Discussions about the importance of the built environment for healthcare delivery extend at least as far back as Hippocrates 1 (400 BC). The iconic Florence Nightingale (1859) also strongly believed in the influence the indoor environment has on the progress of disease and recovery. Today, the role of …

This article describes a European project which was aimed at improving the situation of persons with psychiatric or learning disabilities with regard to social participation and citizenship. The project took place in three countries (Estonia, Hungary and the Netherlands) and four cities (Tallinn, Budapest, …

Purpose: When designing a nursing home, architects and planners need to consider ways to provide patients and caregivers with a feeling of a natural setting and being a part of the outdoor world as well as considering themes such as having accessible gardens that take the total well-being of its residents1. …

With regard to the increasing global competition for highly-skilled labour, the group of mobile international students is becoming more and more prominent in the considerations of national policy-makers. One concrete idea is to develop policies in order to bind international students and foreign knowledge workers …

The number of applications for debt management services in the Netherlands shows a steady increase of about 10 percent each year, over the last few years. Municipalities, responsible for these services, at the same need to cut back on expenditures. Our research shows that the (social) return on debt …

In order to be able to age in place, Dutch elderly are being housed in Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) for over 25 years. Here they can live independently and rely on care and services. The physical scale of ALFs ranges from 30 up to 300 residents. This paper presents the findings of a multiple case …

Energy efficiency has gained a lot of prominence in recent debates on urban sustainability and housing policy due to its potential consequences for climate change. At the local, national and also international level, there are numerous initiatives to promote energy savings and the use of renewable energy …

Since the eighties, Dutch residents of care homes have been housed in Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) in order to age in place and live with higher social quality of housing. Scale, group mix and social quality of housing of these ALFs has not yet been explored. Initiators decide on experience and …

The explicit attention to sustainability and related concepts within the context of housing and urban development dates back to the 70’s of the last century. Since then, a lot of efforts have been done to define the concept and to bring it into practice. This involved efforts from national to local governments, …

The prejudice and discrimination against Roma started upon arrival in the 11th century. They were seen as untrustworthy due to the nomadic lifestyle and different skin colour. Roma were forced to live as slaves during the 1500 which ended several centuries later in 1864. Although, legally they were …