Elderly Living Space Barrier-free Facilities In The Sino-british Comparative Study

China is one of the country where the elderly population is the largest proportion and its growing is also the fastest country of the world, but the study on the suitable facilities of the living environment for the elderly is an new research area. In some of the foreign advanced countries, such as the United States, Britain, Japan and other countries have accumulated a lot of experiences and implementations. In Britain, the housing plan for the elderly is an important part of the social security system, whose style of taking care the old person has obtained a quite good effect. And this is also significant for China which has been gradually come to the society of old people.In China, the facility for elderly is mostly designed according to ordinary people, and only be used by the elderly after finished. The elderly's apartment is located in the common residential building, as to the elderly, example, the stairs being too steep or too high, the storages being not convenient to the elderly and the cabinet being too high. Almost all the designers are young men who are not only lack of design experience but also lack of special demands, meanwhile there is lack of the related design principle. Therefore the barrier-free design in elders' dwellings should be based on the physical and psychological characteristics of elders, and learn the foreign experience, to provide the better quality of life for the elderly.This paper is based on the date collection and social research and the research method from the old people's physiologies and environmental behavior, aiming at solving the difficulties for the up stair and down stair. At the same time making a depth exploration in stair way chair lifts .This paper's research can be summarized as follows: (1) Start with the current situation in barrier-free facility design of the aged residential environment, analyzed the development in China and Abroad. (2) On the basis of the comparison, find out the wants of the elderly residential design of the barrier-free facilities.(3) Deeply studied on the Barrier-Free Design of the home elevators for the elderly.(4) Demonstration the needs of the home elevators.(5) As an home elevator's design for example, proposing solutions. Design a Chinese stair way chair lift. With an aging society's coming, the Barrier-Free Design of the Living Environment Facility for the Elderly need more and more attention,thinking and action. It is the embodiment of the social civilization's progress and development in concerning and improving the life quality of the old citizen.