Community Design: The Key to Long, Healthy and Happy Lives

摘要

I am often asked about the link between housing and healthy ageing. Here I can talk about the importance of designing and building houses for a lifetime of transitions, designing adaptable housing with a focus on delight and not just function, rightsizing not downsizing, and the importance of much more housing choice as we age. But the real magic ingredient in keeping us living longer and healthier is not bricks and mortar, but community, not just any community, but an intergenerational community. By intergenerational community, I mean a place where people of all ages live side-by-side naturally, not a place where people are segregated into age-segregated homes, in close proximity but not blended.