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This paper aims to review how intergenerational connections and relationships have been affected to date by COVID-19. It provides lessons for the future.

This paper is a review of policy and practice.

Although there are some excellent examples of creative approaches such as online strategies to bring generations together in the face of social distancing, there remain barriers to building stronger communities. Many people of all ages remain lonely and isolated. Community projects are under-funded and will struggle to maintain connections beyond the immediate crisis. Inequalities and the digital divide have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Intergenerational relations are likely to be further strained by the economic impact.

None of us have known anything like COVID-19 and its impact on all aspects of our lives. It will continue to affect generations to come, and we need to learn the lessons as we move forward.

This paper aims to highlight lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for planning for the future of our ageing society. It looks at trends, changes in our society and implications for people of all ages. It focusses on the importance of planning and whether COVID-19 will lead to long-term changes.

This paper draws on the author’s experiences running an intergenerational organisation during the pandemic and other work associated with ageing well.

This paper highlights some of the risks and unknowns we face going forwards and points to lessons and opportunities for “building back better”.

This paper is based on a review of published articles and viewpoints.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged people of all ages in different ways, some of which have tested intergenerational solidarity. At the same time, the pandemic has raised issues which we must all address going forward: planning for future pandemics, planning for an ageing society and ensuring that future planning works for all generations. This paper explores all these themes in the light of lessons from COVID-19. Firstly, despite much risk assessment and scenario planning, we were not well placed in the UK or across the world to respond to the multiple challenges of COVID-19. Have we learned the lessons to be able to deal better with the inevitable pandemics that will follow in the future? It is also well documented that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in our society. What will the long-term impact be for longevity and will less healthy lives reverse the trend of increasing life expectancy? Secondly, what are the lessons for our ageing society? As life expectancy rises, what will the quality of life be like in those added years? Many of today’s babies can expect to have a 100-year life. What does that mean for the way we lead our lives and can we ensure that everyone can age well? Third, these are not just issues for older people, but for people of all ages and generations. The Covid-19 experience has been different for younger and older people – whether it has been health or job security, income, taxation or housing. Questions of intergenerational fairness have again raised their heads, alongside the longer term impact for future generations.

Firstly, despite much risk assessment and scenario planning, we were not well placed in the UK or across the world to respond to the multiple challenges of COVID-19. Have we learned the lessons to be able to deal better with the inevitable pandemics that will follow in the future? It is also well documented that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in our society. What will the long-term impact be for longevity and will less healthy lives reverse the trend of increasing life expectancy? Secondly, what are the lessons for our ageing society? As life expectancy rises, what will the quality of life be like in those added years? Many of today’s babies can expect to have a 100-year life. What does that mean for the way we lead our lives and can we ensure that everyone can age well? Thirdly, these are not just issues for older people, but for people of all ages and generations. Measures that bring older and younger people together and encourage meaningful mixing will help increase understanding and awareness between generations. This has huge implications for our society and communities.

This paper reaches two main conclusions. Firstly, the well-known saying: “failing to plan is planning to fail”. This applies to all the issues discussed in this paper re future pandemics, our ageing society and future generations. Secondly, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic should be the catalyst for changing the way we live and lead to new beginnings. We cannot just carry on as before.

The purpose of this paper is to identify appropriate concepts of multi-active façades for the renovation of multifamily buildings in Sweden and to determine which, if any, are financially viable.

A lifecycle profit (LCP) analysis was used to examine financial viability through a ten-step process, which included identifying concepts, assessing costs and prices, calculating the LCP and performing sensitivity analysis. Two existing buildings – one low rise and the other high rise – were used as reference models.

The findings were contradictory. Implementing any of the multi-active façade concepts on the high-rise building would be financially beneficial. The opposite was, however, the case for the low-rise building. Two factors causing this contradiction have been identified: the façade material before renovation and the size of the building.

The study is limited to two case buildings situated in Sweden; however, similar buildings represent a significant amount of the existing building stock. Part of the purpose of the study is also to investigate the merits of LCP analysis to evaluate energy-efficient retrofitting. The study implicates the benefits and pitfalls of LCP analysis needed to be considered by researchers and practitioners alike.

The research findings contribute to the understanding of energy-efficient retrofitting of existing multifamily buildings based on prefabricated multi-active façade concepts.

The aims of this study are to review the literature examining the arguments for and against the telephonic qualitative research interviews, to develop criteria for assessing when the use of the telephone is suitable in qualitative research and if suitable to offer detailed strategies for the effective use of this data collection instrument.

The study is a thematic analysis of the literature, informed by the researchers’ experiences using the telephone, computer-based audio and face-to-face interviews for an accounting research project involving 50 semi-structured interviews with managers.

The study identifies five criteria to determine the suitability of using the telephone in qualitative research interviews. In addition, the study offers a set of detailed strategies on what to do before, during and after a telephonic qualitative research interview.

The study can assist qualitative researchers in deciding when to use the telephone and how to use it effectively.

The study builds on the limited prior research and provides a more complete list of strategies on the effective use of the telephone in qualitative social sciences research. These strategies are a synthesis of existing studies and observations drawn from the author's study, which examines the work of organisational managers. In comparison, prior studies have been based on research projects that explored sensitive personal issues and emotive experiences not always related to managerial work.

This paper sets out to look at the different types of crawl spaces that are found in Sweden and why they are still being used in today's constructions despite the advice of building experts to avoid their use.

Literature reviews were performed to look at the types of crawl space foundations available as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type and to look at the economic costs associated with repairing a damaged home that could be attributed to a crawl space foundation. Interviews were conducted with engineers with regard to moisture design issues in the Swedish building industry.

This study shows that there are five traditional types of crawl spaces used in Sweden: plinth, outdoor ventilated, indoor ventilated, unventilated, and suspended crawl space foundations, four of which are currently available to builders. Despite all of the available knowledge regarding the disadvantages and the past performance of the outdoor ventilated crawl spaces, companies in Sweden are still using this design and are still experiencing expensive problems.

This paper is limited to Sweden. The situation in other countries was not specifically examined; however, it appears that other countries are also facing the same problems and this paper may provide some insight into why.

This study shows that there are many ways to construct a crawl space, some of which are considerably less risky than others. The study also indicates that the building industry in general seems to lack the theoretical background or incentive to utilize these variations properly or completely move away from these designs.