Funktionskravet tillgänglighet och användbarhet används sedan 2009 i regelverk för den svenska byggsektorn. Funktionskravet anger en lägsta kvalitetsnivå för byggnadens egenskaper och utformning med tanke på användare med en funktionsnedsättning. Samtidigt får även andra användare stora fördelar av en tillgänglig och användbar byggd miljö. Kravet omfattar både bostäder och offentliga byggnader. Det är byggherrens ansvar att genomföra funktionskravet. Kravet avser både det byggda rummets egenskaper och utformning. Genomförandet ska bejaka användarens rörlighet och förflyttning i rummet samt deras förståelse och orientering i det. Kravet kontrolleras i den kommunala bygglovshanteringen och samrådsprocessen. För medlemsländer i den Europeiska unionen är funktionskravet aktuellt, eftersom EU arbetar med ett nytt direktiv för tillgänglighet och användbarhet i offentliga byggnader, servicesektorn och transporter.

Informanter i nationella och internationella nätverk för forskning, sakkunnigkontroll och myndigheter medverkade i studien. Totalt 122 informanter från nio länder inom EU, samt från Japan, Kanada, Storbritannien och USA inbjöds att delta i enkät om tillgänglighet och användbarhet som funktionskrav. Enkäten innehöll 37 frågor som behandlade funktionskravet i regelverk och praktisk tilllämpning. Sammanlagt 62 svar lämnades varav 43 svar var direkt avböjande svar. Nitton informanter besvarade hela enkäten. Svaren var möjliga att analysera vidare för att få en bild av funktionskravet i Belgien, Danmark, Finland, Frankrike, Grekland, Irland, Japan, Kanada, Nederländerna, Storbritannien, Spanien, Tyskland och Sverige. Svaren lämnades av 10 kvinnor och 9 män, företrädesvis med arkitektkompetens.

Funktionskravet fokuserar ofta på byggnadstekniska lösningar såsom ramplutningar, svängytor för rullstolar, eller passagebredder. Kravet har utvecklats från början av 1960-talet och framåt. Under 2000-talet har flera länder inkluderat bristande tillgänglighet i den byggda miljön i diskrimineringslagstiftning. I de flesta länder används enbart tillgänglighet, medan kravet förekommer tillsammans  med användbarhet i Danmark och Sverige. Kravet är ofta sammankopplat  med funktionhinderspolitiska målsättningar om barriärfri utformning, inkluderande  eller universell utformning. Informanter ansåg att funktionskravet skulle  kunna utvecklas vidare och vinna på en tydligare knytning till användares behov. Funktionskravet har även en oklar koppling till hållbarhet.  

Forskningsresultatet visar att funktionskravet tillgänglighet och användbarhet  är i behov av att utvecklas. En sådan utveckling kan vara att inkludera mer information  om användares krav på bostadens utformning i ett livsperspektiv.  Kravställningen i byggregelverket kan i högre grad betona passningen mellan  egenskaper i och utformning av bostaden till livsbehov som uppstår på grund av  nedsättningar hos användaren på grund av långvarig sjukdom, fysiska begränsningar  i kroppen, kognitiva nedsättningar eller åldersrelaterade besvär. I det moderna  samhället har hemmet blivit navet för vård och omsorg. En sådan utvecklingen  av funktionskravet gör att det tydligare kan länkas till utformningsstrategier  som design för alla, inkluderande eller universell utformning. Ett förtydligande  av funktionskravet tillgänglighet och användbarhet i relation till den mänskliga  användaren leder också till ett tydligare hållbarhetsperspektiv på bostaden, men  även andra byggnadstyper. Kravet på hållbarhet lyfter fram behovet att ställa utformning  mot både användarens behov och byggnadens underhåll i ett livscykelperspektiv.  

Since 2009, the functional requirement of accessibility and usability is used in building regulations for the Swedish building sector. The requirement specifies a minimum level of quality for the design of buildings and their commodities in relation to people with disabilities. However, most users benefit from an accessible and usable built environment. The requirement covers both residential and public buildings. It is the developer who is responsible for implementing the functional requirement. The requirement concerns the architectural design of the built space as well as its commodities. The realization shall enable different users’ movements and navigation in space as well as their perception and use of space. The requirement is monitored during the municipal building permit and consultation processes. For member states of the European Union, the functional requirement is topical since the EU prepares a directive on accessibility and usability in public buildings and for services and transports.

Informants active in national and international networks for research, accessibility audits and public authorities participated. A total of 122 informants from nine countries within the EU as well as Japan, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States were invited to participate in a questionnaire about accessibility and usability as a functional requirement. The survey contained thirty-seven questions that dealt with the requirement as part of regulatory frameworks and put into practice. A total of sixty-two responses were received, of which forty-three responses were declining. Nineteen informants filled out the questionnaire. Their answers were possible to analyze further for understanding the use of the requirement in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, and Sweden. The answers were submitted by ten women and nine men, mainly architects.

The requirement is focused on technical aspects for ramps, turning space for wheelchairs, or widths for passages. The functional requirement started to develop from the early 1960s and onwards. During the 21st century, many countries included poor level of accessibility of the built environment in discrimination legislation. In most countries, the requirement accessibility is used, while this requirement in combination with usability is only used in Denmark and Sweden. The requirement is often linked to objectives for national disability policies like barrier-free design, inclusive or universal design. The informants thought that the requirement could be developed further. It would benefit from a clearer connection to user needs. The requirement has an unclear connection to sustainability.

The results showed that the functional requirement of accessibility and usability needs to evolve. One such development could be to include more information about users' demands on the design of the home setting in a life course perspective. In building regulations, the requirement should emphasize the fit between the design of the home with its commodities, and the needs due to potential impairments during living, long-term diseases, physical limitations in the body, cognitive impairments, or age-related problems. In modern society, the home has become the locus for care and caregiving. Such a development of the functional requirement suggests that it can be linked to design for all, inclusive or universal design. A clarification of accessibility and usability in relation to human users promotes a clearer sustainability perspective of the home and other types of buildings. A requirement of sustainability highlights the need for a life-cycle perspective in architectural design that relates to user needs and building maintenance. 

Generational housing is an emerging phenomenon that suggests living well in a safe environment, supported by neighbours rather than relatives. It contains individual flats but also communal space. However, conditions for ageing in place through home adaptations, neighbours’ help or municipal eldercare services are unclear. The study focused on two cases in Denmark and Finland, identified in a previous study on requirements for accessibility and usability of the built environment. Research methods like close reading, scrutiny of architectural drawings, in situ study visits and email inquiries were used. The research evaluated possibilities for ageing with increasing needs of care and dependency. The study concluded that generational housing is mainly motivated by housing problems for the young generation. The individual flats are subject to spatial condensation so that communal space can be provided. Hence, although generational housing creates a community feeling, it is a community with an expiration date. 

The concept of accessibility and usability is a functional requirement in most European building regulations. It is minimum requirements introduced in most building legislations during the pe-riod of 1960 to 1980. Its aim is to safeguard that the built environment can be used by users with reduced mobility or cognitive problems navigating in space, often with the assistance of assis-tive technology. The requirements are also a reflection of society’s ambition to remove barriers for this group and include them on equal conditions in the surrounding society.This paper presents the result of interviews with five informants from France, Germany, Ireland and the UK. The interviews followed upon the informants’ approval and participation in an ques-tionnaire survey about the understanding of the concept of accessibility and usability in their countries and what the concept aimed to regulate in the built environment.The results demonstrate national strategies to deal with the societal ambition to include the group of people with disabilities on equal terms in the surrounding society. In Germany, the key concept is Barrierfreiheit (barrier freedom), in Ireland Universal design and in the UK inclusive design. Still struggling with making the built environment accessible, perhaps, France uses the concept of quality in using the built environment, thus, linking the concept clearly to the in-tended user group, but also to other concepts in vogue for the moment, i.e., sustainability.Transferred to the Swedish situation, accessibility and usability as a functional requirement is under attack and considered to increase the building costs. Do the four studied European coun-tries supply ideas for rethinking or developing the Swedish understanding of accessibility and usability? Can accessibility and usability be transferred into a matter of quality when using the built environment?

In September 2015, the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The key concept of the seventeen development goals (SDG) is focused on balancing humanity’s consumption of earthly natural resources, however, three older concepts are integral components of this transition. In 2008, the UN Convention on equal rights for people with disabilities (UN CRPD) entered into force, ratified by eighty-two countries. This convention forwards three concepts for creating an inclusive society, i.e., accessibility, usability, and universal design thinking. Accessibility is primarily referring to physical measures that will make buildings and the built environment accessible to people with disabilities by removing built barriers. Usability highlights the need for aligning the conception of buildings and the built environment to actual users with their different abilities. Universal design refers to integrating considerations for a multitude of users with various abilities in the early conception of generating images for new architecture and built environment.Since 2010, the European Union has integrated the goals of both the UN CRPD and the Agenda 2030 in different policy programs. Addressing the issue of ageing and disabilities, the EU commission is preparing for a law on accessibility and usability requirements in transports and public buildings. The law is combined with a special European standard on requirements for adjusting existing or programming new types of built environment. It is the public environment that is in focus, however, built space for communal usages also comes of relevance, for instance elevators, stairwells and communal space for laundry, storage, and similar functions in residential architecture. The present study is focused on a research study that explored the contemporaneous meaning of the concepts of accessibility and usability. Some 125 expert respondents involved in national and international work of converting accessibility and usability requirements into were approached with a questionnaire on the matter. The response rate was 51 per cent, including both correctly filled out questionnaires and refraining answers that argued that the questionnaire should be sent to another group of respondents due to professional grounds.A sub-set of fifteen questions placed the concepts of accessibility and usability in three specific contexts: Firstly, relating the concepts to exemplary models of built space that fulfilled these requirements. Secondly, associating the concepts with latest information technologies as means for solving these requirements, and, thirdly, connecting residential architecture to two years of home confinement due to COVID restrictions. The respondents were found in seven European countries and two non-European countries. Disappointingly, the result indicated that the concepts had obtained a fixed meaning that prioritized a technical aspect rather than the essential outcome of an accessible and usable design. In addition, the few concrete examples of exemplary models were all found in the public environment. The study supplies a ground for formulating an overarching question – what does accessible residential architecture in the sustainable society look like?

Well-managed urbanization can be a transformative force towards socially and environmentally sustainable cities. The transformative change relies on knowledge and collaborative action, rather than disconnected knowledges from different scientific disciplines and of sectorial actors. A problem that hinders collaborative action is the complexity of sustainable urbanization. In this paper we aim to expand thinking on urban transformation from a multisectoral and tri-disciplinary research perspective. 

Methods in use are tri-disciplinary essays to identify multisectoral interests, logics and routines in urban transformation. Essayistic insights form and develop three analytical dialogues on a range of urban transformation specificities in the urban complexity and related to sustainable urbanization. The essays are collaboratively interpreted as a Saskia Sassen inspired de-theorising process to get hold of complexities in cities by social, self-reflective and introspective processes. 

There are multi-sectoral issues difficult to develop with current modes of thinking and independent logic of developments. A re-theorization is proposed with collective ways of understanding, interacting and developing urban sustainable solutions that aims to appropriately address the complexities of the urban environment. Two ways of thinking and acting is contrasted. Independent and interdependent logics of leadership cultures for sustainable development are considered as a new way to theorise around the sustainable city. 

Implications concern complexities in cities such as how to design and develop urban projects that embraces actors' concerns and knowledge for sustainable development. There appear many simultaneous action nets of urban transformation specificities. These are based on actors’ logics, routines, ambitions, and collaboration. Leadership for transformation is not the independent cultures with one or few actors in the action nets but the interdependent culture making room for and adapt specificities of the engaged actors.  

 Modern architecture has generated measurable requirements about users’ interactions with the built environment to create user-oriented architecture through meticulous full-scale testing with subsequent standardization. These requirements have entered the legal framework as minimum threshold values for basic demands that regulate building and physical planning. In the construction of the modern welfare society, building-related requirements have been associated with fundamental ethical values for the societal construction, e.g., equity, health, inclusion, and sustainable development. The programming of architecture through building requirements can be seen as giving the users a dosage of happiness through architecture. The modern welfare state defines an architectural happiness through is legal frameworks. This study analyzed thirteen questions from a 37-question questionnaire, distributed to 122 informants, in thirteen countries. The study aimed at establishing the contemporaneous understandings and uses of the concept of accessibility. The study concluded that, currently, the concept of accessibility has turned into a technical instrument that limits the quest for an increased fit between user demands and needs with the architectural design. Furthermore, there is a loose link between accessibility and sustainability. In conclusion, architectural happiness for the upcoming sustainable society of the 2030s needs to update the concept of accessibility so that the outcome – usability for future users – becomes apparent. 

Along with other Nordic countries, Sweden has obtained a worldwide acknowledgement during the second half of the 21st century as a country concretely working for better living conditions for people with disabilities through social entitlements and minimum requirements concerning accessibility and usability to ensure fundamental spatial qualities of the built environment. As a member of the European Union, Sweden engages in the work of introducing the EU directive on accessibility in public services, consequently, also participating in the development of the harmonized European standard EN17210.1The European Accessibility Act2 is a landmark EU law which requires everyday products and services to be accessible for persons with disabilities. It follows a commitment to accessibility made by the EU with Member States upon ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.3Consequently, the Swedish building act stipulates that buildings and physical planning shall be accessible and usable for people with disabilities to the largest extent possible. However, since 2011, the national building industry considers the appurtenant building regulations to be cost generating and blocking the production of new dwellings to overcome the increasingly larger housing shortage. In 2018, the Swedish government mandated the national Board for Building and Planning to draft new regulations to be introduced on July 1st, 2025. The new regulations have met a massive critic from the building industry, but also the municipalities that supervise the compliance with regulations. Theregulations are deemed as vague and void of practical information. Suddenly, the contemporaneous discussion about accessibility and usability of the built environment are changed from being fundamental components for creating an inclusive society into becoming negotiable objectives that arerelated to comprehensive building costs and sustainable building. How come that in Sweden, the most essential concepts of the 20th century’s for upholding a user-related perspective on architectural design have become a faint echo of what they used to be?

The aftermath of WWII increased the number of people with disabilities. It also led to an inquiry into society’s view on disabilities and how to adjust the built environment, dismantling the cultural closet. During the 1970s, a new design criterion started to influence architectural design and physical planning: accessible or inclusive design. The first decades of the new millennium saw the EU putting efforts into converting the diverse types of public built space in the member states into becoming useable by older people and persons with disabilities. The pandemic 2020-2022 proved the home environment to be claustrophobic for most Europeans in terms of confinement and working at home.The present study presents a Swedish study on the concept of accessibility as a design criterion for future-oriented dwellings of the 2030s. Some 125 respondents, identified as national experts, were approached with a questionnaire on a potential update of the concept, often used in European building legislation. The response rate was low, about 15 %, covering seven European countries, Canada and Japan. The general view was that premises like ICT, working at home, or confined to the home environment had had little effect on contemporaneous accessible design. The technical approach for addressing accessibility in architectural design would continue, since housing depends on financial planning.Seen in an architectural perspective, the study suggested that the functionalistic ideal for the home as measurable entity, shaped around traceable needs of Le Corbusier’s modulor lives on. In contrast, the respondents forwarded the twin concept of accessibility, i.e., usability introduced in 2008 through the UN Convention on the rights of people with disabilities, as a tool for adjusting the home environment to individual needs. This would be the challenge for the future to conceive truly innovative dwellings that promoted an improved fit between the user and the design of the habitat.

In Denmark, appropriate architecture for aging is an engaging topic, often explored through the use of architectural competitions. Since 2013, national guidelines for homelike architecture for eldercare have been in place, open for use in contemporaneous competitions. This study is focused on architectural competitions prior to 2013 and the development of modern architecture for aging. Based on reports on competitions in professional publications for architects, this study covers the period of 1899–2012. Inspired by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s view of architecture as a spatial practice that ‘does not invoke what no longer is there but what has become through what is no longer present’, the present study revisits competitions on architecture for aging in search of inspirational input and links to the national socio-political discussion. This study uses case study methodology with a mixed method approach. A total of 76 competitions are identified, mainly organized by Danish municipalities, and are linked to four paradigms in social legislations. It is concluded that early competitions defined spatial prototypes, both for the homelike setting and the institutional environment, which have been continuously revisited. Since 2008, homelikeness has become the main design criterion for architecture for the frail aging population with an increasing dependency on caregiving.