2 minute read
Design Concept
The design intervention addresses how to promote internal interaction and encourage spontaneous socialization among senior adults to prevent and alleviate potential loneliness.
The design approach mainly focuses on the needs of the elderly. Spatial characteristics are defined by understanding elderly activities and their typology. This design strategy resolves the existing problematic factors and reuses the original structure to create a convenient and functional public space that fosters the connection between people. Despite its focus on elders, the space is embedded within the community and welcomes participants from outside.
Advertisement
Snowbound:
The winter in Changchun from November to March is very cold, and the landscape is usually covered in snow. In the winter with other extreme weather conditions, elderly people are less inclined to go out, so they prefer to stay at home and do things such as watch TV and plant flowers. Some senior adults need to go out accompanied by their children.
Only Living Space:
Including the legal and illegal buildings, the community has 15 buildings. Nine of them are apartment buildings, which provide only a single living space from the ground floor to the upper level, and there are no shared spaces in the buildings, such as gym room, mailroom, or lobby. Other buildings have different purposes, such as utility rooms, vacancies, retail stores, and limited community spaces.
Outflow:
The community does not provide enough communal space for residents. Some of the senior adults choose to stay at home, while others go to the nearby public spaces or parks for leisure activities.
Structure:
Buildings are on average about 40 years old, and some of the conditions are not friendly to the elderly circulation. None of the apartments have elevators. "There was once a resident who had edema in her leg and her children were not around. I carried her from the sixth floor to the first floor", Shouping Chen, the complex manager, told me during a telephone interview. Additionally, three of the nine residential buildings have exposed staircases. During extreme weather conditions, the stairs can easily become slippery and icy, making it difficult for the elderly to go outside.
