Designing for the Elderly: A Comparative Analysis between Inclusive and Exclusive Age-friendly Residential Complexes

Abstract

This paper comparatively analyzes two types of residential complexes in terms of their age-friendliness and the possibility of active aging in place. An inclusive housing project and an exclusive age-restricted housing project. The methodology relied on extracting a design checklist from previous literature on age-friendly design and using it to measure the age-friendliness of two case studies. The first is called more than housing in Zurich, and the second is the Village in Florida. After a thorough literature review, it was found that, for residents to age actively in their residence, certain age-friendly interior design components, as well as urban design components, should be included in the residential complex to fulfill the needs of the elderly residents and minimize their dependence on caregivers. The percentages of available design criteria of age-friendliness in (more than housing projects for the urban and interior designs were (85%) and (74%), respectively. As for the Village, the percentage of the available urban design components was (97%), and (72%) for the interior design components. Even though the percentages were higher in the Village, according to the literature on active aging, integrating the elderly into society helps them to create social relations with different ages. These relations activate the life around the elderly and make aging more active and effective.