Projecting Sustainable Living Environment for an Ageing Society: The Case of Hong Kong

In 2030, 22% of Hong Kong's total population will be aged 60 or older. In order to advocate Active Ageing1 in a qualified and sustainable environment, our research team has continuously investigated the habitable urban living environment for elderly people in Hong Kong. In 2009, we have completed a research on the practice of everyday life of an active group of elderly people. This research aimed to firstly understand how people aged 60 or above live actively in an urban environment; and secondly, to see if they are leading a quality life in Hong Kong. With this conceptual framework in mind, we wished to relate the environmental context to the ageing society. We organized the findings of this research into a conceptual framework to assess the use of urban space in Hong Kong. We wished to find out whether the use of it was fit for providing a qualified life for the older people. We find that while Hong Kong is a liveable city offering a vibrant city life, it is at the same time a ‘dual city’ where the high spending ‘nouveau riches’ is gradually expelling the poorer citizens not only from the downtown area, but also from maintaining an affordable quality of living. Our findings strongly suggested that ageing is not a barrier to an active social life. In reality, poverty is the major factor that creates both helpless and hopeless feelings among the elderly people. In order to construct a sustainable environment which is ‘growing old’, the Hong Kong Government should integrate the concern of the older citizens into urban planning and design policies. The most important issue is to make the city life more affordable to all.