Intergenerational Living
ÖJAB’s innovative intergenerational residence projects
At two innovative intergenerational living communities in Vienna, ÖJAB offers individuals of differing ages and phases of life a home together in a family-like setting.
YOUR PLACE IN OUR INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITY LIVING FACILITIES
Life at ÖJAB’s Intergenerational Group Apartments
In times of increasing distance between generations, in which natural encounters between old and young – as they occur in families and more traditional living environments – are becoming rarer and rarer, the natural “village-like” structures of our social life are losing more and more of their original substance. Maintaining relationships and interpersonal contact with others, dealing with the unaccustomed or new – all these things are skills that need to be nurtured, because when they’re not, loneliness is the result.
It was this idea that gave birth to ÖJAB’s first intergenerational residential project – the ÖJAB Intergenerational Community Living Facility “Neumargareten” in Vienna’s 12th district. It was in September 2009 that this residential project, probably ÖJAB’s most innovative, was ready for its residents to move in. And ever since then, senior citizens and students have made a new home here as “roommates” in this 500 m2 residential community.
Intergenerational living at ÖJAB means more than just living alongside each other in separate dwellings beneath the same roof. Spontaneous and planned social encounters between young and old, learning from one another, and honest interaction that enriches everyone involved are all part of everyday reality for this project’s residents. Privacy is possible in one’s own room, while the everyday social interfaces are the common living rooms and the adjoining eat-in kitchens.
Film about ÖJAB intergenerational community living facilities (German)