Creative Ageing Cities: Place Design with Older People in Asian Cities

Ageing population and rapid urbanisation are the two major demographic shifts in today’s world. Architectural designs and urban policies have to deal with issues of an ever larger elderly population living in the cities, especially in old urban neighbourhoods, while also taking into consideration the evolving lifestyles and wellbeing of the diverse elderly demographic. Being able to continue living in these existing urban neighbourhoods would thus require necessary interventions, both to adapt the changing needs of the ageing population and to improve the deteriorating environment for better liveability.

Creative Ageing Cities discusses the participation and contribution of the ageing population as a positive and creative force towards urban design and place-making, particularly in high-density urban contexts, as observed in a collection of empirical cases found in rapidly ageing Asian cities. This book is the first to bring together multidisciplinary scholastic research on ageing and urban issues from across top six ageing cities in Asia: Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Through these case studies, this book gives a good overview of diverse challenges and opportunities in the various Asian urban contexts and offers a new perspective of an ageing and urban design framework that emphasises multi-stakeholder collaboration, inter-generational relations and the collective wisdom of older people as a source of creativity.

Keng Hua Chong is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design and leads the Social Urban Research Groupe (SURGe) at Singapore University of Technology and Design. His works are included in International Perspectives on Age-friendly Cities (2015) and Growing Compact: Urban Form, Density and Sustainability (2017).

Mihye Cho is Assistant Professor of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) at Singapore University of Technology and Design. She has written about urban studies, cultural studies, ageing, and education.