Abstract
With whom, where and how should people live after retirement? Recently, issuesconcerning retirement dwellings have become an important theme among the elderly.The purpose of this article is to examine the possibility of collective housing for theelderly by analyzing the case of Hyogo Reconstruction Collective Housing (HRCH),public housing which is primarily for the elderly. HRCH is part of the public housing built for those who lived in temporary housingafter the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake struck in 1995. The aim was to providecollective housing. Developed in Sweden in the 1970s, collective housing combinesindividual rooms with common spaces and is characterized by cooperation whereby theresidents are responsible for the management of the common spaces. Similarly, in HRCHthe residents were expected to work together in caring for a common room called akyōdō-shitsu. This project, designed to counter the increasing number of people who were dyingalone in temporary housing, has had limited success insofar as the residents - who havenot heard about collective housing - have found it difficult to cooperate spontaneouslyin the management of the kyōdō-shitsu. Meanwhile, the residents have created their ownlifestyle, ensuring safety and helping each other in the case of emergencies by makinguse of their balconies, which are another common space. The kyōdō-shitsu at HRCH has been deemed a failure. However, the residents use ofbalconies suggests that they understand their own needs and have created their ownlifestyle. This also suggests an alternative way of living for old people.
