Human-centered design for flexible and inclusive housing

Studies on collective housing rarely adopt a human-centered perspective. This study introduces a model for designing and analyzing residential buildings based on the user experience (UX) of apartments. The analysis focuses on two areas: a morphological review of the conditions of flexibility and adaptability of fundamental areas of households and a UX analysis with a functional evaluation of basic daily uses of the apartments, displayed through a graphic assessment during the project definition stage. Applied to residential projects in Barcelona, this analysis shows endemic defects in housing design, such as dimensional deficiencies, a lack of spatial versatility, and unforeseen functionalities, which pose a risk to gender hierarchies at home.