Designing Collective Housing for Older People

Abstract

This scientific paper examines how the Dutch architects Jacoba Froukje Pot-Keegstra (1908-1997) and her husband Johan Willem Hindrik Cornelis Pot (1909-1972) designed for older people. In the decades following World War II, with the advent of the welfare state, care for older people became a priority of new social policy in the Netherlands. In 1956, the state pensions were launched (Algemene Ouderdomswet), and in 1963, the Dutch Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening) introduced the Older People’s Homes Act (Wet op de Bejaardenoorden). At the time, there was a growing demand for housing for older people, and this aimed to facilitate their large-scale production while meeting the highest possible standards. Through some of their most significant projects, this paper explores the aspects that Pot & Pot-Keegstra added to the design of collective housing to make life more convenient for old people beyond the “Regulations and Guidelines” (Voorschriften en Wenken) introduced in 1965. The methodology of this paper consists mainly of archival research in the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, a review of scientific and non-scientific literature, and plan analysis. It is worth noting that Pot-Keegstra was the first female architect by the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam in 1936, and she was one of the very first women to run an office with her husband. Among the analysed projects designed by Pot & Pot-Keegstra for older people is the first high-rise nursing home, the Osdorperhof in Amsterdam (1962-1968). The General Act on Exceptional Medical Expenses adopted in 1968 (Algemene Wet Bijzondere Ziektekosten) made the proliferation of nursing homes possible. The Osdorperhof, with medically oriented care, was a forerunner of the nursing home boom that began in the late 1960s. The design of this project facilitated a new way of taking care of older people, as this collective housing enabled them to live relatively independently and to have the care they needed.