"JC IG Play Space" Project

Public open space provides key spaces for recreation and leisure. For a compact, high-density city like Hong Kong, parks and communal area in housing estates function as an important form of “third place”¹ for older adults to rest, relax and maintain their social ties with the community. Nonetheless, the functionally-driven, age-segregated park desin concepts and age-specific play equipment selection undermine the potential for intergenerational (IG) play and interactions. 

In face of the effects of double ageing, which is characterised by the simultaneous ageing of our population and building stock, upgrading parks and the public realm in ageing public housing estates is of paramount importance to facilitate healthy ageing and improve residents’ social connectedness with the community. It will also encourage our ageing population to be more physically and socially active and support them to age in place. This will have a positive effect on delaying their premature institutionalisation and need for long term care services. 

With safety and reducing conflicts arising from shared use as key design parameters, the JC IG Play Space Project sets out to develop implementable hardware and software solutions to incentivise our older adults to be more physically active and improve residents’ sense of belonging and community in housing estates. This ground-breaking project will leverage the power of cross-sector collaboration to develop holistic hardware and software interventions to futureproof our ageing housing estates, in particular: 

1. How might we design parks and communal areas in housing estates to stimulate intergenerational play and interactions and incentivise physical activity? 
2. How might we introduce age-inclusive, multi-functional play equipment to diversify the play experience for all? 
3. How might software programme be designed to leverage the benefits of intergenerational community to incentivise physical activity of the older adults and build social capital in the community? 

At the end of the two-year programme JCDISI shall generate a guide highlighting best practices for designing, implementing and managing intergenerational play spaces in Hong Kong to encourage the replication of the model to address the needs of the current and future old and to futureproof our ageing housing estates.

¹The ideology of "third place" was proposed by an American Sociologist, Ray Oldenburg. The "first place" refers to one's home while the "second place" refer to the workplace,  "third places" are the publicly accessible community spaces that provide social lifes, such as restaurant, plaza, park, streets, etc.