The science of age-friendly built environments - a review of recent UK activities

Published 18th November 2010

Those of you concerned with the impact of the built environment on society, especially on the quality of life of older people and disabled people, may be interested in some activities held in the UK earlier this year.
 
In March 2010, there was a study tour of the UK by a group of senior policy makers and researchers from Canada. The programme for their visit, which was concerned with The science of age-friendly built environments  and the proceedings, on which some have commented as being a fascinating account of the challenges of designing age-friendly urban environment, are at: http://www.sparc.ac.uk/workshops_proceedings.asp.
 
Also in March was another KT-EQUAL workshop on A Built Environment for All Ages: exploring the challenges of accessibility. Details can be found at the address above.
 
For well over six years SPARC, and then KT-EQUAL, have been organising workshops and other activities concerned with improving the health, independence and quality of life of older people and disabled people. A large proportion of these has been devoted to built environment-related issues.