Urban Park Design For The Elderly Using Principles Of Environmental Psychology

The background of the paper was based on Chinese population aging problem and the rapid development of urban landscape without humanistic consideration.The author aimed at combining environmental psychology,aging people's character and landscape architecture design methods to explore Elderly-Oriented design in city parks.Firstly,environmental psychological,spatial recognition theory and D/H theory of Yoshinobu ASHIHARA were put together with the physical,mental and social needs of aging people over 60 as the theoretical foundation by research from papers.Secondly,the site condition was so important as the people first demand.Thirdly,American Sun City,Japanese Yokohama Sun City Aging Apartment and Beijing Wanshou Park were taken as paradigms for elderly-oriented design analysis.Finally,these ideas were applied in the design of Cuiyuan Park.By designing the Cui Yuan Park,the author came up to the following conclusions,(1)Elderly-Oriented landscape design means standing in aging people's place to make the OutSpace considerable.Defining large,small spaces and walking laps by the number of users and arranging plenty of sittings under shadows in proper area are essential requirements of the design thinking.(2)The barrier free system should be taken into consideration through the whole design process of the park.Enclosing and penetrating to create spaces could be applied instead of constructing landforms.(3)Maintenance and management,which are always absent in our construction work,are crucial to the Elderly-Oriented design.Aging people need safety,cleanness and comfort,and only with appropriate maintenance and management could we provide them with such environment.