Covid has escalated the rate of change in how we live and shop within our towns and cities with high streets emptying, and shops closing due to on-line shopping. Post-Covid, now empty businesse and streets may never fill again as shopping moves on-line and workers have found the positive aspects of working from home. As our population ages, we also need to re-invent how we can fight loneliness and helplessness in older and unhealthy people by purposefully creating inviting, safe, social living targeted for their needs. The opportunity is therefore how to re-invent the way we live, especially within the town and city centre, to meet the accelerated changes in population need post-Covid. Let‚’s re-think our town and city centres -and find a way to utilise our urban retail space; excess office building space, and re-energise derelict urban areas, by creating hubs of social living, especially for our older populations. Scandinavian countries- eg Denmark, are re-building their own urban centres into housing and community centres which create natural social support for their most vulnerable. Re-inventing living space above shops and cafes with lifts and ramps for the elderly, for example, creates ready-made consumer populations for these shops . No-traffic city centres creates safe walking, zimmering, cycling. Green space- both at ground level and horizontally using existing high rise buildings, creates healthy attractive environments. Older population movement from rural to urban will create available housing for younger families wanting to move out of cities- reducing the need to build in greenspace.
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