Project: Intergenerational Living Development

Intergenerational Living Development is a PHC-serviced project to investigate, develop and demonstrate a repeatable model for high-quality, affordable intergenerational housing. The concept begins with the possibility of two or more related households living within a deliberately designed residential environment that provides both genuine independence and selected shared facilities. An initial architectural concept uses an H-shaped arrangement, with separate residential wings for different generations connected by shared living space and opening towards common outdoor facilities. This is an initial design hypothesis rather than a prescribed solution. The wider project will examine how architecture, land use, shared infrastructure, financing, ownership, legal structures and community arrangements could combine to provide younger households with secure and attractive homes while enabling older generations to contribute capital and remain independent, involved and supported. The intention is to develop more than a single family home. The project will investigate whether the principles can be turned into a repeatable development model capable of supporting individual family projects, multi-family communities and larger developments in the UK and internationally. PHC Service will maintain the project evidence base, Concerns, Actions, decisions, specialist inputs, lessons learned and readiness information. Architects, planners, lawyers, financial advisers, developers, engineers and other disciplines will remain independent specialist services contributing to the project as required.

The primary objective is to determine whether a practical, financially sustainable and replicable intergenerational housing model can be developed that improves housing accessibility and quality of life for younger and older generations. The project will: - establish the needs that an intergenerational housing model should satisfy, including affordability, privacy, independence, security, accessibility, companionship and adaptability; - investigate architectural layouts that combine private residential accommodation with appropriate shared spaces and facilities; - establish whether shared land, infrastructure and amenities can provide a higher standard of living at a lower per-household cost than conventional independent provision; - investigate ownership, trust, inheritance, shared-equity, financing and other legal or commercial structures without prematurely committing to any particular model; - determine how homes and communities can adapt to changing family circumstances including ageing, care requirements, children leaving home, bereavement, separation and changes of ownership; - develop and test an initial demonstrator project; - establish what elements can reasonably be standardised and what must remain locally adaptable; - investigate models capable of protecting long-term affordability rather than allowing successful developments simply to migrate towards premium-market pricing; - develop a scalable model for subsequent sites and potentially multiple countries; and - maintain an auditable PHC evidence base so that experience from each implementation improves subsequent developments.

Housing affordability increasingly creates a divide between generations. Many younger households face high property prices, rents and financing costs while older generations may hold substantial value in property, pensions or accumulated assets. At the same time, conventional housing frequently separates generations even where families would willingly provide greater mutual support if suitable living arrangements existed. Simply placing several generations within one conventional house does not adequately solve the problem. Privacy, independence, ownership, lifestyle differences and changing family circumstances can make such arrangements difficult. Conversely, maintaining entirely separate properties duplicates land, accommodation, utilities and facilities that could sometimes be shared. The project originated from consideration of a practical family situation: whether capital accumulated by an older generation could be used to create a property in which an older and younger household could live independently but together, while placing the principal long-term benefit with the younger generation. An initial architectural idea is an H-shaped building, with residential accommodation occupying separate wings and the connecting section providing communal facilities such as kitchen, dining and living areas. Shared external areas could include gardens, recreational facilities and other amenities. At larger development scale, expensive amenities such as swimming pools, workshops, guest accommodation, childcare space, fitness facilities or recreational areas could potentially be shared by many households rather than individually duplicated. This initial idea raises much broader questions concerning affordability, planning, ownership, architecture, taxation, inheritance, development economics, community operation and scalability. The project has therefore been established before committing to a particular property, design, company or ownership structure so that these alternatives can be investigated systematically.

If successful, Intergenerational Living Development could provide a new route to housing security that treats family capital, land, accommodation and shared facilities as resources that can be organised across generations rather than separately for each household. For younger households, potential benefits include reduced barriers to secure housing, lower duplication of household costs, improved living environments and access to facilities that might otherwise be unaffordable. For older generations, the model could provide continued independence alongside family contact, opportunities to transfer resources constructively during their lifetime, reduced isolation and housing capable of adapting to later-life needs. At community scale, shared infrastructure and amenities could reduce unnecessary duplication while supporting stronger neighbourhood relationships and more efficient use of land and resources. The wider impact could come from replication. Rather than producing one bespoke property, the project seeks to establish a body of evidence, design principles, governance arrangements and commercial options that can support subsequent developments. Each implementation would contribute operational experience back into the PHC evidence base, allowing the model to evolve rather than repeatedly starting from first principles. A central measure of success will be whether the model remains genuinely accessible. Creating attractive intergenerational housing that subsequently becomes another premium property product would not satisfy the project's underlying purpose. Affordability, access and long-term value to participating households must therefore be treated as design and governance requirements rather than assumed outcomes.