Urban city design must cater for older dwellers

Author: Chris Taylor - 20 November 2012

City planners must ensure the future design of urban spaces is accommodating and inviting to older people.

That's according to a Guardian Professional report on guardian.co.uk, which suggests that as UK citizens continue to live longer, it will be critical to make the nation's cities a better - and more accessible - environment for people to live in.

Population predictions cited in the article claim that the number of over-65s living in the UK will increase from 17 per cent of the population in 2010 to 23 per cent by 2035.

Considering that mobility is likely to be an issue for a proportion of these individuals, Elizabeth Burton, professor of sustainable building design and wellbeing at Warwick University, argues that it's less likely older people will move to rural areas to sit out the rest of their days. Instead they're more likely to stay in cities, where there are lots of local amenities, highly-specialised care facilities and people.

However, cities have to first make efforts to attract these people back into them, making them feel safe and welcome.

A recent study by the World Health Organisation published on who.int rated the age-friendliness of 35 major world cities and concluded that clean cities, with plenty of street furniture bins in them, well maintained green spaces, outdoor seating, smooth pavements and street lighting, were among the top things to make people of all ages happy about an urban area.

While cost is a big issue for any local or planning authority looking to redesign its public spaces, professor Jeremy Myerson, director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and a specialist in age-friendly design, claims that doing nothing to accommodate older people could be more costly in the long-run.

"People say we can't afford extra seating, or to widen the pavements, or add extra street lighting, that councils are cutting back - but you need to ask what the cost is to the NHS of older people not getting out and about, the cost of social isolation in terms of mental health, or the link between the lack of cardiovascular exercise and health conditions," he said.