Mobilität im Alter in gründerzeitlichen Etagenhäusern und Quartieren (English shop)

Untersuchung der architektonisch-städtebaulichen Potentiale am Beispiel der Stadt Hamburg

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This research study examines the architectural and urban design potentials of Wilhelminian-era (Gründerzeit) apartment buildings and inner-city neighbourhoods with regard to ensuring the mobility of older people with health-related impairments, using the city of Hamburg as a case study.

The term “mobility” as used here refers to spatial mobility on foot, which is required for out-of-home activities enabling independent coping with everyday life. Alongside housing, this is a fundamental prerequisite for a self-determined, active, dignified and contented life in old age.

The aim of the study is the further development of residential buildings and neighbourhoods in order to enable ageing people to remain in their own homes. To this end, the quality characteristics of Wilhelminian-era apartment buildings and neighbourhoods in their current state are first made visible, in order to derive from them the potential of possible adaptation measures. At the building level, the focus lies on examining the structural prerequisites for maintaining mobility in horizontal and vertical circulation. At the neighbourhood level, the routes still to be managed, which are determined by individually existing mobility impairments, are examined firstly in terms of the distances to the supply facilities required for independent living and secondly in terms of their functional structural design. In order to determine these so-called mobility radii, a measurement of walking speeds of older people is carried out in addition to the evaluation of data from existing studies.

The results obtained show that both the Wilhelminian-era apartment buildings and the neighbourhoods already partly meet the needs of older users with existing mobility impairments, and that in those areas with structural deficiencies in this respect the possibilities for corresponding adaptation measures can be assessed as quite good.