CONSIDERING THE ELDERLY’S NEEDS IN DEVELOPING NURSING HOME

DESIGN

MANURUNG, parmonangan
Jurusan Arsitektur, Fakultas Arsitektur dan Desain, Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana
Jl. Wahidin Sudirohusodo No.5-25, Yogyakarta - INFONESIA
Email: monang@staff.ukdw.ac.id

Fredrik B. D. T. Mata-61180330

Introduction
The population of parents continues to increase every year which affects nursing homes that
serve as a place to accommodate the needs of the elderly, especially for the elderly who are
not cared for by their families or do not have a home. All countries already have a nursing
home for the elderly, only many nursing homes are still inadequate for the needs of the
elderly both in quality and quantity. Lack of understanding of architecture in orienting to the
needs of users, especially the elderly in designing public facilities.
Findings
The use of descriptive qualitative design was chosen to explore the development of nursing
home designs that accommodate the needs of elderly residents. The design is done through
several methods, ranging from interviews conducted with residents of nursing homes to
determine whether the design development has been able to accommodate the needs of users.
With the collection and instrumentation of data through observations made to get the
dimensions of the room, road, door, and other interior elements. Data collection can be done
through two events such as collecting data directly or visually such as a camera to record
conversations, literature review is carried out in order to obtain data about the psychological
and physical aspects of the elderly.
After the required data has been collected, the coding is then performed and analyzed using
the qualitative description approach. To strengthen the data can be done through precedent
studies that have different backgrounds and functions. This was done to create a comfortable
place for the elderly by using the combination of the Seven Principles of Universal Design
and Three Principles of Inclusive Design produced five principles of inclusive design are:
user-centered, equitable use but reasonable, simple and intuitive use, low physical effort, and
prohibition of usage error.” These principles can be applied in the design of nursing homes so
that it can meet the needs of the elderly as well as physical and psychological condition to
accommodate the elderly.
Personal comments
Based on the results of the research above, it can be concluded that, the needs of the elderly
in accessing and using space have not been met appropriately. This happens not only in
nursing homes that originally had different functions, but also in buildings that were
originally designed as nursing homes. Changes in physical conditions and needs that occur in
the elderly have not been accommodated in the design. As a result, the development of the
design was made less appropriate to meet the needs of the elderly. Therefore, in terms of
physical conditions, behavior and activities of the elderly need to be considered in designing
a nursing home, because all three factors can affect the safety and comfort of the elderly.