Real Estate: Designing Buildings for Older Adults

The following text is an excerpt from The Building Guide Supplement and one of the best pieces Healthy Heating has come across on designing buildings for older adults... it's called:

Senior Friendly Living

As baby boomers age, they are committed to living independently as long as possible. Below, you will find information concerning the normal aging process and helpful tips for creating a senior friendly -- environment. These tips were initially developed to assist building contractors in creating retirement communities. However, most of these changes can be incorporated into existing housing.

Environment and Aging

In order to understand design criteria and recommendations for housing for elderly persons, one must first be aware of the functional needs of the residents. One must consider that aging is a process, and the functional levels of each individual will generally decrease at different rates. The ability of an older person to negotiate the environment will also fluctuate from day to day, dependent upon having a "good day" or a "bad day." For the environment to be compatible with changing functional levels,"adaptability" must be provided wherever economically feasible.

Adaptability should allow for the adjustment of the environment to meet the ability of the older person to maximize independence and to achieve the highest potential of housing satisfaction. Design criteria and responses to meet the functional needs of the elderly resident can only be established by understanding how the environment is perceived and negotiated by the older person.

Hearing

Older persons may experience difficulties discriminating normal conversation against a background of competing noise, which may be generated by the building’s mechanical systems, vehicular traffic outside, foot traffic inside, echoes in large spaces, music,

dishes being moved around, and other conversations. As hearing loss begins to occur, high frequencies will not be perceived, also affecting the older person’s ability to respond to warning signals.

Vision

As the eye ages, the lens hardens and yellows. The hardening of the lens, which occurs unevenly, will cause bright rays of light, or glare, to be misdirected within the eye, impairing vision. This vision impairment will also occur when an older person is sitting in direct sunlight. The pupil dilation and contraction rate is slowed,which impairs vision when the field of vision changes from dark to light areas. Older persons also require approximately three times the amount of light as younger persons to accomplish the same task without additional eye strain.

Sense of Touch

The sense of touch becomes increasingly important in that this sense, generally speaking, is not reduced as a mere function of age. As other senses diminish, the older person will rely more on the sense of touch to pick up stimuli from the environment.

Institutional environments, as well as homes, however, have historically been devoid of tactile stimulation as a trade-off for ease of maintenance. The older person has, therefore, been deprived of compensating through the use of this information source.

Orientation to Time and Place

As short term and long term memory loss begin to occur (in many cases accelerated due to relocation trauma), orientation to time and place becomes increasingly important. Most older persons are more familiar with square or oblong spaces and are confused by the so called "contemporary designs," which introduce spatial areas with numerous angles in circular patterns. Elements should be designed into the environment which can be changed for various seasons. Clocks and calendars should be prominently located. Special daily events should be posted and highlighted.

Personalization

Each individual, old or young, has the need to impose his or her personality upon the environment in which he or she lives. This may take the form of remodeling and/or redecorating a house or apartment upon occupancy. Once this has been accomplished, the new environment usually takes on the concept of "home." Older people, due to the loss of family and friends, also place more personal attachment to furniture and household belongings. The environment should be designed to allow the older person the opportunity to use certain pieces of familiar furniture in various arrangements, and to display personal effects and pictures.

Mobility and Agility

The aging process is generally most noticeable regarding an individual’s mobility and agility. Arthritis and other muscular complications cause a decrease in finger dexterity, making various controls and latches difficult to manipulate. Limitation of reach becomes restricted between knee and shoulder height, and walking may require assistance through the use of assistive devices such as canes, walkers, and wheelchairs.

Consider low pile carpet for ease of mobility for walking or wheelchair propulsion and low profile doorsills between rooms to help prevent tripping. Head movement becomes restricted when the neck is craned from left to right or when looking up at the ceiling. Such prolonged neck strain may restrict blood flow to the brain and cause fainting. Leg movement becomes restricted, creating difficulties when ascending stairs and/or entering a bathtub.

General mobility throughout the environment becomes increasingly more difficult. Activities of daily living become more time consuming and, in some cases, become impossible to complete. Since aging is a process and not a stagnant condition, the level of mobility and agility changes continually. The degree of functional difficulty in the environment should be matched with the agility level of the individual. Since one’s agility level is continually changing, the environment must also be adaptable to meet these changing needs.

One should also note that an environment which is too easy for an individual’s agility level can cause accelerated functional dependency. The ability to adapt a standardized environment to one’s physical stature and agility level has been accomplished and proven economical by automotive technology. This design concept is just beginning to be addressed in the residential environment and is drastically needed by older persons experiencing the aging process. Every effort should be made to make environments for older persons as adaptable as possible to meet their level of mobility and agility.

printer friendly

Email this article