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A research group from Denki University in Tokyo is currently investigating the functioning, activities and users of multigenerational houses (MGH) in Japan and Germany and the social challenges that the facilities face. The architects and urban planners, most of them doctoral students, are currently traveling through Germany to learn more about the concepts of German multigenerational houses. Yesterday, the Japanese scientists, led by Prof. Dr. Ing. Asuka Yamada, visited the New Lindenhof on Honsberg. This is also a multigenerational house with a wide range of offers for young and old, as Ralf Noll and Ute Friedrich-Zielas from Stadtteil eV explained to the visitors. They also provided information on the financing of the project from various public funding sources. In Japan, there are serious social challenges due to falling birth rates and an ageing population; the isolation of older people is increasing. Multigenerational houses, promoted as part of sustainable family policy, should try to overcome these challenges. "The less often young people see their grandfather and grandmother, the less they can learn from each other. And that starts with vocabulary," Japanese interpreter Takayo Nemoro-Fjodorowa from Düsseldorf told Waterbölles yesterday. "The family ties of many Japanese families have become looser over the years because their homes are far apart from each other!" As part of the "Ten Years of Urban Redevelopment in North Rhine-Westphalia" competition, the "Gemeinschaftshaus Neue Mitte Honsberg" received the special "Participation" award for its many years of successful multicultural, interreligious and intergenerational social work in the district. This diverse work has contributed to the district's new image. The old and the new Lindenhof are "a place where space is created responsibly and encounters are made possible, understanding for one another is awakened and coexistence can be openly lived," says the Honsberg institution's website.