Inclusive Living Environment in Urban Residences for Elderly

The aim is to study the situations of elderly and to generate a framework to create inclusive living environment for elderly. To begin with, Preliminary diagnostic surveys are done to study and establish the need of creation of inclusive living environments for elderly. Literature review is done to understand ageing, associated problems and the International concepts. Then field surveys are performed to identify the challenges that elderly face. Elderly in age group of 60 to 85 years representing independent, frail, and dependent elderly are studied using environment-behavior research tools. The collected data from interview questionnaires, audios, traces and photographs, is analyzed to identify twenty environmental issues. Based on these issues, analysis and synthesis is done to identify the possibilities of interventions at architecture design level. It has been established through testing and validation that the gap can be filled by guidelines to create Inclusive living environments for the elderly. Thus, a methodology to develop the guidelines has been prepared. Following this methodology, the guidelines to create "Living Environments for the Indian Elderly" are prepared.