LET’S BUILD CARE!

“Building Support for Children and Families Affected by Stroke” was an internationally funded European research project aimed at improving the built environment for the everyday lives of children affected by stroke. This platform shares insights and research results from our interdisciplinary collaboration involving architects, health economists, and cognitive neuroscientists from Germany, Austria, and Belgium. With this, we hope to inspire creating more inclusive, supportive and enabling environments.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Based on user research, we developed profiles of children affected by stroke. These personas help us understand their needs, behaviors, and expectations, making them and their families more visible in the design process.

PERSONAS

We investigated how the built environment affects everyday life of children and families after stroke – including informal settings like home and school, and formal care environments such as hospitals and rehabilitation centers.

DESIGN GUIDANCE

We collected socioeconomic data on childhood stroke, including hospital costs, home adaptations, and caregiver time. The results show the financial burden families face after a child experiences a stroke.

SOCIOECONOMICS

Explore the full collection of materials collected within the BUILD CARE project, comprising project outputs and relevant secondary sources. These resources are free to explore and can support research, teaching, and practice.

MATERIAL & DOWNLOADS

BUILD CARE Knowledge-sharing Platform

This knowledge-sharing platform is a pilot application that attempts to bring research results closer to practice by presenting them in a more approachable format for affected families and other relevant stakeholders. Therefore, it serves as an initial demostrantion of how this kind of translation can look like. Some materials are not yet available or included, such as BUILD CARE publications that are still in the publication process.

Project Partners

Project Cooperations

Acknowledgments

We are deeply grateful to the children and families who shared their stories and experiences, making this research project possible.

The BUILD CARE team included (in alphabetical order): Andrea Jelić, Ann Heylighen, Anna Franziska Kalhorn, Anna Hella Borsch, Anna-Theresa Renner, Anne-Sophie Schoss, Birgit Moser, Charlotte Rathjen, Els Ortibus, Gesine Marquardt, Johanna Baldassari, Lena Fuchs, Lisa Bartha-Doering, Maja Kevdžija (Project Coordinator), Magdalena Muszynska-Spielauer, Marion Göll, Mie-Jef Descheemaeker, Piet Tutenel, Pleuntje Jellema, Ruth Heying, Sophie Mandl, and Viktoria Kurstak. Each member made meaningful contributions to the project, bringing their expertise, dedication, and creativity to every stage of the work. We would like to express our special thanks to our colleagues: to Pleuntje Jellema for developing the care maps and the persona-set layout, to Lena Fuchs for creating the drawings that illustrate the scenarios in the persona-set, and to Anna Hella Borsch for the illustrations on the Design Guidance page.

We also thank our collaborators, as well as the BUILD CARE advisory board: patient representatives, architects, healthcare professionals, interior designers, and other experts, for their valuable insights and guidance.

Project Funding

International

The BUILD CARE Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programm unter the EJP RD COFUND N°825575.

National
This project received partial national funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in Austria [grant no: I 5886]; the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) in Germany [grant no: 01GM2109]; and the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) in Belgium [grant no: G0G5221N].