Retirement Towns (abstract)

RETIREMENT TOWNS Alternative housing solutions for an ageing population

UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER / MA URBAN DESIGN / 2015 SIMONE GOBBER abstract

As care costs are projected to rise in the future, an age-friendly environment can enable a longer independent life reducing the need of external support.

The extent to which the world population is ageing is a phenomenon without precedent in human history. This irreversible demographic transition is projected to have in the next future a strong impact on both the society and the economy, and it is unlikely that the urban environment will not be affected by it.

As they age, people tend to interact differently with the places where they live. Their activities and their abilities change in time, and so do their expectations and needs. The urban environment can play a strategic role in supporting this transition.

Space plays an important role in either enabling or disabling people. As care costs are projected to rise in the future, an age-friendly environment can enable a longer independent life reducing the need of external support. A special attention of design towards the elderly can have a positive effect on the life of the individuals, as well as benefitting the society as a whole.

The full work is available as a download at: http://issuu.com/gobber/docs/retirement_towns To know more about it: info@studiogobber.com Š August 2015, Simone Gobber

RETIREMENT TOWNS

Alternative housing solutions for an ageing population UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER / MA URBAN DESIGN / 2015 SIMONE GOBBER

The physical design of space is only one of the components that create a so called age-friendly environment.

Retirement villages are proven to be successful in providing a protective and enabling environment and built-in sense of community.

Older people cannot be unified in one univocal category, and Among the different models targeting the elderly that have there cannot be one single housing solution that can respond been delivered by the housing market, retirement villages to the needs –and expectations of the elderly. Therefore, it is represent an interesting case of an age-oriented development important to promote diversity and flexibility, and this study combining an attention for care to a commercial opportunity. will consider what the main housing options are currently. The Retirement villages are proven to be successful in providing physical design of space is only one of the components that a protective and enabling environment and built-in sense of The full work is available as a download at: http://issuu.com/gobber/docs/retirement_towns To know more about it: info@studiogobber.com Š August 2015, Simone Gobber

create a so called age-friendly environment, and this is why community. Nevertheless, they raise issues regarding their all the current policies and programs aimed to enhance the spatial isolation from the surroundings and their affordability, resilience of cities to this social change usually comprehend a making them not only segregated in terms of age, but also wider range of topics.

space and income.

RETIREMENT TOWNS

Alternative housing solutions for an ageing population UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER / MA URBAN DESIGN / 2015 SIMONE GOBBER

The design exploration that completes the research outlines a flexible strategy to turn ageing from being perceived as a symptom of decline, into an opportunity for urban development.

The model that has been outlined with retirement villages could be applied in different contexts. In particular, this study investigates to what extent this concept could be transferred to an existing community, combining an age-driven urban development to the improvement of the quality of the urban environment for the existing residents.

While aiming at defining a conceptual model, the design exploration that completes the research is set in a specific location, Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, a British market town with an increasingly older population.

The results of this design exploration are intended to be transferrable to other contexts, outlining a flexible strategy to turn ageing from being perceived as a symptom of decline, into an opportunity for urban development.

The full work is available as a download at: http://issuu.com/gobber/docs/retirement_towns Dementia Friends is an Alzheimer’s Society initiative, to change the way people think, act and talk about dementia.

To know more about it: info@studiogobber.com

www.dementiafriends.org.uk

Š August 2015, Simone Gobber