The importance of age friendly design guidelines is known to all yet most of us shy away from acknowledging the fact, probably we don’t see ourselves getting old or we do not think ageing is a major concern.
While private sector organisations have the expertise and knowledge in setting up age friendly senior living facilities, unfortunately the planners and designers at the grassroot level are not very conversant and updated.
As India is gradually moving towards becoming a socially developed economy, it is important that we should have our own homegrown standards and guidelines. It is of outmost importance that detailed room data sheets are freely available and culturally sensitive senior citizen care homes are planned in each district.
Architectural Services Department (ArchSD), Hong Kong had commissioned P&T Architects and Engineers Limited to develop a set of the Elderly-friendly Design Guidelines to help designers and project proponents to make design decisions and to explore means to improve the built environment in support of happy, healthy and active ageing.
Promotion of age-friendliness requires a multi-disciplinary and synergistic approach that encourages design professionals to work in collaboration with different government authorities, elder-care practitioners, communities agencies and the users to seek design solutions that benefit the whole society.
As stated in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide”, there are eight inter-related domains which reflect the age-friendliness of a city. These are:
- Outdoor spaces and buildings
- Transportation
- Housing
- Social participation
- Respect and social inclusion
- Civic participation and employment
- Communication and information
- Community support and health services
The attached document is a very comprehensive guide which can be referred in designing senior living projects.
The document can be accessed on https://www.archsd.gov.hk/tc/home.html or can be downloaded here (Elderly-friendly Design Guidelines) or can be viewed below