Generations Under One Roof
Throughout Europe and America, ageing populations are becoming an increasing burden. Could the solution lie in multi-generational co-housing, where elderly couples live side by side with young families?
In a co-housing community just outside Copenhagen, 70-year-old Jytte Helle lives alongside 24 neighbours, who share a commonhouse and gardens. They eat together in the commonhouse four times each week. "It's important for me to be with a mixed group, not just older people where we would just talk about our aches and pains...older people can't give the same energy that younger people can". In the US, where the number of citizens aged 65 and older is expected to double by 2050, an estimated 150 co-housing communities exist. "At some point, everyone needs a little help", says Lisa Berkman, a Harvard professor. "Co-housing is a way for people to age whilst staying in their own homes".
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