Living Together

Connecting elderly people living alone with young people in the city

Design Process

Background

Chinese elderly loneliness

In 2018, there were more than one billion elderly people in the empty nest, leading to varying degrees of loneliness and suicidal tendencies. 13% -17% have suicidal thoughts, while only 2% have psychological services.

In this sense, most elderly people cannot afford a pension. Home care has become their only option. In Shanghai, the average pension is lower than the cost of caregivers and nursing homes.

More than 70% of the elderly have long-term family care. However, they can't communicate with them when they live alone without the care of children or people, which brings physical health risks.

Young people are facing housing problems.

93.3% of young people want to lower the threshold for public rental housing, while 57.9% of young people want the government to take the lead in establishing a housing rental platform.

A large number of young graduates choose to work in first-tier cities such as Shanghai. Without work experience, they can only get low salaries in cities with particularly high rents.

Therefore, young workers in developed cities must live in the countryside or share smaller apartments to reduce rents. Due to the unsatisfactory quality of their homes, they are under tremendous rental pressure.