The streets of Singapore are designed for other people—no longer simply vehicles—with numerous sidewalks and lined walkways. Communities also are designed in order that crucial products and services like grocery shops and occasional stores (sure, espresso is a part of the longevity vitamin right here!) are inside strolling distance of house. This sort of condensed town design has been proven to make stronger the metabolic well being of its citizens2.
Any other distinctive part of Singapore’s city design is that it is not all that city. An abundance of nature reserves, public gardens, and parks signifies that 90% of the inhabitants lives inside a 10-minute stroll of inexperienced area. Spending time surrounded by way of greenery is understood to fight loneliness3, dementia4, and heart problems5—3 of the principle threats to elders all over the world.
Even one among Singapore’s major hospitals, Khoo Teck Puat, makes use of nature as a supply of therapeutic. When mindbodygreen spoke with one of the crucial venture’s architects, Jerry Ong Chin-Po, again in 2019, he shared how biophilic (nature-inspired) design is helping de-institutionalize the gap: aromatic local crops quilt the medicinal scent, chook sounds in a central courtyard masks the whir of machines, and a rooftop lawn supplies sufferers with recent, wholesome meals. Those options have made the medical institution a spot for group contributors to collect, and as much as 15% of tourists who come to the medical institution accomplish that for social and leisure causes, in step with one survey.
“After we first opened in 2010, it got here out within the papers that the medical institution was once a sizzling spot for college students to check for tests,” Chin-Po defined. “It demonstrated that the surroundings we created was once conducive no longer simply to sufferers and caregivers however the group at massive… You do not really feel like you wish to have to head there handiest you probably have an issue.”
This venture epitomizes Singapore’s option to longevity and preventative care: By way of growing alternatives for motion, social interplay, and brushes with nature, Singapore provides a blueprint for anti-aging town design.
