南科雙城
南科雙城
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Co-designing communities for healthy ageing and social inclusion
Around the Southern Taiwan Science Park, long-established communities and newcomer families share neighbourhoods, but often lead separate lives. We explore how these communities can grow together, creating places where older adults can age well and residents of different generations and backgrounds can belong.
How can rapidly changing places become connected and inclusive communities?
How can rapidly changing places become connected and inclusive communities?
Ageing in place means being able to stay and continuing to belong.
As the Southern Taiwan Science Park expands, surrounding neighbourhoods are changing. New housing, services and residents bring opportunities, but can also disrupt familiar routines, relationships and places. Older adults may remain in their homes while becoming less connected to the community around them.
Supporting ageing in place therefore means sustaining the conditions for social inclusion: accessible spaces and information, trusted relationships, meaningful participation and a voice in local decisions. This work explores how long-term residents and newcomers can shape those conditions together, so that older adults remain valued participants in a changing community.
What we are exploring
What we are exploring
How is science-park growth changing everyday life?
We examine how development shapes the routines, relationships and experiences of long-term residents and newcomers, including where their needs overlap and where tensions emerge.
What enables older adults to age well in a changing community?
We explore how social connections, mobility, access to information and services, and a sense of belonging shape opportunities for healthy ageing.
What kinds of design can support inclusion?
We investigate how shared spaces, community activities and everyday support can bring residents together while responding to different resources, capabilities, and ways of life.
How we are developing this work
How we are developing this work
We combine fieldwork, persona development and co-design to understand community life and develop practical ways to support ageing in place and social inclusion.
Fieldwork and interviews
We explore how older adults, long-term residents and newcomers experience neighbourhood change, focusing on everyday routines, social connections, access to resources and a sense of belonging.
Persona development and validation
We translate these experiences into personas and refine them with local participants. These personas make different needs, strengths and barriers visible, providing a shared starting point for design.
Co-design workshops
We bring residents and community partners together to identify shared priorities and develop design principles. These principles guide prototypes for community activities, communication and shared spaces, which are refined through participant feedback.
What this work is producing
What this work is producing
Parallel Lives, Shared Places
Parallel Lives, Shared Places
Explore everyday life and community co-design around the Southern Taiwan Science Park—and what it means to age in place, stay connected and belong.
Watch the project video →
Community personas
Community personas
Research-informed personas capture the everyday lives of older adults, long-term residents and newcomer families around the Southern Taiwan Science Park. They highlight different social connections, strengths and barriers to participation, helping community partners design with a wider range of residents in mind.
Identifying community tensions, resources, and needs
Identifying community tensions, resources, and needs
Insights from fieldwork and co-design reveal how residents share neighbourhoods but differ in their routines, access to resources and sense of belonging. They identify everyday tensions alongside shared needs and resources, providing opportunities to strengthen connections and support ageing in place.
Design principles and prototypes
Design principles and prototypes
Locally grounded design principles guide initial prototypes for healthy ageing and social inclusion. These include intergenerational exchange, accessible community communication and a living directory of local resources helping residents connect, participate and access support.
Special Exhibition at the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health Conference
Where this work is going
Where this work is going
The next step is to refine design principles and selected prototypes with community partners and explore small-scale pilots in everyday settings. We will examine who participates, who remains less connected, and what makes these approaches useful and feasible to sustain.
Over time, this work aims to inform community services, shared spaces and local planning, so that science-park development also strengthens the relationships and opportunities that help people age well.
A growing community should be a place where both long-term residents and newcomers can belong.
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