In recent years,China has been ageing more quickly and is now facing the unavoidable social concern of an ageing population.Combined with the situation of China,ageing at home is so far the most suitable way of old-age care,creating age-appropriate communities is crucial for improving the quality of the old-age care for the aged.In this paper,a survey on the outdoor space environment of age-appropriate communities based on the theory of environment-behavior relationship was carried out in the form of a questionnaire delivered to permanent aged residents from 12 representative communities in Tianjin.The behavior of the aged in outdoor activities and their space preferences are characterized.In the light of the psychological needs and physiological deterioration of the aged,their behavior needs in outdoor environment are summarized as needs for socialization,needs for fitness,needs for comfort and needs for safety.On this basis,design aspects of existing community environment that depart from the behavior needs of the aged or compromise the use of outdoor spaces like improper spatial arrangement,inadequate provision for comfort and the absence of safety design are examined.Finally,design solutions to the outdoor environment of ageappropriate communities by means of space creation,comfort improvement and safety design are proposed with a view to offering valuable reference for optimizing the outdoor space environment of age-appropriate communities.