Identifying upgrade opportunities for social housing in the first stage of a Living Lab during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract Social housing (SH) generally meets neither users’ needs nor comfort requirements. That leads to dissatisfaction and the need for renovations and improvements. Interventions in this type of housing require collaboration among different stakeholders, who have diverse perspectives and goals. This type of initiative should seek a shared understanding among the parties in the development of solutions and in the decision-making process. The Living Lab (LL) approach was adopted as a strategy to develop upgrades in existing housing in an integrated and collaborative way. This paper presents the results of an empirical study that aimed to identify opportunities to improve social housing with the direct involvement of users, researchers and public agents, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results show that the reflexive interview technique, with the support of complementary activities, was an appropriate tool not only to identify upgrading opportunities, but also to create a bond and trust among participants in the first phase of the LL effort.