A Neuroarchitectural Framework for the Age-Friendly Built Environment: Transforming Visually Complex Spaces into Places

Space is a physical, structured entity defined by measurable dimensions and geographical coordinates. Place, by contrast, has meaning and value, which are created through people’s experience and social interaction. Despite growing interest in age-friendly urban environments, limited research has examined how older adults perceive visual complexity and how it influences their well-being. This study examines the concept of place through the lens of ageism by employing neuroarchitectural approaches to investigate visual complexity. Therefore, it develops a detailed understanding of how older adults perceive visual complexity in urban environments using an instrument called CLARITY. The study utilizes a mixed-methods strategy, analyzing the visual complexity and conducting semistructured interviews. The results revealed substantial variation in objective visual complexity, with CLARITY scores ranging from 23.5% to 49.6%. A strong positive correlation (r = 0.88) was found between CLARITY scores and participants’ perceived visual complexity ratings, indicating that the framework captures cognitively relevant environmental characteristics. Participants associated highly complex environments with clutter, object crowding, fragmented spatial organization, competing visual stimuli, and intensive traffic activity. Higher levels of visual complexity were also associated with lower self-reported well-being (r = −0.39). As the results show, high levels of visual complexity impact older adults’ well-being.