A Study of Older Adults' Perception of High-Density Housing Neighbourhoods in Singapore: Multi-Sensory Perspective.

Zdravko Trivic

doi:10.3390/ijerph18136880

Abstract

Associated sensory and cognitive declines progress with ageing and profoundly impact the daily living and quality of life of older adults. In the context of an increased ageing population globally, this paper outlines an exploratory study of socio-sensory properties of two high-density housing neighbourhoods in Singapore and the ways senior local residents perceive their familiar built environments. This study employed exploratory on-site exercises with 44 student researchers (including sensory photo-journeys, documentation of sensory properties and daily activity patterns), and 301 socio-perceptual surveys with local residents, the majority of whom were older adults. The findings reveal important aspects related to sensory assessment and appreciation (e.g., crowdedness, noise, smell, cleanliness), walking experience (e.g., safety, wayfinding) and overall satisfaction with the neighbourhood (e.g., available public amenities, opportunities for inter-generational bonding), some of which correlated with age and reported health condition. Multi-sensory assessment shows the capacity to inform more integrated, empathetic, ability-building and context-specific ageing-friendly neighbourhood design.

Highlights

The ways people experience, understand and use built environments are shaped by the dynamic and interdependent bodily, emotional, cognitive and symbolic everyday interactions with spaces (e.g., [1,2])
The analysis found a considerable number of weak and moderate statistically significant such correlations
In a recent review of research focusing on age-friendly neighbourhoods in Singapore, Yuen and colleagues [112] observed that such research is in its nascent stage, with very limited studies investigating older adults’ everyday lived experience and perception of their built environment

Summary

Introduction

The ways people experience, understand and use built environments are shaped by the dynamic and interdependent bodily, emotional, cognitive and symbolic everyday interactions with spaces (e.g., [1,2]). Multi-sensory experience substantially affects individuals’ overall sense of physical, psychological and social well-being (see, e.g., [4,5]). The predominant design preoccupation with sight (over other senses) has led to the production of either sensory-overloaded or sensory-deprived built environments, resulting in substantial erosion of our perceptual sphere (see, e.g., [2,6,7]). The decline in sensory (and cognitive) capacity is one of the common consequences of ageing, yet underrated and empirically understudied (e.g., [8]), especially in the context of age-friendly neighbourhood design.

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Discussion

Conclusion