top of page
Search

Prof. Xia Sharing NORCs at "Places for Ageing- Out of the Box"

  • je7535
  • Mar 24
  • 2 min read



This article is reproduced from a post by Ryan Loveday on LinkedIn



This week saw the first in our new event series - “Places for Ageing- Out of the Box” with a engaging discussion by Prof. Bo Xia at QUT.



A nice engaged little crowd in a informal setting and some great topics to throw around on the night.



The talk centred on PhD research by Prof Bo and his students on the phenomenon of NORC’s (Naturally Ocurring Retirement Communities)…



that is, neighbourhoods that were not originally designed for older adults but have gradually come to accommodate a large proportion of older residents…



specifically- more than 40% of the community aged over 65 years (and in many cases much more than 40%)



Locally- Brisbane includes a few of these, notably Bribie Island and Cleveland/ Redland Bay



As Bo promised, the discussion raises more questions than answers…what are attractors that draw older people to these places? The natural features obviously, but there is more going on… economic drivers and land value, scale of development, distance away from busy centres but still with reasonable access to services, a good sense of community…



The bigger question that occurs is this- while this kind of deliberate foot vote is happing, is this a good outcome for the social and economic viability of our cities? Are people moving for lack of better options in their preferred neighbourhoods- those geared for family homes and high car dependence? What does this do to the fabric of our city- with social segregation into retirement suburbs, worker dormitory suburbs, managerial class suburbs?…when the sign of a healthy society is ‘old people everywhere’?



Prof. Bo XIA is an ARC Future Fellow, program leader and lecturer at QUT and recognized expert in people-environment interaction with a specific interest in living as we age. Thank you for a provocative topic and great to have you part of the Places for Ageing Australia community!



Thanks as always to our great sponsors Kieron Smith; Karley Burnett of Armstrong Flooring



And to our event partners QUT Innovation Hub for opening up their great function space in the QUT library for us.



If you share a similar interest in all things that relate to our interactions with the built environment as we age, whether at the building end or the social end of the spectrum… consider coming along to our upcoming discussion events and tours.



Comments

bottom of page