Elderly Care: Designing Based On Occupant Perceptions

In New Zealand, 190,000 older people are part of the core demand for social housing, with this number expected to rise as the population ages. To combat this, a market driven response through the supply of social housing for elderly is necessary. Current research indicates that there is little information nationally or internationally about specific requirements for social elderly care facilities, particularly in NZ. Working with a medium-scale, research based architectural practice, the objective of this paper is to survey and test a specific case study to understand conceptual design techniques for upcoming practice based social elderly housing development. The aim of this research is to inform design project work and outputs, current operations and possible design interventions in the future that address designing for the elderly, testing occupant preference of globally researched interventions. This paper uses a qualitative case study approach to examine the living experience of 10 elderly people who live in local-authority rental housing in New Zealand and two custodians of these occupants. The survey consisted of conversation-based interviews with the residents in their dwellings. The study finds that consideration needs to be given to elements of specific interior spaces, spatial configuration, accessibility, outdoor, light, privacy and safety and social aspects.