Older People’s Use of Unfamiliar

Space: Implications for Urban Design and Spatial

Policy

Judith Phillips

Professor of Gerontology

Swansea University

IFA, Melbourne, 2010

OPUS team

Research TeamJudith Phillips, Nigel Walford, Mike Lewis, Nigel Foreman, Ann Hockey, Mark Del Aguila, Edgar Samarasundera, Martin Spaul, Mary Sinfield, Tony Carter, Dawn Morgan, Dave Carswell

CollaboratorsThe Welsh Assembly Government, Colchester Borough Council, Castleoak Care Partnerships, Age Concern Cymru, Swansea Network 50+, Swansea U3A, Clinical Research Collaboration Cymru

Research SupportSwansea University, Kingston University, Anglia Ruskin University, Middlesex University

New Dynamics of Ageing Cross-Council Research Programme ESRC grant number: RES 352-25-003 www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk

GSA 2009

Unfamiliar Space

Unfamiliarity occurs in two types of situations

1. when built environments are new Increasing numbers of older adults travelling the world as tourists

When older adults relocate through necessity or choice

2. when previously familiar places become unfamiliar As built environments change through regeneration,

decline or changes in society’s use of space

With changes in cognitive functioning

Unfamiliarity is an important issue for spatial planners planning for an ageing demographic in any local area, because unfamiliarity impacts

Established residents (urban regeneration, cognitive functioning)

New residents (relocating to the area)

Visitors to an area (tourists, appointments, visits to friends & family)

The OPUS Project

Central aim of the project

Determine the mechanisms and strategies used by older people to explore & navigate unfamiliar spaces as pedestrians

Five specific objectives Investigate influences on

someone’s ability to cope Examine extent to which

unfamiliar environments curtail autonomy and independence, and lead to social exclusion

Identify environmental triggers Develop navigational device Engage with spatial planners

Environments, Planning and Older People: Literature

Planning Guidelines

Designing environments for activity and health

Social inclusion and older people

Experience of place in everyday life

Environmental Gerontology

Environment, health and well being

Spaces and interaction

Safety and security

Accessibility and walkability

Cognition and wayfinding

Policy and Practice

OPUS Research Methods

1. Reality cave Assessments/ survey Testing

2. Built environment assessment Fieldwork Focus groups

3. Navigational tool4. Visit to Unfamiliar area

Local residents Planners

5. Interviews with planners

Reality cave

participant recruited from Swansea

psychological assessments

other assessments and demographics

combined time slice still images and film footage of a walking route through central Colchester

physiological responses

oral narratives

Walking route around Colchester

Quantifying the built environment: Fieldwork

SWEAT-R Senior Walking Environmental Assessment Tool – Revised functionality of structural aspects of the streetscape (sidewalks,

verges, etc.) personal and traffic safety

aesthetics of the visual surroundings availability of services transportation and parking to support the location as a destination

UDQ complexity enclosure human scale imageability Transparency

adapted to UK context e.g sidewalk to pavement; average building height to number of storeys

Data points

Experience in an Unfamiliar Town Centre

Meeting with Residents Familiar versus unfamiliar

Sensory overload

Tourist experience

Meeting with Planners Mobility issues

Landmarks

‘Any place areas’

Accessing Familiar Town Centres

Familiar Environments Signage is not used or valued in familiar environments The meaning of space is important: Cognitive maps are

constructed through more than just physical and built environments.

Places and spaces are imbued with memories, histories and identities that enable people to navigate familiar environments.

The hidden ‘unseen’ landscape beyond the immediate vision forms part of people’s perception of the area.

GSA 2009

Familiar town centre:

Accessing Unfamiliar Town Centres

Unfamiliar Environments People visiting unfamiliar areas sought familiar cues such as chain

shops

Taken for granted ‘rules’ apply such as the priority given to traffic over pedestrians or safe places to cross. Shared space is often not segregated and for the visitor is seen as negotiated space

‘Where you live is taken for granted’ (Ivy)

Signs were seen as of limited use- often too high, positioned incorrectly in the street and without an indication of distance.

‘You could be driving for hours looking for a toilet and you would have no chance of reading those signs’ (Brian)

Landmarks were important navigational aids but people had difficulty keeping them in view, particularly if these were upward cues in the visual field; there was a need to negotiate their immediate environment and attend to lower cues such as broken pavements and billboards

Accessing Unfamiliar Town Centres

Sensory overload: Was there anything that surprised you?

Sensory and informational overload can provoke negative appreciation of the physical setting.

‘I think the first thing is the noise. When you come out of the station it was quite noisy and walk up past all the buses and all that way, it was very busy. It looked on the film a quiet town but when you actually come into that area and there are buses coming from everywhere….buses seem to have priority’.

Film footage and still images: sensory overload

Accessing Unfamiliar Town Centres

Barriers ‘‘I noticed particularly the seats, tables, sticking out in the pavement, making it so narrow to get by- their swinging signs, so any blind person would be lucky if they hit those studs. They are more likely to walk straight into the tables or that swinging sign’. (Alice)

‘Its interesting to look up but you can't when you’ve got all this furniture and you have to be watching where you are walking…If you start by looking up at all this beautiful decoration on the town hall or looking ahead towards the water tower you could walk into something, there is too much cluttering the pavements that you can’t walk straight.’ (Jean)

Film footage and still images: signage

Film footage and still images: junction

Film footage and still images: start of high street

Key Findings: SWEAT-R and UDQ

Planners To what extent are older people's voices

heard and taken into account when planning and regenerating areas?

What processes are necessary to engage older people in a meaningful way?

Are specific areas of the town planned with older people in mind? Are there older people spaces and do planners factor age into the design, spatial layout, signage etc?

How can space be redesigned to make them more older person friendly? How can we improve the ambience of spaces and the experiences of older people?

Planners

‘Lifetime places’ are ‘age friendly’ environments

Different stakeholders

Older People are not a ‘hard to reach’

Ageing is considered in the inclusion agenda

General issues raised by older people

Key Implications for Spatial Policy

Differentiation of ageing

Control of space Shared space

Key Implications for Urban Design

•Walking routes as well as areas need spatial planning attention

•Place distinctiveness•The meaning (as well as use) of space may change as people age•Experience and ambience are important considerations

Judith.E.Phillips@swansea.ac.uk

www.newdynamics.group.shef.ac.uk