Environmental Design For An Ageing Population

Population ageing has been a focus of research since the 1960s (Michael et al. 2006), and it has become a domain of international discussions, debates and research throughout a myriad of disciplines including housing, urban planning and real estate (Buffel and Phillipson 2016, van Bronswijk 2015, Kort 2017). Kazak et al. (2017) described how the ageing population has a profound impact on the real estate market, which is transforming in terms of availability of retirement accommodation for older people including accessibility, adaptability, and the availability of single-floor dwellings. Older people usually have a strong connection with the environment they understand and know well (van Hoof et al. 2016), enabling them to spend the latter years of their life in a familiar setting, which, in turn, influences their self-confidence, independence and the potential to successfully age in place. Older people are encouraged to continue living in their homes a familiar environment to them, instead of moving to an institutional care facility, and this is referred to as “ageing-in-place” (van Hoof 2010). This can be supported by creating a functional and spatial structure of cities that are friendly to older people (van Hoof et al. 2018, van Hoof and Kazak 2018)