Synopses & Reviews
This is the first book to address the design needs of older people in the outdoor environment. It provides information on design principles essential to built environment professionals who want to provide for all users of urban space and who wish to achieve sustainability in their designs.
Part one examines the changing experiences of people in the outdoor environment as they age and discusses existing outdoor environments and the aspects and features that help or hinder older people from using and enjoying them. Part two presents the six design principles for ‘streets for life’ and their many individual components. Using photographs and line drawings, a range of design features are presented at all scales of the outdoor environment from street layouts and building form to signs and detail. Part three expands on the concept of ‘streets for life’ as the ultimate goal of inclusive urban design. These are outdoor environments that people are able to confidently understand, navigate and use, regardless of age or circumstance, and represent truly sustainable inclusive communities.
* Presents the groundbreaking idea of ‘streets for life' - making outdoor environments useable and accessible to people of all ages
* Valuable to professionals and researchers from a number of disciplines including urban designers, planners, architects, landscape architects and gerontologists
* Illustrations, maps and key points help smooth the move from theory to practice
Review
"a well researched and easy-to-read book"
Building Engineer, August 2006
About the Author
Elizabeth Burton MA (Cantab) DipArch DipUD PhD is Head of the Doctoral Programme and Reader in the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. She is an architect and urban designer and the Director of the WISE (Wellbeing in Sustainable Environments) Research Unit in the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development. Her expertise is in designing the built environment for wellbeing and quality of life, with recent grants from research councils, the Housing Corporation and the Department of Health.LYNNE MITCHELL MPhil MRTPI is a Post Doctoral Researcher, Research Ethics Officer and Associate Postgraduate Research Tutor in the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University. She is a chartered town planner and co-founder of the WISE (Wellbeing in Sustainable Environments Research Unit in the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD:WISE). Her research interests lie in the relationships between social sustainability and the built environment.
Oxford Brookes University
Table of Contents
Part 1;Streets for Life – Why?;The origins of the Streets for Life concept;The need for dementia-friendly streets;Older people’s experiences of their local streets;Part 2;Streets for Life – How?;Introduction;Familiarity;Legibility; Distinctiveness;Accessibility;Comfort;Safety;Part 3; Streets for Life – The Future?;Streets for Life in practice;Going further with Streets for Life;Bibliography;Subject index