Aging at Home: Housing Stock Perspectives in Guadalajara (Mexico)

Abstract

Aging at home is one of the most explored modalities in housing and gerontology studies. Still, its viability depends on spatial configuration, and there are housing typologies that can adequately respond to needs for autonomy and social contact. A pair of overlapping dwellings, for example, can offer socio-functional support near a family member or known neighbor. However, others make aging difficult in this modality, such as a two-story single-family house, which often has narrow stairways that hinder connection to the intimate area on the upper floor. Throughout the work, 18 cases of dwellings and their elderly residents are observed, and documented with photographs, spatial registration with synthetic plans, interviews with the person, and calculation of gerontological indexes. The survey yields a set of data that allows observing the symbiosis between the person and the domestic environment, facilitating the identification of the challenges that spaces usually impose on their users when they reach advanced age. The result is a typological exploration of housing from a gerontological perspective, recognizing spatial structures according to the type of response to new specific demands of its users, collected in a nomenclature proposal. In conclusion, we offer a qualitative look at the possible adaptability of the current housing stock in Guadalajara, Mexico.