Wide range of housing and everyday assistance in the urban district
(Hesse)
Source: Weeber+Partner
The town of Neu-Isenburg (pop. 36,000) is in the Rhine-Main commuter area, just a few kilometres from Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach. The town centre has been a redevelopment area since 1977. It is characterised by a fragmented mixture of housing and commerce and by good availability of shops, services and public facilities.
In 1982, during the first years of redevelopment, the old people's care home "An den Platanen" was built. The community has been extending a system of everyday assitance for the elderly step by step since the end of the 1980s.
The pilot project in neighbourhood IV was funded and evaluated between 1989 and 1992 as a model plan in the research project "Elderly People and their Neighbourhood" in the federal research programme "Experimenteller Wohnungs- und Städtebau“ - ExWoSt - (experimental residential and urban development). This put elderly people living outside inpatient facilities in the foreground.
Source: Weeber+Partner
A housing complex with 70 flats for families and elderly people was built in a former industrial area in neighbourhood IV in the town centre. 40 of these flats were suitably equipped for disabilities and assigned as sheltered housing. As part of the housing complex, there is an open district meeting place as a communication, community and advisory centre. The town advisory office for the elderly and their relatives from the district has been based here since the mid nineties. It gives advice especially on the choice of additional services by creating assistance plans with the residents. Besides counselling, leisure activities are offered for different age groups at the meeting place. Many urban district residents work voluntarily for this. For example, a group of carers visit elderly people at home.
There are now nine town social workers in the urban district who are responsible for advising the elderly and their relatives. This ranges from having a daily occupied office to bases which are occupied on a 14-day rota.
Important parts of this concept were taken on in other districts of Neu-Isenburg in order to develop district-specific support for the elderly on an area-wide basis.
In the urban district of Gravenbruch, there is now also a sheltered housing complex with design elements from the neighbourhood IV. It comprises 35 housing units and an open meeting place, offices for community counselling and rooms for voluntary initiatives. Instead of a cellar, each housing unit has a storeroom on the same floor level.
A concept of "sheltered housing combined with a home" was developed for a newly built old people's home in Erlenbach. The inpatient facility includes both sheltered housing and an inpatient section. The facility is run by Innere Mission, which also runs the "Haus an den Platanen". They organise management of both homes.
The model can also be applied to existing facilities. A housing complex from the 1970s was adapted to this concept. An open meeting place with an advisory office was created. This construction of this complex is also currently being modernised. 17 further sheltered housing flats and new rooms for the open meeting place are being developed.
A further building block in community support for the elderly is the Haus Dr. Bäck in the town centre. It has been there since the 1970s and is an advisory office for the city as a whole with a specialist centre for geriatric psychology and a meeting place for elderly people. A supervised lunch meeting is arranged to which elderly people can be brought by young people doing their civilian service year.
A foundation for the support of the elderly has financially assisted the town's support for the elderly since the mid 1990s. The town provides the individual elderly support and outpatient provision which make it possible to guarantee elderly people support in individual cases despite low income.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1977 | Redevelopment area |
| 1982 | Opening of the old people's care home "An den Platanen" |
| 1989 to 1992 | Model plan in the ExWoSt research project named "Ältere Menschen und ihr Wohnquartier" (Elderly people and their neighbourhood) |
| 1990 | Set up of the foundation for the support of the elderly |
| 1990 to 1992 | Building of the neighbourhood IV housing complex with district meeting place |
| 1993 | Wüstenrot Prize for "Sheltered Housing in Old Age“ |
| 1995 | Change of concept to "Sheltered Housing with Open Meeting Place and District Counselling" |
| 1996 | Wüstenrot Prize "Everyday Assistance Close to the Neighbourhood" |
| 1999 | Construction of a housing complex for sheltered housing with open meeting place, advisory office and a care home |
| 2002 | Construction of another sheltered housing complex in Gravenbruch |
| 2002 | Construction of 6 flats suitable for elderly people in the urban district of Zeppelinheim |
| Since 2005 | Modernisation of the old people's housing complex II with additional flats and rooms for meeting places and district counselling |
| Since 2005 | Extension and linking of assistance for people with dementia |
| Planned | Modernisation of the old people's housing complex I in Buchenbusch, set up of a meeting place and district counselling |
| Planned | Extension of the care home in Erlenbachaue through shared housing |
Source: Weeber+Partner
Source: Weeber+Partner
The town of Neu-Isenburg has adapted to demographic change early with new concepts. It has developed facilities which combine urban development aspects, living and social opportunities. They are decentralised and focused on specific neighbourhoods. It has been shown that these conditions for elderly people's everyday lifestyle are experienced as very positive and having to move to inpatient facilities can be avoided. The concept has proven itself in practice and was taken on in other urban districts in order to develop area-wide support for the elderly.
The projekt site ist to be found at postal code: 63263 - town: Neu-Isenburg - street: Luisenstraße 18.
Record inserted on 13.11.2007 by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) within the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR).
Last update: 22.08.2008
