Assessing the social interconnection of retirement village : a framework of landscape design

Due to the population ageing across the world, retirement villages have been playing an increasingly important role in providing appropriate housing alternatives for the seniors. It has been argued that social interconnection influences the quality of life of senior residents. However, little landscape literature has been delivered to address the social interconnection of retirement villages. This research aims to propose a framework of landscape design to assess and enhance the social interconnection of retirement villages. A theoretical baseline of the landscape design of the social interconnection in retirement villages is developed, analogue to the previous literature. Subsequently, three retirement villages in Geelong, Australia are assessed and compared against the theoretical baseline. The major social-interconnection features not being addressed by the landscape design are identified, including respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment; and communication and information in retirement villages. Meanwhile, few retirement villages have embedded landscape narratives into the landscape design. This research argues that landscape narratives shall create unique meaning in terms of their former life, living environment and experiences and contribute to their elder life in retirement villages. This research presents a novel measure to enhance the social interconnection of the retirement villages within the landscape context.