Exploring Apartment Design For The Aged In Chinese Cities Based On The Concept Of Active Aging

In the background of global aging, the pension issues of elderly urban population become increasingly prominent with the acceleration of urbanization. Obviously, the pension problem cannot be effectively solved in short term via methods such as reconstruction of original houses or depending on retirement communities.As caring facilities for centralized residence of the old, apartments for the aged will enable them to enjoy independent living as well as solving the problem of housing and nursing rapidly, hence these apartments are favored by the aged. In recent years, the number of apartments for the aged increased rapidly in our nation, but the majority of them use standardized living enviroment and improved health care facilities as guidelines to attract aged customers, which excessively emphasis on the negative characteristics of the aged such as old and weak thus highlighting on factors including all accessible and suitable environment for elder,s living and protection, while the old,s humanity demands for communication, social participation and emotional demands of positive energy are ignored.This paper introduces the concept of active aging in order to innovate the public to examine the value of the aged with a positive attitude. After the analysis of both common needs of the aged as social members together with their particular needs as “old men”, the paper indicates that factors including life support, health insurance, emotional caring, social interaction and participation insurance ought to be considered integrally in design of the apartments. Apartment for the aged considering the active aging theory should have the following characteristics: ensure basic demands of functions, weakened emotional insinuation of aging, space suitable for active interaction and environment fit for social participation. And then some experience is gained from former apartment designs via thesis analysis and case research. Based on the features of apartment for the aged considering active aging theory, the design principles, function structures and layout forms of apartment for the aged in urban areas are established, followed with a complete design strategy considering the space structure, site selection, layout form and function unit design. We hope these works will eventually contribute to the aged population in China, and are looking forward to providing healthy and enjoyable housing for the aged as well as providing them with living space filled with positive energy which will guarantee their right of active interaction and social participation as normal social members.