The effects of built environment design on opportunities for wellbeing in care homes

McIntyre, Lesley and Harrison, Ian (2017) The effects of built environment design on opportunities for wellbeing in care homes. International Journal of Architectural Research: ArchNet-IJAR, 11 (1). pp. 138-156. ISSN 1938 7806

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Abstract

The built environment influences the wellbeing of older people in care homes. In order to design for enablement, physical activity, and social connectivity there are lessons to be learnt from current care home buildings. Uncovering this design information is key for the future improvement of environments for older people. To the field of architecture, this paper presents an analysis of ethnographic observations (utilising an adapted form of the AEIOU heuristic) from five urban care homes in the UK. Findings provide insight into the qualities of the built environment that have impact on the activity and potential wellbeing of older residents. Five significant qualities of the built environment are identified: Spatial Legibility, Spatial Interconnectedness, Spatial Traversability, Spatial Diversity, and Spatial Aesthetics.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Care homes; wellbeing; ethnographic observations; human building interactions; user study
Subjects: K100 Architecture
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Architecture and Built Environment
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Depositing User: Lesley Mcintyre
Date Deposited: 05 Jun 2017 10:28
Last Modified: 01 Aug 2021 12:06
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/30941

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