Well-being and age in co-housing life: Thinking with and beyond design

Co-housing communities, which are designed to encourage interaction in everyday life and informal mutual support, are often seen as a lifestyle that can improve residents’ health and well-being. This viewpoint considers how spatial design, resident control and home technologies matter to ‘successful ageing’ in the increasingly popular co-housing communities- both intergenerational and senior. Based on the authors’ long-term research into these schemes, as well as on an interactive learning day that focused on the health and ageing dimensions of co-housing, the authors argue that the physical and mental well-being of older populations in the UK could be enhanced through this model’s social and material practices