Smart Home and Architecture: Case Study of Dwellings for People with Cognitive Disabilities

In order to improve the accessibility and the use of the home environment for disabled people, today the domotic applications play a leading role. The domotic applications are born to meet the needs of security, safety, comfort and self-care, communication, property management but they are also a great help to people with motor, sensorial and cognitive disabilities in daily life. At the present time there are several smart home technologies to insert in a building. However to select and to insert the right technology in home environment for disabled people is a very tricky decision. The reason is that it is necessary a very deep knowledge of disabilities and smart technologies in relation to very careful evaluations of the users needs. This papers deals with a research work carried out by CUnEdI (Centro Universitario Edifici Intelligenti) of the University of Trento. The aim of this work is to define and verify a design methodology for domotic dwellings that can answer to needs of different categories of disabled people. This design is interdisciplinary and involves designers, users and caregivers in the different design phases in order to give an architectural, technological, and social sustainable answer aimed to satisfy the needs of the disabled people and of the aid agencies. In particular this article describes briefly the phases of this methodology and its check with a case study. The case study concerns a semi-sheltered dwelling for cognitive disabled users. The dwelling will be built in Pergine (TN-Italy) and it will be planned by means of a synergetic work among CUnEdI, a social cooperative, and companies of technological sector of the territory of the Autonomous Province of Trento.