ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Aging
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608864
Research on Architectural Space Design Based on an Empirical Investigation of the Communication Life of Older Adults: Taking Unit-type Nursing Home as Examples
Provisionally accepted
- Department of architecture, Soochow Universit, Suzhou, Liaoning Province, China
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Objective: This study focuses on unit-type nursing homes for older adults as the research subject, investigating and proposing design methodologies for communication activity spaces that enhance social interaction among older adults.Background: China's aging population issue is intensifying, with the number of older adult on the rise. The total count of older adults with disabilities has surpassed 420,000, comprising 16.6% of the entire aging population. The absence of social interaction in unit-type nursing homes can adversely affect the physical health of older adults.Methods: On-site surveying and mapping of building plans for unit-type nursing homes; Real-time photography of architectural spaces and analysis of spatial design characteristics; Interviews and questionnaire surveys regarding the social needs of older adults; Environmental behavior observation: fixed-point observation of social behaviors and systematic recording of behavioral dynamics among older adults.Results: A comparative analysis was conducted on the architectural spatial design characteristics of nursing homes with clustered and non clustered architectural spatial layouts. Meanwhile, a comparative analysis was conducted on the social behavior characteristics of older adults living in nursing homes with these two types of architectural spatial composition. Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of architectural design for these two types of space composition in nursing homes. From the perspective of promoting public communication among older adults, propose suitable architectural spatial layout types and communication space optimization design strategies for nursing homes.Conclusions: The design of living units and small-scale clusters in specialized nursing home should be tailored to the physical health needs of older adults. The architectural space of the nursing home adopts a unit clustered architectural spatial layout type, while the interaction spaces are distributed. This type of building is more conducive to older adults carrying out social activities. It is essential to create a communal communication space within the living unit that embodies an open, family-like atmosphere, serving as the primary venue for both residence and interaction among older adults. Furthermore, urban life functions should be integrated between living units to enhance social communication opportunities for this demographic.
Keywords: Unit-type nursing home, older adults, communication behavior, Communication space, Space design of architecture
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ling Zhang, Department of architecture, Soochow Universit, Suzhou, Liaoning Province, China
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