The book contains the proceedings of the international congress “We do care. Architecture and design for the elderly and for people with disabilities. A comparison between Dutch and Italian contexts” organized by Università Iuav di Venezia and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Italy and held in Venice on December 15th, 2022. The congress was the opportunity to compare the Dutch and Italian realities on topics such as architectural and urban design for non-self-sufficient elderly people and people with disabilities, highlighting common aspects and differences in the management of one of the most important social issues in the European context. Through the presentation of projects, research, development plans, etc., the book reports a broad and detailed scenario of the activities in progress in Italy and the Netherlands, focused on managing the inevitable growth in the number of people requiring assistance and of people with various forms of disabilities; two factors that, directly or indirectly, will affect an increasingly large portion of the European population in the next decades.

Massimo Rossetti, Architect, Ph.D., is associate professor in Architectural Technology at Università Iuav di Venezia. He carries out research in the fields of technological innovation, sustainability, building refurbishment and spaces for people with intellectual disabilities; he took part in several national and international research programs, is author of more than 200 publications and is currently responsible for Iuav spinoffs and startups.

Agata Tonetti, Architect and Ph.D. candidate at Università Iuav di Venezia. Since September 2020, she has been carrying out research at Iuav in the field of Architectural Technology in collaboration with Veneto companies. She is currently carrying out research on environments for people with disabilities disabled and innovative schools.