Institute of Housing Research

The Institute of Housing Research investigates how housing, everyday environments, technologies, care structures and social relations shape people’s ability to live autonomously, safely and meaningfully. Its work combines housing research with human factors, health services research, Living Labs, assistive technologies, data governance and participatory methods. A particular focus lies on transitions between hospital, rehabilitation and home, the longitudinal study of everyday activities and adaptation, and the development of privacy-preserving, interoperable research infrastructures. The Institute works in close connection with Alika Systems, which provides the complementary development and implementation capacity for translating suitable research outcomes into deployable technologies, services and scalable applications. In shorthand: IfWf investigates, validates and convenes; Alika Systems develops, implements and scales. Through work in the fields of studying burden, platform development, computational modeling, phenomenological analyses, the Institute aims to turn housing into an active field of research, prevention, care innovation and practical transfer.