A typology of clustered housing for older adults towards opportunities for social interaction: A case study of Dutch social housing

Dutch housing associations are dealing with a growing number of tenants who are ageing in place. Meanwhile, there is a lack of suitable housing that meets the (social) needs of this target group. Clustered housing, which offers a socio-spatial context that facilitates encounters between residents, is considered a promising housing concept to (partly) fill this gap. However, clustered housing is a broad concept consisting of a variety of housing types that differ from each other in the extent to which people “live together”. Still little is known about which types of clustered housing can be distinguished in relation to the potential for social interaction. Therefore, in this article we distinguish between types of clustered housing based on social, organizational, and spatial building characteristics. We have mapped these characteristics by combining real estate data of housing association Woonzorg Nederland with survey data collected among their building managers. Based on this dataset, an explorative cluster analysis was performed, resulting in four types of clustered housing. Finally, further exploration of the data shows that, from the perspective of building managers, residents of certain types of clustered housing interact more often and feel more connected with each other than residents of non-clustered housing types.