Environments for ageing

We expect, and need, two contradictory things from the place where we live during the second half of life:

On the one hand, we want security and comfort. We want the services we require to be available and convenient. We want people near-by whom we are at ease with and trust.

On the other hand, we need challenges. At every age, we need opportunities, and even prods, to keep growing and learning - things that stop us from being too settled, too content.

In sum, we need we need to live in a place that makes us feel we belong, but that also refreshes us. It needs to offer support and spur.

It's the detail in all this that is fascinating: how small things can make such a difference to feeling that this is the right place, or not. And how what is 'right' can change quite significantly as we grow and change through the second half of life.

hat makes all this even more complicated, and more interesting, is how rapidly technologies are evolving, but so too, the provision of services (and their cost); the opportunities to contribute; and policies themselves about pensions, seniors' services … and so on.

Eventually we will consider the whole range of 'environments' that can contribute to satisfying this need for 'belonging':

• the residence itself: by the way it is designed, by the technologies it incorporates, whether it is a private home or an aged care facility;
• the local community: its layout and ethos, its public spaces and local habits;
• the city or state government: its intentions, policies, politics and provision.

What We Are Doing We've begun by looking at the residence itself: living in one's own home