“Smart” Social Housing Design: Methods, Tools and Innovation in the Assisted Living Architectural Project

Abstract

The Architectural plan used for social housing is usually targeted to ensure accessibility to basic service of living throughout the definition of interior design and building solutions dedicated to disabled people. Nowadays, thanks to a new concept of disability and major number of interested people, the performance of this type of building have to grow up: buildings have to be accessible as well as “smart”, be able not only to satisfy help requests but to anticipate them during the management of the house. From this point of view, the architectural planner should rule the classic tools of the plan as well as manage and organize the resources of building automation, working in a “meta-architectural” dimension. Even describing some study cases, this paper want to examine the change of methods and tools of architectural planning used for the assisted living, re-defining the concept of social housing, from helpful to smart architecture.