Sustainable, assistive, residential architectural units for active ageing

With the demographic increasing of the elderly population and the different life and health perspectives underlying the principles of active ageing, there are new needs to respond with new architectural solutions. This work concerns the design of a center for self-sufficient elderly people in Catania (Italy), built with sustainable and assistive residential architectural units. The units are made with dry construction technology made with light and sustainable materials and equipped with a sensor network for assistance for active aging purposes. The dry construction technology used is ICARO (Innovative Cardboard Architecture Object), it is based on the use of modular panels with uprights and crosspieces in laminated wood and corrugated cardboard, it is used both for load-bearing system and for the building vertical envelope. This construction technology is modular and has the advantage of allowing the components to be assembled off-site, for the purpose of reducing time and work on site. The project of the center for the self-sufficient elderly aims at the creation, in addition to an accessible residential block, of a development and research center using domotic systems and technologies for assistance, monitoring, safety and health, pursuing the objectives and principles of the active ageing.