the kind of clients or building that it targets, the building types encompassed, the buildings’ occupancy state or life-cycle phase that it can assess, etc. They explained then the certification process and structure, with in particular the 192 requirements and the ~50 questions which enable to assess respectively the characteristics of the building/household and the perceptions of residents. Finally, the scoring system for all these requirements and questions has been defined, with the associated “medals” attributed: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.
Menno Hinkema (TNO) reviewed the feedbacks received from the pilot sites, which provided their opinion on the Certification’s procedures, content and practical use. In particular, issues were raised on the applicability of some questions, the terminology used, the level of details expected, etc. All those comments will be taken into account, in the next version of the Certification.
The main goal of this webinar, attended by 41 persons in total, was to receive the feedback from the audience in order to potentially improve the Certification. Thus, during Certivéa’s presentation, 21 precise questions have been asked through polls on different aspects of the Certification. The answers enabled to validate most of the choices made in the development of the Certification. Others tend to indicate that revisions should be considered, e.g. concerning an extension of the validity period of the certificate, an increase of the weight given to the perceptions of residents and an adjustment of the weight given to the different categories of requirements (economic, personal, physical, outdoor access, social).
In addition, the final Q&A session enabled to clarify several points raised by the audience concerning the benefits of the Certification, the variety of buildings it encompasses, some of its technical aspects, its awarding scheme and its cost.
Following these very fruitful exchanges with the audience, the Homes4Life partners will keep on developing the Certification Scheme, together with the pilot sites. This work will be presented during the project’s final event on January 28, 2021.
Watch again the recording of this video below !
On 6th November 2020, Prof. Gian Marco Revel from Università Politecnica delle Marche chaired a session at EcoMondo Key Energy in which the Homes4Life project and its certification scheme were presented.
Key Energy is an international exhibition and conference showcasing technologies, services and integrated solutions that promote and accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy – the main aim of the Green Deal, the strategic plan for sustainable growth launched by the European Union.
The director of ISRAA, Giorgio Pavan, also further explained the experience of the Homes4Life pilots in Treviso.
Further details about this session here.