Study On The Functions Of Urban Public Space For Elderly

In our daily life, the park is an important place for elderly people who usually play in itand it is one of the main types of urban public space. In this paper, the author analyzed onecity park from the functionalism and the theory of social capital. The author used case-studymethod to analyze the functions of urban public space for elderly people and tried to find howto achieve these functions.In this paper, the author analyzed the functions and support of urban public space forelderly and pointed the following functions: indirectly financial support, mutual aids in dailylife, spiritual support and health maintenance. These functions are achieved by the elderlypeople who construct the social capital in the filed of public space. Under the influence ofrestructuring in the family and other factors, the social capital of elderly people based on bloodrelationship, neighbors and colleagues is weaken and lost, so the original functions achievedby the families, organizations and communities turn to achieve in the public space. Theelderly people have a gradual shift from the private sector to the public space.In order to improve the quality of life of elderly people, we should improve the design ofthe public space of city and especially urban parks. For examples, we should create safe andconvenient traffic conditions, barrier-free design should be taken in the park and focus on theneeds of different ages. At the same time when we make city planning, we should adapt thepension-oriented directions, and build more space for activities for the elderly in order toconstruct social capital of elderly people based on public space and improve the quality of lifeof elderly people.