Urban Living Room: An explorative study of elderly and public space in high density living

Abstract

The living room is a place usually in a residence for socializing and relaxing and is defined as a space for common social activities of the occupants. As many Asian cities are undergoing mass urbanization, housing in high density cities are tending to challenge conventional dimensions of living space, challenging even the scale of microhousing. The small housing footprint begins to challenge the importance and role of the living room within the housing unit, and transfers demand of collective space where activities typically happen in the living room to the outdoor public space – and thus refers to a term of the urban living room. Elderly in high density cities are of particular concern since they are in most need of accessible socializing living space and their numbers are growing as the ageing population continues to rise in many cities. The urban living room is the open space that lies within housing developments that have become so essential to residents as relief from their undersized and cramped homes. This paper describes the exploratory study of the thermal environment and associated behaviour of elderly in three public housing developments with varying associated amenities and public space in Hong Kong, where the projected elderly population is 30% by 2044 and currently about one-third of the elderly live under the poverty line. The selected housing developments depict a range from low-rise to high-rise housing to form an understanding of how public space planning affects elderly behavior in different living conditions. Many of the public housing developments are associated with new town planning and in some areas almost half of the elderly live in public housing who are one of the primary user groups of the urban living room. One of the key findings is a single well-shaded large open space near centralized amenities tended to attract many elderly, which although showed strong signs of belonging had some negative impacts such as lack of co-generational cohesion with other age groups. As public housing is becoming increasingly the viable housing option for elderly, the role of how these housing developments affect the thermal and social patterns of these residents will inform the urban planning principles for open space design. This study is relevant as many Asian societies are undergoing this transition from the economic model of private ownership to public housing and smaller housing units due to wealth polarities and unaffordable housing prices. As Hong Kong tests the extremities of microhousing it is becoming a live laboratory of urban public space succumbed to ownership by clusters of residents seeking sense of belonging.