Healthy ageing and happy communities: a study of allotment gardens in Singapore

Abstract

With a rapidly ageing population, healthy ageing has been highlighted as a key aim for policymakers in Singapore in a national blueprint that conceptualises the ageing experience as one that encourages our seniors to remain active and engaged. Of the various spaces that support engagement with public life, allotment gardens have drawn much interest from seniors but have not been extensively studied in terms of their age-friendliness, and how they contribute toward healthy ageing. To do so, an integrated framework consisting of adaptations from the World Health Organisation’s Age-Friendly Cities checklist, observations based on Kevin Lynch’s urban wayfinding elements and surveys of 60 gardeners and visitors was used to assess the age- friendliness of the allotments and the effects of allotment gardening on physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

In all, the allotment gardens were found to serve as a highly age-friendly social hub that promotes benefits such as physical activity through gardening, encourages stress relief and spurs generosity.