ToolGETHER - Tool for Generating Engagement and Trust in Housing Environments for Resilience

Residents of the Caribbean face acute housing challenges with many low-income and vulnerable residents living in self-built homes highly exposed to climate risks. Professional design services for affordable, climate-responsive housing are scarce and costly, while institutional stakeholders lack information about people’s dwelling aspirations, and builders often lack access to up-to-date technical knowledge. Low-income citizens often lack access to conventional housing finance, limiting resources for sound, durable (re)construction. This results in a cycle of precarious (re-)construction projects, high (re-)construction costs, energy insecurity, and persistent housing vulnerability.
This project aims to break that cycle by co-creating a practical, user-friendly tool for climate-responsive and affordable housing design. The tool will integrate locally relevant tacit knowledge, design strategies, material options, cost and availability data, and financing pathways— combining local stakeholder knowledge with technical expertise accessible to residents, builders, and designers.
A transdisciplinary consortium will lead the project. TU Delft researchers bring expertise in affordable and resilient housing and participatory design strategies; an architectural office, Studio Akeka, contributes climate-responsive design know-how. Finally, Empowa, an organisation specialized in developing alternative financial systems for affordable homes, will contribute literacy on alternative models for low-income and informal-sector households. Local builders, material suppliers, and residents will take part in co-creative sessions, pilot testing, and validation. This approach builds shared ownership, strengthens local professional networks, and embeds knowledge within the community.
The project unfolds in five work packages: data collection and contextual analysis; brainstorming and ideation; development of a gamified design tool; pilot testing and validation; and dissemination and knowledge exchange. By the end of the project, the consortium will develop a validated, context-specific gamified tool for designing climate-responsive, affordable homes and establish a durable network of researchers, professionals, and community actors, laying the foundation for scaling up and replicating this approach in other hazard-prone, low-income settings.