Permaculture-based Landscape Design Of Community Adaptability For The Elderly

As the “Healthy China Initiative” emphasizes the work on population aging,studies on improving the elderly-friendly landscape design are on the rise.Nowadays many achievements have been made by the elderly-friendly landscape design over health,rehabilitation concept and old house renovation while there are still room for further improvement and creative explorations.Based on Permaculture theory of healthy ageing,ecological ageing and spiritual ageing,this research provides a new design pattern of elderly-friendly community landscape.Based on the research on Permaculture theory,the ecological promotion significance of it is outlined from its ecological ethical concept of taking care of the earth,taking care of human beings and sharing the surplus,as well as its design principles,which are specifically manifested in promoting ecological sustainability,conveying ecological wisdom,shaping ecological healing,spreading ecological education and creating ecological economic ethics,providing reference for healthy ageing,ecological ageing and spiritual ageing.At the same time,it analyses the needs of the elderly in terms of age and healthy ageing,physiological and psychological health,outdoor mobility,social characteristics and needs,and explores the needs of the elderly for elderly-friendly landscapes,summarizes the needs of elderly-friendly community landscapes design in terms of diversified landscape space layout,targeted landscape facility design,coordination of landscape plant configuration,and landscape cultural memory creation.A link between the Permaculture theory and age-friendly landscapes in terms of self-sufficiency for productive gain,environmental improvement for physical and mental health,and resource use for frugality is constructed,and the paper proposes design approaches for zoning management,edge enrichment,energy use,species enrichment,and edible landscapes.The elderly-friendly landscape design approaches concluded from Permaculture theory are applied in the elderly-friendly landscape design of Nanjing Fengguangli Community by using ways of zoning,edge enrichment,energy use,biodiversity,edible landscapes,cultural landscapes and caring services to build a place for the elderly to go to,to find enjoyments,to be benefited,to accomplish something,to create memories and to be tended.The research proposes specific and feasible landscape design solutions based on the Permaculture theory,which can provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for the application and development of the Permaculture theory in this field,improving the ecological environment of communities and meeting the needs of the elderly under the trend of rapid ageing.