Abstract
The development of ‘age-friendly cities’ has become a major area of work in the field of ageing and the built environment. This movement is driven by the observation that cities are home to an ever-increasing ageing population. Over the past decade, a multitude of age-friendly initiatives have been developed with the aim of making physical and social environments more favourable for older people's well-being, health and ability to live in the community. This article explores ten key questions associated with the age-friendly cities and communities' movement, with a particular focus on the built environment. It provides an overview of the history of the age-friendly cities' movement and the underlying models, the aspects of the built environment that are relevant for age-friendly cities, the ways age-friendliness can be evaluated, and the interactions between age-friendly cities initiatives and other strategic agendas such as smart cities. The paper concludes by discussing future perspectives and possible directions for further development of the age-friendly movement.
Highlights
The combination of population ageing and urbanisation has led to the emergence of “urban ageing” as a domain of research in social and health sciences [2,3,4,5,6,7], which intersects with the field of geographical gerontology and environmental gerontology
As Plouffe and Kalache [10] have rightfully concluded in their paper that the ever-increasing ageing of the population as well as urbanisation are the pinnacle of successful human development
This paper focuses on the importance of the built environment of agefriendly cities and communities, in particular, the aspects pertaining to housing, transport, the outdoor environment and technology
Summary
Handler [11] states that it is a paradox that engagement with the idea of age-friendliness remains limited whilst at the same time, issues that are related to design are often on the agenda of policy-led discussions. According to Scharlach [13], liveability could be the most elementary condition of age-friendliness, rising above age, and other characteristics Such a liveable city should optimise opportunities for health, participation and security, and offer economical and fitting choices for housing and transportation. This paper focuses on the importance of the built environment of agefriendly cities and communities, in particular, the aspects pertaining to housing, transport, the outdoor environment and technology
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