Good practice:

Byggdialog Dalarna; collaboration regarding the construction of housing for the elderly.

Byggdialog Dalarna is a non-profit association with more than 100 members; municipalities, companies within the construction and real estate industry, banks and fire protection companies. The association links academia, business and the public sector and contribute to a dialogue. The office is located at Dalarna University for proximity to research. One theme group is focused on issues related to the construction of new elderly homes in Dalarna based on a need from the construction industry to improve their building of elderly homes and a need for municipalities to become better purchasers. Today legislation generates different buildings depending on which municipality you live in. If the municipalities can agree on standards in functional programs and order similar buildings, the industry can give discounts that lead to lower costs for the taxpayers. The theme group for elderly homes includes politicians, seniors from the elderly care, officials from the municipal property- and elderly care departments and consultants. They look at elderly homes within and outside Dalarna and locate similarities and differences regarding space in the rooms, how the kitchenettes are equipped, etc. They include aspects like digitalization, sustainability, energy efficiency and health and relate to the wooden building strategy of Dalarna. New buildings for elderly are made of wood as European studies shows that wooden interiors bring good health for the elderly.

The elderly homes group is financed by the Byggdialog Dalarna; 1,2 Meuro for three years. This include 2 tests with VR -technology à 4000 EUR in order to visualize for carers what the drawings of the planned buildings means by enabling walking around and using equipment in a non-built building.

4 municipalities have made functional programs. Falun constructs the third elderly housing in wood, Borlänge has built an energy-efficient housing and Avesta combine elderly housing and preschool. Hedemora uses the functional programs as a basis for planning. 3 consulting firms and several companies participate in the dialogue and are involved in planning or building the new housing. Key figures for property management and care in special housing has been produced for comparative studies.

The elderly home group has run processes in the municipalities of Falun, Borlänge, Mora, Hedemora, Vansbro, Avesta and Säter. Challenges: to get them to agree on a functional program, to collaborate with the university to set up research- and analysis projects and to get knowledge from other regions

This approach to gather all relevant stakeholders in order to collaborate in the planning for new suitable housing for the elderly as cost-effective as possible can absolutely be transmitted to other regions that face the similar challenges with a growing elderly population. In Sweden the responsibility for the elderly care lies on the local level so that is why it is crucial for us to involve the municipalities in our region. We would like to highlight the importance of managerial competence for the process and the communication work - to have a communicator included in the process from start is a key to success to keep everybody on the track.