Inclusive Urban Design: Streets For Life

Elizabeth Burton, Lynne Mitchell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781136396113
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

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.

PART I Streets for Life: Why?

DOI: 10.4324/9780080456454-1

CHAPTER 1 Origins of the Streets for Life concept

DOI: 10.4324/9780080456454-2

THE MEANING AND USE OF THE CONCEPT

This book presents a new concept for design and development in towns and cities across the globe – ‘Streets for Life’. We developed this concept through our ongoing research in the Wellbeing in Sustainable Environments (WISE) research unit in the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) at Oxford Brookes University. The unit is newly formed but is based on over 10 years’ research looking at how the design of the built environment affects people’s emotional wellbeing and quality of life. WISE research aims to offer design guidance, based on rigorous research investigating people’s views and preferences, on creating environments that maximise people’s quality of life. There has been so much interest in our Streets for Life design guidance, that we decided to include it all in this book, in a form that would be easy to read and use for those involved in the design and development of urban areas, neighbourhoods, streets and housing.

There are two main interpretations of Streets for Life:

1. Streets that residents find easy and enjoyable to use as they grow older in their neighbourhoods, allowing them to continue living at home if they want to.
2. Streets that are inclusive – they are easy and enjoyable to use by all members of society, including older people with dementia.

Through our research, we have begun to develop a set of design principles and accompanying design recommendations that we believe, if used, will enable designers and developers to create Streets for Life. This book is aimed at a range of people and groups, including:

• Producers of street environments:
  • – Architects
  • – Urban designers
  • – Planners
  • – Highways engineers
  • – Access officers
  • – Private developers
  • – Housing associations
  • – Manufacturers of street furniture.
• Users of street environments:
  • – Older people and people with dementia
  • – Carers of people with dementia
  • – Groups representing older people and people with dementia
  • – Anyone interested in their local environments and streets.

We recommend that the principles and recommendations be considered as early on in the development process as possible. They can be used in the development of whole new settlements, retirement villages or urban villages, regeneration and redevelopment of urban areas, development of private and social housing, or could be used to make improvements to any urban area without the need for a major development project.

REASONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT

DEMENTIA PROJECT RESEARCH

In the WISE research unit, we are interested in designing environments to suit people of all ages and abilities. We are particularly interested in the relationships between built environments and mental health and cognitive impairment. It became clear to us that, although we are beginning to learn more about designing homes for people with cognitive impairments (e.g. smart homes), we know very little about designing outdoor environments. For this reason, we sought and won funding for a project on designing the outdoor environment for older people with dementia. We wanted to see how the environment could be designed to give these people as good a quality of life as possible. It is from this project that we developed the Streets for Life concept, and the recommendations in this book are all drawn from the findings of this project (Burton, Mitchell and Raman, 2004, Figure 1.1). None of the recommendations are the result of our professional opinions – they all stem directly from what people who use streets have told us, both those with and without dementia. We found a group of people from within Oxfordshire and Berkshire who were happy to contribute to the research – 20 with dementia and 25 without. We used three methods to find the answers to our questions. The key method was interviewing them in depth to find out how, why, and when they go out and what helps and hinders them when they do so.

A key message from the research was that it is invaluable for older people, especially those with dementia or memory problems, to be able to go out. Therefore we felt it was important for us to do as much as we could to promote the design of dementia-friendly neighbourhoods. We developed the Streets for Life concept as a mechanism for doing this.

INCLUSIVE DESIGN

Streets for Life fit clearly within the concept of inclusive design. Inclusive design means designing products, services and environments that as many people as possible can use, regardless of age or ability. It is sometimes called universal design or design for all. It is not a new style of design but rather a new attitude or approach to design in general. Inclusive design has grown out of two major trends:

• The ageing of the population.
• The desire to bring disabled people into mainstream society.

By 2020, close to half the adult population of the UK will be over 50 years old, while 20 per cent of the US population and 25 per cent of the Japanese

Figure 1.1 The WISE dementia project findings leaflet (Burton, Mitchell and Raman, 2004).

population will be over 65 years. Ageing causes physical, mental and psychological changes. These often include multiple minor impairments in hearing, eyesight, dexterity, mobility and memory, which affect older people’s ability to use products and environments with ease (these are addressed in more detail in Chapter 2). It is likely that as the baby boom generation ages, the older sectors of society will become increasingly vocal and demanding about the products, services and places they use. They are likely to have considerable wealth and high expectations for living active, independent and full lives, and will have significant market power to encourage designers and manufacturers to change their practices to address their needs.

A growing awareness of disability rights and burgeoning anti-discrimination legislation (including the US Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, the Australian Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the UK Disability Discrimination Act, which was updated in 2005; see www.disability.gov.uk/law.html) has caused a shift in attitudes towards design for disability. In the past the emphasis was on adapting the person to fit the environment or on special design solutions or technology for disabled people. Now the ‘social model’ of disability is more common. Rather than seeing people as having disabilities, they are seen as being disabled by the environments and products provided for them. Those who adhere to the social model of disability aim to design environments and products to minimise ‘disability’ (Imrie, 2001; Lacey, 2004). It is seen to be important to design to meet the needs of everyone, or as many people as possible, rather than those of the ‘average’ fit, white, male, young adult (DfEE, 2001).

Accessibility has become a major issue because of campaigning by disabled people, the political influence of growing numbers of older people and more positive attitudes towards disability in general. Certain planning guidelines and building regulations aim to prevent or reduce the inaccessibility of buildings and transport for people regarded as having physical or sensory impairments, but there remain extensive problems with the scope, effectiveness and enforcement of these measures (Imrie and Kumar, 1998). Gant (1997), for example, documents the extent to which pedestrianisation over recent decades has positively transformed the accessibility of shopping centres for disabled people, but important shortcomings are evident such as the inadequacy of toilet facilities and a lack of clear signposting.

Imrie and Kumar (1998) draw upon the accounts of disabled people themselves to demonstrate the extent to which the built environment compounds their experiences of social and economic marginalisation. A common theme in the informants’ accounts was to divide places between those that are safe and secure and those that are harmful and dangerous. It was often the home that was regarded as safe and secure, while the environment beyond the home was often perceived as harmful and dangerous. Humiliation was a frequent experience outside the home, such as having to access buildings by

Figure 1.2 People are ‘disabled’ by the environments provided for them.

side or back doors or face high counters in offices and shops. A typical comment was, ‘no one really gives a care about ou...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• The authors
• Acknowledgements
• List of figures and tables
• Structure of the book
• Part 1 Streets for Life: Why?
• Part 2 Streets for Life: How?
• Part 3 Streets for Life: The Future?
• Bibliography
• Index