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What audit tools are available to assess neighborhood suitability for aging in place? Drawing on theories from environmental gerontology, the article outlines physical and social environmental characteristics influencing aging. Eight research audit tools and three community/practitioner tools were identified using a Boolean search strategy. They emphasize walkability and the physical attributes of places. Areas for further development include addressing specific features related to aging, a wider range of environments, additional physical and social dimensions, and conducting audits using technologies and participatory processes to better incorporate aging experiences. For planners, these audit tools raise awareness of how environments can better support aging populations.

The number of older people who need help with daily tasks will increase during the next century. Currently preferences and policies aim to help older people to stay in their existing homes, to age in place, even as they become less able to care for themselves and, increasingly, live alone. However, the majority of homes in the U.S. and many other countries are not designed to support advanced old age or are not located to easily provide support and services. The paper explores the needs of older people experiencing frailty. It examines the existing range of innovations to make neighbourhoods and homes more supportive, physically, socially, and in terms of services. These include: enriching neighbourhoods, providing collective services, building all-age neighbourhoods, creating purpose-built supportive housing, developing smallscale intergenerational models, and engaging mobility, delivery, and communications innovations. Some will allow people to remain in their current dwelling but others focus on people remaining in a local community. Few are widely available at present. Urban designers can more fully engage with the multiple challenges of those who have physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments and living in solo households by becoming champions for a more comprehensive set of public realm improvements and linkages.

This article was originally published under NPG's License to Publish, but has now been made available under a CC BY 4.0 license. The PDF and HTML versions of the paper have been modified accordingly.

In February 2016, China’s State Council released a set of guidelines representing a change in the country’s approach toward neighbourhood design: to move away from superblock neighbourhoods and create a finer network of urban blocks and streets. The paper traces the circumstances that prompted this change, drawing on a comparative review of international literature and practice, and explores the opportunities and challenges for urban design. While modifications of the superblock are somewhat overdue, this current mode of organization should not be entirely abandoned. The suggestions and overall blueprint warrant a more circumspect approach and should be adopted with discretion.