Housing for the Elderly

Abstract

A post-occupancy evaluation of highrise versus garden apartment housing was carried out with 77 residents of two highrise and two garden apartment public housing complexes for the elderly. The study's primary purpose was to assess the impact on satisfaction and coping ability of an array of design configurations and features, such as spatial layout and corridor discriminability, suggested by an information-processing theoretical framework. Findings indicate that design solutions do influence resident's degree of disorientation, perception of hazards, and provide different kinds of satisfactions. Court residents derive satisfaction from physical aspects of ground-level design and proximity to nature, while highrise residents experience greater attentional demands and confusion but have a supportive social environment.