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Beijing’s Selected Older Neighborhoods Measurement from the Perspective of Aging

Author

Listed:
  • Cao Gan

    (School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100086, China)

  • Mingyu Chen

    (School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100086, China)

  • Peter Rowe

    (Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02114, USA)

Abstract

The older neighborhoods in Chinese cities are the main areas in which the elderly live. Both housing and the older adults have experienced the resonance process of co-growth and co-aging. Along with the acceleration of the aging population, the older neighborhoods with the aging physical space environment are increasingly unable to meet the needs of the elderly, which affects their health and well-being. Although the Chinese government has launched a program of retrofitting older neighborhoods to make them more hospitable for older residents through, for example, elevator installation and infrastructure improvement, these practices are merely associated with various neighborhood features. Most existing research starts from small-scale case studies and consequently lacks macro-level analysis of the characteristics of the physical spaces and aging population in older neighborhoods. Therefore, this paper selects old neighborhoods constructed from 1949–1999 in the central city of Beijing (within the Fifth Ring Road) as research subjects. The research begins with an analysis of the construction and evolution of the standards of selected older neighborhoods in Beijing and establishes measurement metrics for the spatial characteristics of both the neighborhood and aging population. This article concludes that older neighborhoods in central Beijing can be classified into seven clusters based on their spatial characteristics and three clusters based on aging population characteristics through K-means classification. Additionally, this paper conducts an overlay analysis of these two classification results to identify different spatial features of older neighborhoods within varying characteristics of the aging population and proposes suggestions for the renovation of selected old neighborhoods. The study aims to provide a reference for retrofitting older neighborhoods with the goal of creating an aging-friendly community, and to supply a scientific basis for empirical research on the middle scale and micro scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao Gan & Mingyu Chen & Peter Rowe, 2020. "Beijing’s Selected Older Neighborhoods Measurement from the Perspective of Aging," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-29, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:10:p:4112-:d:359509
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen A. Cagney & Christopher R. Browning & Ming Wen, 2005. "Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health at Older Ages: What Difference Does the Neighborhood Make?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(4), pages 181-190.
    2. Carol S. Aneshensel & Richard G. Wight & Dana Miller-Martinez & Amanda L. Botticello & Arun S. Karlamangla & Teresa E. Seeman, 2007. "Urban Neighborhoods and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(1), pages 52-59.
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