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Age-friendly cities and communities: A global perspective

Authors:
Tine Buffel at The University of Manchester
Tine Buffel
sophie Handler Chris Phillipson
sophie Handler Chris Phillipson
sophie Handler Chris Phillipson
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Abstract

New book Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: A Global Perspective, Policy Press Tine Buffel, Sophie Handler and Chris Phillipson (Editors) Bringing together leading researchers and policy-makers working to develop age-friendly cities and communities, this edited volume examines the potential of developing urban environments responsive to the needs of older people. The book provides numerous case studies and examples of good practice, drawing upon work in Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, and the USA. It highlights new approaches to involving older people in the design of cities, and provides a manifesto for the age-friendly movement, focused around tackling social inequality and promoting community empowerment. In developing its approach, the book crosses a range of disciplinary boundaries including architecture, sociology, social policy, urban geography, and urban planning. For further information see www://policypress.co.uk/age-friendly-cities-and-communities
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AGEING IN A
GLOBAL CONTEXT
AGE-FRIENDLY CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
A global perspective
Edited by
TINE BUFFEL | SOPHIE HANDLER | CHRIS PHILLIPSON
... Taking into account the concerns expressed by Buffel et al. (2012Buffel et al. ( , 2018 how to deal with the diversity of cities and heterogeneity of their populations, the AFCCQ-PL seems to pass the test either, as its items reflect the different needs, concerns and preferences of various groups of older people in both cities and what these groups consider to be important aspects of an age-friendly city (i.e., very high scores on Housing (compare Kazak (2023) and Hełdak et al. (2024)), Transportation (see Borowska-Stefańska et al., 2024) and Respect and Social Inclusion (Czaplicka et al., 2024)). Our findings are in line with a previous assessment of Liverpool's age-friendliness by Buckner et al. (2019) as they are drawing attention to approaches and characteristics on which both cities can build, and from which other cities can learn. ...
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... However, compared to the subjective experience of planners and designers, the actual needs of elderly users should receive more attention [64][65][66]. The views and preferences of the elderly are important factors to consider in the co-design of age-friendly communities, hence the necessity to focus on the role of outdoor spaces in promoting active aging [67]. Furthermore, the perspectives of the elderly are seen as key to understanding age-friendly environments. ...
Elderly Residents’ Uses of and Preferences for Community Outdoor Spaces during Heat Periods
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2023
The downtown cores of many cities are characterized by aged communities that tend to host a relatively high population of elderly retirement residents. The availability and usage of outdoor spaces within these communities play a crucial role in promoting active aging, providing essential locations for rest, activities, and social interaction among the elderly. However, in the planning and design of these spaces, attention is often focused on the safety and mobility requirements of the elderly population, while a lack of research is apparent in the area of elderly-specific preferences for spaces designed for relaxation and communication. In this study, we selected an aging community as the research target and conducted a detailed investigation of the outdoor spaces where the elderly residents gather and build up spontaneously in summer. Our objective was to evaluate the environmental factors influencing the selection of these outdoor spaces by the elderly for relaxation and communication. We analyzed the correlations between these factors and the number of occupants in these spaces and developed predictive models accordingly. The findings indicate that the environmental factors impacting the utilization of outdoor spaces by the elderly during heat periods within the community are, in order of importance: temperature, relative humidity, human traffic flow, and noise levels. These factors include physical and social aspects; temperature is a negative correlation factor affecting the use of outdoor space by the elderly, and the rest are positive correlation factors. This shows that the elderly like to gather and chat in a cool, crowded, and lively environment. Through the data analysis, it was determined that the random forest regression model was the most effective in predicting the number of residents remaining in these spaces. With a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.7958, the model can assist in community update planning and design, help in selecting outdoor spaces, and improve the quality of the outdoor environment. This study discusses the factors influencing the elderly’s use of community outdoor space from the physical and social levels, and the prediction model is significant for the optimization of spatial elements and spatial location.
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... Both researchers (Buffel, Phillipson and Rémillard-Boilard, 2019;Gardner, 2011;Scharlach and Lehning, 2013;Skinner, Cloutier and Andrews, 2015) and reference institutions (World Health Organization, 2007) expressed concerns regarding the planning of the living environment, neighbourhood, local community, city according to the needs of old adults. The city induces significant stress on old adults' lives through how its planning policies adapt for seniors' needs; positive respectively negative changes brought by local development strategies lead to an environment generating place attachment or rejection (Buffel, Handler and Phillipson, 2018;Buffel, Phillipson and Scharf, 2013). ...
Questioning the Potential for Achieving Active Ageing in Bucharest
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2022
The continuous growth of elderly population cohorts represents a global phenomenon influencing the design of any country’s economic and social policies. In the present context, an urban development planning challenge is encouraging an active and healthy lifestyle, transforming seniors into an economically and socially active group that further ensures their successful active ageing and respects place attachment values. This study aims to depict an overall image of the possibility to achieve active ageing for Bucharest’s elderly and their perception of this matter. In order to do so, the research appealed to the survey method for a total sample of 402 residents aged 65+ and living in all districts of Bucharest. The research objectives follow the main pillars of the active ageing concept that is assessing: their financial security and reasons motivating them to work after retiring, their capacity and needs for independent living, their access to health services and the enabling environment, which can act both as a facilitator and a barrier. The main results reveal that an active lifestyle depends on socio-economic and psychological characteristics and that the elderly’s contribution to economic life is often a continuation of their previous activities, not necessarily a result of successful policies for achieving active ageing. All these, next to low revenues, low access to health care, and limited usage capacity for ICT tools, define obvious difficulties for designing future urban friendly-ageing policies in Bucharest. This research represents a valuable contribution from the pre-COVID period, which may be complemented by further studies that contrast current perspectives on the topic.
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Optimizing Older Adult Mental Health in Support of Healthy Ageing: A Pluralistic Framework to Inform Transformative Change across Community and Healthcare Domains
Article
Full-text available
This paper describes a pluralistic framework to inform transformative change across community and healthcare domains to optimize the mental health of older adults in support of healthy ageing. An extensive review and analysis of the literature informed the creation of a framework that contextualizes the priority areas of the WHO Decade of Health Ageing (ageism, age-friendly environments, long-term care, and integrated care) with respect to older adult mental health. The framework additionally identifies barriers, facilitators, and strategies for action at macro (social/system), meso (services/supports), and micro (older adults) levels of influence. This conceptual (analytical) framework is intended as a tool to inform planning and decision-making across policy, practice, education and training, research, and knowledge mobilization arenas. The framework described in this paper can be used by countries around the globe to build evidence, set priorities, and scale up promising practices (both nationally and sub-nationally) to optimize the mental health and healthy ageing trajectories of older adults as a population.
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Generative Design Method of Building Group Based on AIP (Aging in Place) Assessment: The Case of Dense Urban Renewal Districts in Hong Kong
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2023
High-density urban development is often accompanied by the phenomenon of aging, and AIP (aging in place) is considered as one of the main approaches to cope with aging in high-density urban environments in the future. In this paper, we explore the possibility of building group generation at the scale of high-density urban blocks and the future guidance of urban design based on the AIP assessment system and a generative design method under multi-objective optimization. To achieve this goal, we take Sham Shui Po and its surrounding areas in Hong Kong as the study area, and then score the indicators at both the block and grid levels through the assessment system in the AIP context, and then obtain objective weights through the CRITIC method to obtain a comprehensive score. We further delineate the renewal area by the clustering algorithm, filter the generation range, and then use the indicators filtered based on the weights as the optimization direction to design a set of building generation patterns according to the local planning requirements and then carry out multi-objective optimization generation design. The original gene data is extracted and analyzed after the results are verified to obtain a better range of indicators for the urban design. The evaluation results of the generated building groups show that the built environment of the block is more suitable for aging-friendly living and can guide future high-density urban design under this AIP assessment system according to the better gene range in the system.KeywordsAging in placeUrban renewalAssessment systemGenerative design methodCRITIC methodMulti-objective optimizationHong Kong
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Citizen Engagement: Inclusive Methodologies Towards Creating a City for all Ages
Chapter
  • Sep 2022
‘The success of communities in becoming age-friendly will, to a large extent, depend on whether older people, including those facing social exclusion, will be involved as key actors in setting the agenda for future research and policies on age-friendly developments’ (Buffel et al., Age-friendly cities and communities: a global perspective. Policy Press, Bristol, 2018, p. 282).In this chapter, we will explore the experiences of an older people-led organisation, the Elders Council of Newcastle, in developing projects and partnerships to enable the participation of older people in shaping research, policy and practice. The approaches outlined in this chapter go beyond consultation and engagement and illustrate how older people can be co-creators and agents of change.Older people’s activism and the leadership of the Elders Council have made a critical contribution to raising awareness in the city of the need to address demographic change and to seizing the opportunity of participating in national and international initiatives such as the Better Government for Older People and the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities. These initiatives provide a valuable platform for learning from others and contributing to citizen-led understanding of the issues and co-creation of solutions.Older people are not a homogenous group, so engagement requires a range of methodologies to appeal to a wide audience and in particular to engage with people who through lack of confidence, knowledge, opportunity and resources find it difficult to participate. Online methods of engagement, whilst useful and essential during a pandemic, tend to exclude many, thereby exacerbating, pre-existing inequalities.Strong partnerships have been critical to developing successful approaches. These range from partnerships with academics to share knowledge, support learning and ensure robustness of methodologies and with public, private and voluntary sector partners to ensure relevance and opportunities to provide a platform to present insights to decision-makers and drive change.Key ingredients of successful approaches to engagement include creativity and fun, trust, openness, mutuality, taking risks, valuing each other’s expertise, iteration to build learning and insights over time and connections and resources.KeywordsActive ageingCitizen participationSocial inclusionInnovation
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Comprehensive Perspective of Care Design for the Accompaniment of the Person During the Life Journey
Chapter
  • Sep 2022
The demographic change brought about by increased life expectancy and the decline in the number of births foresees a society with a higher proportion of older people in the coming decades. This situation poses not only challenges for the sustainability of a fragmented care system but also ethical and philosophical questions about what it means to care. Integrated care is posited as a broad framework to facilitate people receiving the care they need, maintaining continuity and transition of care as their situation changes, receiving holistic care and enabling them to develop their life and care plan. This chapter is approached from the positioning that all people need care at different times of life, as well as the civil and moral responsibility to care for others. Considering ageing not as a synonym of illness and dependence, but as a life process full of possibilities, several projects developed by the Matia Foundation and Matia Institute to accompany people in the ageing process are described. This life journey proposes a continuous line of care, from participation and prevention to care in situations of dependency, linking the objectives of the different projects with a focus on person-centred care. The design proposal aims to integrate citizen participation, friendliness, coordination of socio-health services, ageing in place and living like at home according to the interest of each person and alternative models of care for dependency.
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Use of Public Spaces by Older Adults. Comparison Among Madrid and Newcastle Upon Tyne
Chapter
  • Sep 2022
This study aims to identify what factors influence the use of public spaces by older adults in two European cities, Madrid (Spain) and Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom), through a mixed methodology based on environmental measurements, surveys and direct observation in open public spaces. There are significant differences between the two case studies in terms of permanence, frequency of use and activities. In Madrid, older adults correspond to 22.33% of the users; most of them visit those spaces daily and perform more physical activities, while in Newcastle, they represent 37% of the users; most of them perform passive activities and stay longer than in Madrid. It was found that some environmental factors such as air temperature, humidity, noise level and wind speed, as well as some design elements and the subjective perception of acoustic and thermal comfort, have a statistical influence on the permanence of older people. Although these are cities with different characteristics in size, climate, culture and urban structure, in both cases, older adults correspond to a high percentage of the users of open public spaces. An adequate design that promotes their health and quality of life is important, taking into account their needs and preferences to support active ageing.KeywordsUse of public spacesOlder adultsOpen public spacesActive ageingHealthy ageingPopulation ageing
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Development and Management of Cohousing Initiatives for a Friendly Ageing in Spain
Chapter
  • Sep 2022
There is growing interest in promoting active and healthy ageing environments through age-friendly communities within the scientific and public administration sectors. Older people’s health and quality of life expectations are structured around living for as long as possible in their usual environment, home and neighbourhood, so they can maintain autonomy and independence. Different residential alternatives have emerged in recent years, including cohousing, which allows older people to live at home in an environment with shared-use services. Outstanding features of this model include its encouragement of autonomy for ageing in place, help in preventing loneliness, development of social bonds and assistance in optimising financial resources and use of socio-health services. However, there is limited theoretical and methodological knowledge about cohousing for older people in Mediterranean Europe. This chapter examines the cohousing development and management process in Spain, as well as the implications of this strategy in promoting active and healthy ageing in the context of age-friendly communities. The data are sourced from in-depth interviews conducted with key informants involved in senior cohousing in Spain. Thematic analyses are applied using the Atlas.ti program. The results can provide a basis to design currently non-existent specific regulations that would facilitate the development of this residential category.
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Miasto przyjazne starzeniu na przykładzie Arnsbergu w Niemczech
Article
  • Jul 2022
Niniejszy artykuł analizuje metodą studium przypadku2 działania podejmowane przez miasto Arnsberg w Niemczech, które ponad 27 lat sukcesywnie realizuje politykę odnowy miejskiej ukierunkowaną na miasto przyjazne starzeniu. Celem artykułu jest analiza realizowanych działań przestrzennych, społecznych i w zakresie usług w Arnsbergu wobec starzenia się mieszkańców w oparciu o 8 obszarów wypracowanych przez Światową Organizację Zdrowia (WHO) w ramach programu miast przyjaznych starzeniu. Efektem badań jest konfrontacja obszarów podejmowanych w polityce odnowy miejskiej Arnsbergu ukierunkowanej na realizację koncepcji miasta przyjaznego starzeniu oraz wskazaniu inspiracji dla działań, które należy wziąć pod uwagę przy formułowaniu strategii odnowy miast przyjaznych starzeniu na przykładzie miast o podobnej specyfice także w Polsce.
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