BOOK REVIEW

INCLUSIVE URBAN DESIGN

STREETS FOR LIFE
PRESENTED BY:-
AAKASH PATEL
SUHANI PATEL
MEGHA SHAH
  Elizabeth Burton MA (Cantab) DipArch DipUD PhD is Postgraduate
Research Tutor and Reader in the School of the Built Environment at
Oxford Brookes University.
 She is also Director of the Wellbeing in Sustainable Environments
(WISE) Research Unit in the Oxford Institute for Sustainable
Development.
 After practicing as an architect and urban designer, she has now been
carrying out research on social sustainability and the built
environment for over 10 years, and has won more than £750,000 in
research grants from funders including the research councils, the
THE AUTHORS Housing Corporation and NHS Estates.
 Lynne Mitchell MPhil MRTPI is a Post Doctoral Researcher and
Associate Postgraduate Research Tutor in the School of the Built
Environment at OxfordBrookes University.
 She is a chartered town planner and her research interests lie in the
relationships between social sustainability and the built environment.
 She is a co-founder and member of the Wellbeing in Sustainable
Environments (WISE) Research Unit in the Oxford Institute for
Sustainable Development.
  This book represents the goals and spirit of our Wellbeing in
Sustainable Environments (WISE) research unit.
 The Authors wanted to give an identity to the research they had
been doing for the previous 10 years, and to strengthen the basis
for continuing it into the future.
 The objective at WISE is to investigate how the built
WHAT KIND environment (at all scales from buildings to whole cities) affects
the wellbeing, health and quality of life of residents and other
OF BOOK IS users.
THIS?  Their longer-term, more ambitious objective is to help bring about
a change in the way we design our homes, streets, towns and
cities.
 They believe sustainable development can only be achieved if the
design professions fully accept their social responsibilities and
make more use of evidence (from research and past experience) of
user needs and how to address them.
 • Chapter: 1-3 • Chapter: 4–9 • Chapter: 10-
• purpose and • principles and 11

Part 3 (Streets for Life – The Future?)

Part 1 (Streets for Life – Why?)

Part 2 (Streets for Life – How?)

function recommendat • implementati
• what? ions on of the
• why? • six key design recommendat
• how? principles ions
STRUCTURE • Why it is • Familiarity
• Legibility
• potential
contribution(
important to
OF THE BOOK design for • Distinctivenes
UK towns and
cities and
older people s
with beyond, to
• Accessibility Europe and
dementia. • Comfort the rest of the
• focus on older • Safety world)
people
Origins of the Streets for Life concept
THE MEANING AND USE OF
THE CONCEPT

There are two main

BedZED, Sutton: one of the new sustainable
developments in the UK.
interpretations of Streets for
Life:
1. Streets that residents find
easy and enjoyable to use as
they grow older in their
People are ‘disabled’ by the neighborhoods, allowing
environments provided for them.
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.

The WISE dementia project findings leaflet (Burton, A shortage of care home places makes it vital to If older people can get out and
Mitchell and Raman, 2004). enable older people to remain living in their own about in their local neighborhoods,
homes. they are more likely to be able to
remain living at home.
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
– Careers of people with dementia
– Groups representing older people and people with dementia
– Anyone interested in their local environments and streets.
The need for dementia-friendly streets
Inclusive design addresses the needs of
everyone.
Streets also need to accommodate the
needs of younger people with physical,
sensory or cognitive impairments.
How old is old?
If streets are not designed to meet the
needs of older people many, especially
those who are frail or have dementia, will
be effectively trapped in their own homes.
• It explains why Streets for
Life should be dementia-
friendly.
• First, it looks at the
worldwide phenomenon of
the ageing of the
population due to longer
life expectancy and a
reduction in birth rates. It
then talks about the
obligations of built-
environment professionals
to address the principles of
inclusive design.
• This is followed by a brief
synopsis of how the ageing
process can affect people
Badly designed or maintained streets can
be a problem for anyone but especially for physically and mentally.
older people.
Familiarity refers to the extent to which streets are recognisable to older
people and easily understood by them. Familiar streets are hierarchical and
long established with forms, open spaces, buildings and features in designs
familiar to older people.
DESIGN FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIAR People have a general
STREETS FOR LIFE expectation of what they will
find on main
streets.
Familiar Streets for Life are likely to be places where:
■ Streets, open spaces and buildings are long established.
■ Any change is small scale and incremental.
■ New developments incorporate local forms, styles, colours and materials.
■ There is a hierarchy of street types, including main streets, side streets, lanes
and footpaths.
■ Places and buildings are in designs familiar to or easily understood by older
people. Most people are familiar with the
■ Architectural features and street furniture are in designs familiar to or easily traditional red K6 telephone box
The tourist information sign –
but, just in case, it also has the word
understood by older people. ‘telephone’ in large clear graphics ‘any ideas?’
on all four sides.
Legibility refers to the extent to which streets help older people to understand
where they are and to identify which way they need to go. Legible
streets have an easy to understand network of routes and junctions with simple,
explicit signs and visible, unambiguous features.
DESIGN FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGIBLE
STREETS FOR LIFE

Legible Streets for Life are likely to have:

■ A hierarchy of street types
■ Blocks laid out on an irregular grid based on an adapted perimeter block
Although the uniform grid provides
pattern A legible street. The buildings face a pattern of well-connected streets
■ Small street blocks of varying lengths from around 60–100m the street and have low boundaries the layout of identical streets and
to delineate private space without
■ Well-connected streets blocking the view. The T-junction
cross-roads can be as confusing as
the ‘lollipop’ pattern. The irregular
■ Gently winding streets with open ended bends and corners provides
buildings to focus on at the end of the
grid pattern also has small perimeter
blocks and connected streets but
greater than 90° street rather than a further creates a variety of block and
stretch of road and a minimal choice
■ Short, fairly narrow streets of routes
street shapes.

■ Forked, staggered and T-junctions rather than cross-roads

Distinctiveness relates to the extent to which streets give a clear image of
where they are, what their uses are and where they lead. Distinctive streets
reflect the local character of the area and have a variety of uses, built form,
features, colours and materials that give the streets and buildings their own
identity within the overall character of the neighbourhood.
Distinctive structures catch the eye and
DESIGN FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DISTINCTIVE help people to identify which
STREETS FOR LIFE way they need to go.
Distinctive Streets for Life are likely to have:
■ Local character.
■ Varied urban and building form. A skittles green in a Barcelona
park – a popular place of activity
■ Small, informal, welcoming and understandable local open spaces with varied and a useful
activities and features. wayfinding cue.

■ A variety of open spaces, such as public squares, ‘village greens’, allotments

and parks.
■ Streets, places, buildings and architectural features in a variety of local styles, People with dementia find it difficult to maintain
colours and materials. concentration when walking along
straight uniform streets.
■ A variety of historic, civic and distinctive buildings and structures.
Older people with dementia tend to
■ A variety of places of interest and activity. prefer informal urban open spaces
to empty, formal squares.
Accessibility refers to the extent to which streets enable older people to reach,
enter, use and walk around places they need or wish to visit, regardless of any
physical, sensory or mental impairment. Accessible streets have local services
and facilities, are connected to each other, have wide, flat footways and
ground level signal-controlled pedestrian crossings.
DESIGN FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ACCESSIBLE
STREETS FOR LIFE

Accessible Streets for Life are likely to have:

■ A mix of land uses. Below ground toilets are
inaccessible to many people.
■ Housing located no further than 500 m from local primary services and facilities, Primary services and facilities should be within 500
m of older people’s
including a general food store, post office, bank, GP surgery/health housing and secondary services should be within
centre, green space (village green, green street edges), public toilets, public 800 m.

seating and public transport stops.

■ Housing located no further than 800 m from local secondary services and
facilities, including open space (parks, allotments, recreation grounds,
publicsquares), a library, dentist, optician, places of worship, community and
Ideally, even small changes in level
leisure should have both a ramp and steps.
facilities and public toilets and seating.
Accessibility refers to the extent to which streets enable older people to reach,
enter, use and walk around places they need or wish to visit, regardless of any
physical, sensory or mental impairment. Accessible streets have local services
and facilities, are connected to each other, have wide, flat footways and
ground level signal-controlled pedestrian crossings.
DESIGN FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ACCESSIBLE
STREETS FOR LIFE

Accessible Streets for Life are likely to have:

■ A mix of land uses. Below ground toilets are
inaccessible to many people.
■ Housing located no further than 500 m from local primary services and facilities, Primary services and facilities should be within 500
m of older people’s
including a general food store, post office, bank, GP surgery/health housing and secondary services should be within
centre, green space (village green, green street edges), public toilets, public 800 m.

seating and public transport stops.

■ Housing located no further than 800 m from local secondary services and
facilities, including open space (parks, allotments, recreation grounds,
publicsquares), a library, dentist, optician, places of worship, community and
Ideally, even small changes in level
leisure should have both a ramp and steps.
facilities and public toilets and seating.
Older people’s experiences of their local streets

• This chapter presents

Being able to go out gives older people
the opportunity to meet others.
Older people with dementia struggle
to understand buildings that do
not make their purpose obvious.
Older people benefit in a variety of
ways from fresh air and exercise.
A common fear for older people is
that uneven or damaged surfaces will
cause them to fall.
Older people particularly enjoy
seeing greenery and trees in their
neighbourhoods.
The most commonly offered
suggestion for improving local
streets was to have clearer
signs – this sign is difficult for
older people to read because
the graphics are too small and
it is too high.
• It includes data for older
Almost all older people, with
or without dementia,
regularly go shopping.
• In seeking to offer guidance
Being able to accomplish a
simple task is a huge boost to
the selfe steem of people with
dementia.
findings from our dementia
research project on older
people’s general
experiences of their local
neighborhood streets.
people with and without
dementia, comparing the
two groups.
on designing streets that
are suitable for older
people, it is important to
first understand how they
engage with streets, when
and why they use them and
what their concerns are in
terms of design.
Streets for Life in practice
The aim of this chapter is to
explain how the principles
and recommendations
outlined put into practice,
and to highlight other issues
and objectives that need to
be considered.

A mix of uses is perhaps the most

fundamental ingredient of Streets for Life.

CREATING NEW URBAN AREAS:- The key design features of Streets for Life. (Drawing by Daniel Kozak.)
The Streets for Life recommendations can be used when adapting existing urban areas, in a
number of different situations:
■ Re-development of urban areas
■ Regeneration of run-down areas
■ Infill development
■ Small-scale additions/new buildings
■ Small-scale changes to open spaces
■ Refurbishment/replacement of street furniture.

In terms of practice, we are aiming the recommendations at the following people:

■ Producers of street environments: ■ Managers/maintainers of street environments:
– Architects – Local authority maintenance departments
– Urban designers – Local authority planning and highways departments
– Planners – Access officers
– Highways engineers – Town centre managers
– Private developers – Shopping center and other property managers
– Housing associations – Local residents of street furniture.
– Manufacturers
Going further with Streets for Life
We still need to investigate in greater detail
certain aspects of design, such as private outdoor
space.
We are investigating Streets for Life further
through the I’DGO project, funded by EPSRC
(2002–2006).
Limitations for the further work
is needed in the future for
Streets for life are:
• Representativeness of Research
• Depth of Information for
Individual aspects of Design
• Scales/Settings beyond the
There may be conflicts between the needs of neighborhood
pedestrians and the needs of cyclists. • Individual Differences
• Potential conflicts with other
users
• Potential conflicts with other
transport needs
• Potential conflicts with
Sustainability requirements
• Potential conflicts with
designers requirements
• Practical and economical
feasibility
Streets for Life need to be
Streets for Life are walkable streets; sustainability appropriate for all ages, not just
objectives require them to support public transport older people.
too.