| Title |
A Study on Relations between Deterioration of Physical Functions due to Aging and Bathroom Design Guidelines for the Elderly |
| Keywords |
Bathroom Design Guidelines ; Characteristics of Physical aging ; Aging ; Elderly Housing |
| Abstract |
Advancement toward aging society has presented the importance of house planning in consideration of the elderly, increasing the necessity of such planning. Therefore the importance of indoor design guideline for elderly houses has been stressed and the understanding of the aging in regard to this trend will create more mature spaces. In line with this trend the purpose of this study is to study the medical factors related with bathroom interior design guidelines of the existing elderly houses from the viewpoint of deteriorating physical functions due to aging process. In order to research the deterioration of physical functions due to aging literatures of medical and exercise physiology were used and concerning the existing bathroom design guidelines for the aged people, the guideline items of behavior facilitation, physiological maintenance and perceptual maintenance aspects out of Murtha & Lee's user benefit criteria(1976) related with physical functions were selected to research in relation with the knowledge about the deterioration phenomena of physical functions. Physical aging and deterioration aspects were classified from the viewpoint of musculoskeletal disorder, cardiovascular disorder, respiratory disorder, gastronomy disorder, urology disorder, somatosensory disorder, endocrine disorder, immune disorder, nervous disorder and skin diseases and these were utilized in interpreting total 100 items of bathroom design guideline. Because bathroom is the space where many physical movements are done, it had the closest relationship with the deterioration of musculoskeletal health in general and as bathroom is the space where people use water and feel the difference in temperature and moisture more than other spaces, deterioration of skin and somatosensory health had the next closest relationship. The result of this study revealed that regarding the deterioration of physical functions of the elderly people in aspect of their perceptibility as designers will design creatively and sincerely based on its relationship with nervous system in future, the result of this study will be used to develop better spatial designs efficiently to meet for the aging society. |