Residential outdoor spaces serve as the most important venue for outdoor activities of home-based older adults. Their livability and age-friendliness have become a hot topics of active discussion in recent years and a key aspect of urban residential renewal. From an interactive perspective (i.e., the bidirectional dynamic causal effect between older adults’ behaviors and the residential outdoor space environment), this study explores the theoretical methods of interactive renewal of residential outdoor spaces, including concepts, principles, and an age-friendly design framework. Through field investigations of two typical communities (multi-row type and row-point combined type), and using methods such as behavioral observation, GPS tracking, questionnaire surveys (216 valid responses), space syntax, and kernel density analysis, this research examines the interaction process between residential outdoor spaces and older adults, analyzes existing problems, demonstrates the feasibility of integrating interactive renewal design with outdoor space design, and proposes design strategies for age-friendly renewal of residential outdoor spaces. This study supplements research on outdoor “space-behavior” interactions and contributes to improving the age-friendliness of communities.
Zhao et al. (Mon,) studied this question.