Master's thesis on housing concepts for seniors wins Jeroen van der Veer Thesis Award
Master's student Joep Bastiaans made an inventory of recently developed collaborative housing concepts for seniors and investigated to what extent these meet their needs and wishes. His Master's thesis 'Professional collaborative housing concepts for seniors' won the Jeroen van der Veer Thesis Award 2021.
Common living concepts for seniors
The Netherlands faces the challenge of a rapidly ageing population, which demands more diverse housing concepts for seniors. Collaborative housing (CH) concepts are a promising solution to promote contact and mutual support, counteract loneliness, and reduce public health expenses. Professional-led CH concepts is an emerging phenomenon that could allow a faster and more accessible supply of senior dwellings than resident-led projects. However, little is known about the perceived value of use by the residents. This study raises the question: How do professional collaborative housing concepts for seniors satisfy the end user's demand?
Jury report
"Joep Bastiaans' thesis addresses a very important topic: the social task of ageing, care, prevention of loneliness and the changing role of social networks. The study convincingly shows that providing a home with all the conveniences, collective facilities within easy reach and like-minded people as neighbours helps, but that for sufficient ownership, an extra step really has to be taken", according to the jury report Jeroen van der Veer Thesis Award.
More information:
View the master thesis 'Professional collaborative housing concepts for seniors' on the TU Delft repository.
The graduation supervisors were Darinka Czischke (mentor) and Peter Boelhouwer (graduation committee); both from MBE.
Jury report Jeroen van der Veer Thesis Award (Dutch only)
The other two nominees were Jan van Vliet with a thesis on the transition of elderly people 'Stimulating the desire to move' and Marjolein Bons with her thesis 'A crisis that triggered change' on the impact of corona on the housing market; both also master graduates of our faculty.