Research On Elder-friendly Residential Environment Design Under A Hybrid Model

Aging is not only one of the major challenges faced by the society, but also aninevitable result of social progress. As we enter the21st century, the problem of agingwill have an impact on all aspects of our lives and raise request for our society andeconomy. When a person enters senescence, his or her behavior will alter with thechange in psychological and physical condition. With the rapid development of theeconomy, the living standards continue to improve. Traditional residentialenvironment design can no longer meet the day-to-day needs of the elderly as well astheir entertainment requirement. Therefore, studying and improving the residentialenvironment design for the elderly is the most urgent task for designers at the moment.This paper focuses on how to design an elder-friendly residential environment for anever-growing aging population.This paper will explore the aging problem as well as the characteristics of theelderly population from a cross-disciplinary perspective, which includes sociology,psychology, physiology, architecture, urban planning, science and other disciplines.The author reviewed a variety of relevant literatures and interviewed the residents ofseveral neighboring communities, asking about their views on the design of theirresidential environment. After reviewing and summarizing relevant researches bothhome and abroad, the author proposes a blueprint for designing an elder-friendlyresidential environment suitable for senior citizens in China.This paper consists of three parts. The first part raises the main topic of thepaper. Against the backdrop of accelerated aging, the ever-growing elderly populationand the inconvenience in the residential environment pose a major contradiction. Thispart is the first chapter of the paper. The second part analyzes the problem, thepsychological and physiological characteristics of the elderly, as well as the behaviorof the elderly. This part also summarizes the special requirements of the livingenvironment for the elderly. Through questionnaires, the author collects the elderly’spersonal opinions about their own living environment. This part consists of the second,the third and the fourth chapter of the paper. The third part of the paper aims to solvethe problem. This part consists of a comprehensive analysis and a case study of ablock of Peach Blossom Pool Vanke, Hefei City, which combines the theory andtheory of research results to study the design of residential environment. This part alsoproposes the solutions for some existing problems. That part consists of Chapter5and Chapter6of the paper. The third part aims to solve the problem. In this part, theauthor proposed the concept of hybrid residential design and expounded on thestructure, layout, activity space, supporting facilities and the environmental quality ofthe residence. Finally, the author presented a case study of such residence. This partconsists of Chapter Five of the paper.The article focuses on introducing a new theoretical viewpoint while proposinga tentative solution to the problem. Hopefully, these findings will serve as atheoretical foundation for further studies in this area and provide insights for futureresearch on elder-friendly residential design.