Study And Design On The Life Street Space In The Towns For The Aging Population

To cope with the aging society of China, this paper focus on the street spacedesign for the aging based on the small towns around Changsha.Different from theordinary roads, the orders’ needs is the permanent key point of consideration when theroad for the orders is designed. Focusing on the reality of the life street space in thetowns, this paper summarizes the theories and proposes the methods of designing theroads for the old by analysising and referring to the theories and methods home andaboard. It aims to improve the life street space quality of the towns and design theinteresting space, which can satisfy the material and spiritual needs of the orders.The life street space of the towns can be divided into three kinds: the space of thelineal life street, the exterior space down the street and the space of node. The spaceof the lineal life street includes the major road space and the sidewalk space. Theexterior space down the street refers to the bottom space and the concavo-convexspace of the building along the street. Take the middle part of the Yu Tan Road inNingxiang County as an example, it has three series problems: the roadway and thenode problem, the sidewalk problem and the exterior space problem. For the roadwayand the node, there is bad traffic jam, lack of the zebra cross, bad management of thejunctions and the peddlers who are in the driveway. The sidewalk problems includethe motors in the sidewalk, rough road, the serious shortage of the assistant facilitiesand the barrier-free design. The mixed architectural form and the messy signboardsare the exterior space problems. The life street space design for the orders isinvestigated, analyzed and discussed based on the above problems. Through multimethods, such as studying the theories, analyzing it from different levels, combiningthe theory with practice and so on, this article points out the design principles andstrategies of the street space for the aging which consider the people’s desire of theroads, especially the aged people’s besides their physiology, psychology, behavior andsocial character. The principles consist of the following ones: easiness to identify,easiness to arrive, barrier free, safety, easiness to company with others and ecology.All those six principles interconnect, correlate and affect one another. The nodesinclude the green land, parks, intersection and so on. However, the node mainly refersto the intersection for the towns. Therefore, the strategies cover the driveway and theintersection, the sidewalk and the exterior space down the street. The strategies for the driveway are to set the speed limit, establish adequate buffer zones or design theone-way street. For the intersection, it should use the traffic light for the elders andimprove the intersection visuality. The barrier-free design or system can be applied tothe sidewalk with the ecologically porous pavements. Last, for the exterior spacedown the street this paper suggests to pay attention to the safety of the second contourparticularly the public entrance of the private space in the buildings.