The Research On Inclusive Design Methods Of Public Buildings In The United Kingdom

Since the United Union developed the concept of barrier-free design,the foreign countries have paid much attention on barrier-free design and disabled people.In recent years,with the change of globe demographic structure,the population aging is without parallel in human history,something which will become even more accentuated as the 21^stadvances.This means that more people will need the accessible facilities in the future.In China,the opportunities of academic communication on urban planning and architecture with foreign counties now are increasing,the attitudes of Chinese researchers changed and accessible design has become one of the most important research direction in built environment.Public buildings normally have large scales and the functions of the buildings are very complicated.Also,the public buildings are always the most important places in urban environment because of the location and the high density of people.The requirements of accessibility in public buildings are much higher comparing to other building types.the U.K is one of the most advanced countries in Europe in terms of accessibility and has many years of experience in dealing with the subject.This research aims to study British principles and approaches to inclusive access in public building,which is also called inclusive design in U.K,comparing them with Chinese principles and barrier-free design methods to give suitable inclusive recommendations for China for the future development of accessibility in public buildings.This research first studied the basic theories of the approaches of inclusive access which are ergonomics,environmental psychology and inclusive design.Then combining the literature review and practical cases of the U.K,the research concludes the inclusive design methods of external built environment in public buildings from arriving the destinations,designated accessible parking spaces,access routes around buildings and external lighting environment,and the inclusive design methods in public buildings from main entrance,horizontal movement,vertical movement,accessible sanitary facilities,audience and spectator facilities,and signage and communication.In the results,the research compares and analyzes British inclusive design approaches with Chinese ones to give suitable recommendations.