Research on Rehabilitation Space Design of Community Comprehensive Old-Age Service Facilities in Cold Cities Based on Supportive Design Theory

Dezhong Shang (School of Architecture, Harbin Institute of Technology, China; Key Laboratory of Cold Region Urban and Rural Human Settlement Environment Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China)

With the increasing aging of the population, community comprehensive old-age service facilities are playing an increasingly important role in solving the problem of home care for the elderly. The cold cities in northern China have the characteristics of long winter time and low extreme temperature, which have a great impact on the usability of community comprehensive old-age service facilities. Rehabilitation space is an important part of community comprehensive old-age service facilities. In the past, the design of rehabilitation space for old-age facilities only focused on organization of space, ignoring the negative impact on environmental pressure of the physical and mental health of the elderly, and this is not conducive to the recovery of the elderly. Roger Ulrich put forward supportive design theory in 1990s by introducing the analysis of the influence of physical environment factors. Now this theory is mainly used in medical environment design. According to the supportive design theory，building environment will reduce users' stress if it fosters perceptions of control, social support, and positive distraction. This paper is based on supportive design theory, to explore the elements and strategies of rehabilitation space design for community comprehensive old-age facilities, which can reduce psychological stress on the elderly in urban communities in cold cities. Interviews were conducted among the facilities and the elderly in some urban communities in Harbin in winter by methods of questionnaire and field research. From the three aspects of perceptions of control, social support, and positive distraction, this paper puts forward the space design elements to reduce the psychological environment stress on the elderly. Then combining with the needs of the elderly, design strategy is put forward to provide help for the rehabilitation space design of the urban community comprehensive old-age service facilities in the future.