The new forms of residentiality for the senior "inclusive" housing

In recent years, the issue of inclusion has taken on a central role in the European political debate so as to introduce welfare instruments and strategies dedicated to different sections of the population. Among these, the most vulnerable in situations of fragility not necessarily, and not only, of an economic nature deserve more attention. We are referring to the elderly, whose definition should be reviewed both considering their chronological age - in 2050 1/5 of the world population will be over 60 (WHO, 2015) - and above all considering the aspects linked to the needs of each "kind" of old people. The needs are dictated by the economic, social and physical conditions of each Senior: all elements that must be considered in order to operate within the different urban regeneration processes both involving individual buildings and entire areas of the city. We can talk about Senior Housing, but this doesn’t mean creating entire buildings or neighborhoods of elderly people only, but working to design new forms of residency where the elderly can be included as leading actors, not as extras. In line with the principles of active aging, already proposed by the WHO at the end of the 1990s, autonomy must be stimulated and fed as much as possible until high and intensive levels of assistance are requested. To do this we need to work on developing new housing models where integration and intergenerationality can be the founding pillars. In this contribution some projects realized in Europe will be described, considered as case studies for the purpose of research, with the aim of highlighting the strengths and strategies that led to their elaboration.