A Study On The Residential Space Design In Home-based Care For The Elderly Living Alone In Rural Area

Rural hollowing has become increasingly common in China with rapidly aging population and large number of rural population outflow due to the national promotion to economic development.With the increasing number of empty-nest elderly and solitary elderly,the pension problem of rural area is facing unprecedented severe test.Judging from the current national conditions and cultural concept of Chinese family-based traditions,home-based care is currently the most suitable mode for the elderly.This project is studying the residential space for rural elderly under the guidance of the national policies to strongly develop home-based care,with practical reference to the design of the residential space for the home-based care of rural elderly.This paper mainly takes the elderly living alone in rural area as the research object,is an in-depth survey on their residential environment,space use,residential facilities and public services.It successively analyzes the international and domestic current status of residential research for the elderly,as well as the international and domestic research on specific home-based care models,including the policies,housing design,and public services of home-based care.At the same time,the basic characteristics have been analyzed from physiology,psychology and behavior of the elderly living alone in rural area and their basic needs for the residential environment have been discussed.The analysis on specific problems and public services of the residence for the elderly living alone in rural area,according to household surveys on the residential space of them and fieldwork on the local rural nursing homes,which provide a realistic basis for the subsequent design practice.It is a study on the existing problems and the improvement measures of the elderly’s residential space through their psychological,physical and behavioral needs by making use of the convergence on issues.Then some suggestions were made for the elderly’s home-based care policy,housing design,and public services based on the previous domestic and foreign analysis as well as the elderly’s residential needs.There are three design principles of the residential space design,which are divided into functional space,sensory space and special space from the spatial levels,all meets the requirement of elderly living alone in rural area on safety,ascription,communication,comfort and privacy to residential space.This paper also presents the design of space for pets,emotional space,sensory experience space and courtyard space for the elderly.A reasonable space combination for the whole residential space is formed by using functional plants,which draws on American horticultural therapy,so as to maximize the use of space in comfort and convenience.Meanwhile this design covers the accessible design and emergency call facility in the space,which benefits from Japanese skills on detail design for the elderly residence.Finally,the specific design practice for the residence of elderly living alone in rural area is carried out on the basis of the design concept.