Congratulations to Ivette Arroyo and colleagues! Their project, Pathways towards Age-friendly Neighbourhoods (AGE-15), has been awarded funding by the Driving Urban Transition Partnership as part of the DUT Call 2023.

Website for DUT Call 2023

This DUT call received 183 pre-proposals in its initial stage 1 and 71 were selected to submit full proposals. The final evaluation resulted in 42 projects being recommended for funding. Of these, 15 projects include Swedish co-applicants and 7 are led by Swedish Principal Investigators. Ivette Arroyo from the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at Lund University is leading one of these projects.

The project, "Pathways towards Age-friendly Neighbourhoods: Transnational research, knowledge transfer, collaborative approaches and capacity building for the transition towards the 15-minute city" (AGE-15), will be carried out during 1 January 2025 – 31 December 2027 by a transnational consortium, including academics and practice partners.

Snapshot of the AGE-15 project

Globally, population ageing and urbanization are transforming cities in the 21st century. The number of people aged 65 and older is projected to reach 2.1 billion by 2050[1], doubling from current levels. This demographic shift varies significantly across countries. In 2024, Japan leads with 30% of its population aged 65 and over, while other nations like Portugal also have high proportions of older adults. Sweden and the Netherlands follow with about 20% of their populations in this age group. In contrast, Turkey is in the early stages of this demographic transition, with only 9.8% of its population aged 65 and over[2].

[1] World Health Organization. (2022). Website World Health Statistics.

[2] OECD. (2023). Website Elderly population (indicator) [Map].

AGE-15 tackles urgent urban challengesthat older people are facing in Europeancities such as unwanted isolation, mobility and safety constraints, and being able to carry out their everyday life activities. Living in isolation, experiencing reduced mobility, and being confined at home can profoundly affect older adults' physical and mental health. The socio-spatial relationship between older adults' homes and their surrounding neighbourhoods plays a crucial role in shaping their wellbeing. How can neighbourhoods support the socio-spatial needs of the current and future ageing population? What makes a neighbourhood age-friendly from the perspective of older adults? What is the role of collaborative housing and the 15-minutes city concept (hereafter 15mC) when planning age-friendly neighbourhoods? How can transition pathways towards age-friendly neighbourhoods for countries ageing fast and for countries ageing slowly be developed and mainstreamed?

The objectives of AGE-15 are to: (1) understand the role of age-friendly neighbourhoods in relation to the 15mC concept; (2) investigate the relation between the built environment and older adults’ everyday life activities, mobility and accessibility in neighbourhoods in Gothenburg (Sweden), Istanbul (Turkey), The Hague (The Netherlands) and Lisbon (Portugal); (3) learn from best practices of collaborative housing for seniors from Sweden and Japan; (4) co-create novel approaches for 15-m and age-friendly neighbourhoods; and (5) build capacity across regions.

AGE-15 incorporates discussions on ageing-in-place and collaborative housing, recognizing the crucial importance of addressing housing debates within the context of the 15-minute city approach. One of the innovative aspects of AGE-15 is developing understanding on “collaborative living environments with older adults” drawing on previous research on age-friendly cities and communities[1]; as well as research on collaborative housing, social connection[2] and living and ageing together. AGE-15 will be carried out during 36 months and is organised in six Work Packages (WPs) led by different co-applicants.

• WP1: Project Coordination
• WP2: Towards the development of analytical methods
• WP3 Cross-country interdisciplinary research
• WP4: Exploring Collaborative housing approaches in Sweden and Japan
• WP5: Co-creating novel approaches for 15m and age-friendly neighbourhoods
• WP6: DUT knowledge hub, dissemination and capacity building

The planned results of AGE-15 are (1) enhanced knowledge on collaborative living environments and 15 minute–age-friendly neighbourhoods; (2) a set of Validated AGE-15 Surveys in different languages [English, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish] with the potential of being used in multiple European countries; (3) general guidelines on novel transition pathways towards age-friendly collaborative living environments for countries ageing fast (Sweden, the Netherlands, and Portugal) and countries ageing slowly (Turkey); and (4) specific planning guidelines with recommendations targeting Istanbul and Lisbon.

[1] Dikken, J., van den Hoven, R.F.M., van Staalduinen, W.H., Hulsebosch-Janssen, L.M.T., van Hoof, J. (2020). How older people experience the age-friendliness of their city: Development of the Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Questionnaire. Int. J. Env. Res. Public Health, 17(18):6867

[2] Arroyo, I., Montesino, N., Johansson, E. and Yahia, M.W. (2021). Social integration through social connection in everyday life. Residents' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in SällBo collaborative housing, Sweden. International Journal of Architectural Research, 15(1), pp. 79-97.

About the AGE-15 consortium

National Coordinators

Ivette Arroyo, (Lund University – Sweden),

Gizem Aksumer (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University – Turkey),

Joost van Hoof (The Hague University of Applied Sciences – Netherlands),

Jorge Gonçalves (Inst. Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa – Portugal).

AGE-15’s transnational collaboration

• 4 co-applicants based at universities from Sweden, Turkey, Netherlands and Portugal;
• 16 researchers from different disciplines and career stages (Sweden: 4, Turkey: 5, Netherlands: 3 and Portugal: 4);
• 11 practice partners across consortium countries (including municipalities, municipal housing companies, non-profit organisations, a small company and a subcontractor);
• 2 academic cooperation partners: the Univ. New Brunswick (Canada) and Toyo University (Japan).

Total budget for the consortium

942 970 EUR. Funding for each national team is provided by their respective funding agencies based on the respective national rules.

Interdisciplinary research team at Lund University

Ivette Arroyo, Housing Development & Management – Architecture and Built Environment;

Pimkamol Mattsson, Environmental Psychology – Architecture and Built Environment;

Norma Montesino, School of Social Work;

Marianne Granbom, Department of Health Sciences.

Lund University Profile Area

Website Proactive Ageing LU

Cooperation partners based in Sweden

Kollektivhus Nu, Göteborgs kommun, Framtiden and SPR seniorerna Gothenburg.

Funding for the Swedish team

471 336 EUR equivalent to 5.3 MSEK, granted by the Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten).

Principal Investigator and contact person

Ivette Arroyo, Associate senior lecturer at Housing Development & Management, Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University 

E-mail: ivette.arroyo@abm.lth.se