Age in Place, Part II: Connect-ability

This post is building on the previous post – Age in Place – Increased focus of future design. Another key aspect to aging in place is to look beyond the actual building or space itself, and consider the larger context the living space is sitting in. In order to have a functioning aging in place concept, the occupant must be able to interact with basic services and obtain daily needs in an accessible fashion. Setting a well structured and support aging in place community in a remote parcel with separated living, working and support zones, will likely require a vehicle or other transportation to properly provide all the essential needs. IN order to truly embrace the concept, dependability on a car or vehicular transportation should be reduced or eliminated. To achieve this, locations must be walking friendly and feature amenities that are useful to the aging population, beyond those of other desirable walkable communities. A great site to check the walkability of any location is: WalkScore. The higher the score, the more integrated a location is.

Of course there are certain services related to the aging populous, that are unlikely to be in walking distance, such as hospitals and other medical providers. Here the connection to public transit can be key to a successful location. Personal vehicles have a decreased value for the aging in place group. Parking spaces and structures limit opportunities for walking, biking and other low impact outside activities. The Smart City Challenge has some great ideas about transportation; find it HERE.

Parks and other shares spaces in close proximity will further enhance the concept of a well integrated or even planned community. Urban planners and architects have for decades attempted to create communities that could work by design. The Congress of New Urbanism has in recent times made great advances in the planning approaches. More can be read HERE. The CNU is a great starting point to learn more about urban and community planning. Technology and infrastructure are yet another angle to the aging in place living and will be covered in a future post.