Environment-Behavior Study On Indoor Public Space Of Nursing Home In Guangzhou

In China, with the exacerbated development of aging population and the miniaturizationof family structure, the transition on aged caring from traditional family mode to new socialmodel has become an inevitable trend. Institutional aged caring has been gradually acceptedby society due to its advantages on nursing services and collective life and became a mainpart of social aged caring. Taking one family type and one apartment type of aged caringinstitution in Guangzhou as objects, this paper studied indoor public spaces and behavioralcharacteristics of aged people in aged caring facilities by using methods of participantobservation, behavior mapping, structural interview and photo observation.From perspective of space use, this paper explored the impacts of elderly self-care ratingand spatial structure on space utilization. By statistical analysis of users’ number, the percapita use area index was obtained for halls, multifunctional halls, chess rooms and otherpublic spaces. The corridor’s minimum width and space preferences were investigated in bothqualitative and quantitative aspects. The elderly movement distance was found to becorrelated with spatial structure and elderly self-care rating, and the appropriate ranges ofmovement distance were proposed for various self-care rating aged people based on normaldistribution.From perspective of behavioral characteristics, this paper investigated the relationshipbetween behaviors and space designs through analysis of social, leisure and resting behaviorsof aged people. The ranges of elderly interpersonal distance were identified for their intimated,social and temporary contacts respectively. The appropriate distribution of seats was proposedfor audio-visual spaces and the group ecology and position relation for elderly contacts andthe elderly demands for resting spaces were discussed.Based on the environment-behavior studies, this paper proposed both quantitative andqualitative design guidelines in aspects of spatial scales, spatial organizations and indoorfurnishings for various public spaces, which are believed to provide references and helps forpublic space designs of elderly facilities.