THE INCLUSIVE HOUSE INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ALL

The house is hardly ever adequate to support the requirements of aging people and shelter them when they lose their autonomy. Home automation effectively encourages the independence of vulnerable users in their own homes, but its application is highly expensive because houses are not designed to accommodate it. The added value of home automation is not to be found in energy efficiency only, but also in creating new humanenvironment interactions for vulnerable users. This paper aims at reflecting on the possibility to design “inclusive houses” fitted with the necessary pre-wiring for basic home automation, as well as with all the necessary features for a dwelling to adapt to its users’ changing requirements over time. This will be possible by supplementing the preset systems installed during the construction phase. When a home is future-proofed for home automation, the home becomes a place where people can live in any stage of their lives, also when some skills are hampered by ageing. Usually the requirements of the tenants evolve at the same speed as technology.