Housing LIN celebrates HAPPI Awareness Week 2025!
HAPPI Awareness Week is a week-long observance of care-ready accommodation and age-friendly house services. It was launched in 2020 by the Housing LIN to help promote what's best in housing for an ageing population.
This year, HAPPI Awareness Week takes place from Monday, 15 December. Throughout the week, we will share a selection of daily news items, guest blogs, events and announcements celebrating different aspects of the 'care ready' HAPPI design principles.
What is Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI)?
It’s been 16 years since the first Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) report was published. Commissioned by the then Department of Communities and Local Government (now the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), it was managed by the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England).
The Panel, chaired by Lord Best, a long-time HAPPI champion, comprised of eminent architects, academics and construction industry leaders who set out 10 key HAPPI principles. They go beyond good age-friendly design and are particularly relevant to the spectrum of older persons' housing, which needs to offer an attractive alternative to the family home and be able to adapt over time to meet changing needs. They reflect:
- Daylight in the home and in shared spaces
- Balconies and outdoor space
- Adaptability and 'care ready' design
- Positive use of circulation space
- Shared facilities and 'hubs'
- Plants, trees, and the natural environment
- Energy efficiency and sustainable design
- Storage for belongings and bicycles
- External shared surfaces and 'home zones'
Since then, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People has published four additional reports, all exploring issues on HAPPI. The Housing LIN is proud to have been the author of all of these.
HAPPI Hour Webinar
Join us for our final HAPPI Hour of 2025, a special end-of-year session exploring how good design, innovative practice and collaborative approaches can help create age-friendly homes and communities for the future.
🌐Online – Zoom
📅Tuesday, 16th December 2025
🕓4pm - 5pm
This session will be co-chaired by Lord Best, Co-Chair of the APPG on Housing and Care for Older People, House of Lords, and Jeremy Porteus, CEO of Housing LIN. Amongst others, we will be joined by Stephen Witherford, from this year’s Stirling Prize winning architects, Witherford Watson and Mann, for their HAPPI-designed almshouse for United St Saviours Charity, Appleby Blue.
View the recording here
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In the meantime, make sure you’re registered to receive our weekly newsletter, where we’ll share a roundup of HAPPI Awareness Week. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (opens new window) and Bluesky (opens new window) to stay in the HAPPI loop!
Read the HAPPI Reports and find out more about the 10 HAPPI Principles here.