Ordinary bathrooms usually have a raised threshold to keep water inside. Handicapped-friendly bathrooms use a gutter instead, reducing the height differential with the adjoining room and making them more accessible. (courtesy of the Lantan Garden design team)

The Book of Psalms says, “The days of our years are three score years and ten.” But this definition of the human lifespan has become outmoded as medical progress and a broader focus on maintaining our physical health have increased our average life expectancies.

Healthy senior citizens enjoying a comfortable, worry-free retirement enriched by numerous supportive interpersonal relationships are said to be living out their “golden years.” But other seniors are not so lucky. Penniless and living with health issues, they shuttle between hospitals and nursing homes, abandoned by friends and family and left to suffer a desolate old age.

While both represent segments of the over-65 population, their circumstances are very different.

What is a senior citizen?

Thinning hair and loosening teeth are among the hallmarks of old age. But even though we tend to lump everyone over the age of 65 into the “senior citizen” heading, illnesses and individual lifestyles can make for very different experiences of this stage of life.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare divides senior citizens into three groups according to their health status, with 75% of the elderly population falling into the first category, 20% into the second, and 5% into the third.

Architects designing structures for the elderly need to have a thorough grasp of the characteristics of each of these categories of senior citizens in order to design spaces that meet their varying mental and physical needs.

The Beitou Senior Daycare Center takes stylistic cues from the hot-springs district, helping make it a home away from home for seniors. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

“While Taiwan’s Senior Citizens Welfare Act does lay out accessibility standards, its rules establish only the bare minimums for building design,” says architect Lin Chia-hui, who has worked on several eldercare-­related projects.

Requiring handrails, lighting, and other features that enhance accessibility is a low bar. The real key for architects is to incorporate senior-friendly appointments that are appropriate, effective, and easy for users to become accustomed to.

Long-term care facilities

Long-term care facilities for seniors living with physical and mental disabilities have different spatial requirements than ordinary medical facilities. Lin says that designing the kinds of projects she works on requires empathy as well as architectural skill.

Architect Lin Chia-hui (courtesy of Achl Architects)

She explains that when working on them, you have to put yourself in the shoes of the elderly, and grasp what they need from the space. Are the faucets at an appropriate height for a senior in a wheelchair? Is the spatial layout easily grasped by an older person experiencing difficulties with spatial cognition? “These are trivial for most people, but are crucial details for elderly citizens with disabilities.”

Lin adds that for an architect, one of the most interesting things about being involved with such projects is that you can use your influence to “give back” in a way that makes your own later years better. While many of Taiwan’s eldercare organizations are less empathetic than one might hope, architects can use spatial planning to encourage greater empathy among those working in the field.

She says, “If you can get workers to put themselves in a senior’s shoes, everything changes.”

“I hope I can leave Taiwan an architectural studio specializing in the construction of long-term care facilities, and use an architect’s skills to provide our society with well-designed buildings.”

Lin runs her own architectural studio, Achl Architects, and began designing long-term care facilities in 2013. Her practice derives 100% of its business from eldercare- and social-welfare-­related projects.

Case Study 1: Beitou Senior Daycare Center

Low cabinets separate the hallway from the spaces around the edge of the ring. Box-like units that sit atop the cabinets provide handy storage for teaching aids, and a recessed area between the upper and lower units acts as a “hidden” handrail providing seniors with a bit of extra support.

Because seniors with dementia and physical disabilities often suffer from incontinence, long-term care centers are always equipped with showers. This one also features a walk-in bathtub that makes it easier for wheelchair users to clean up.

Seniors with dementia are also subject to fantasies and delusions, and sometimes try to flee, so daycare centers often hide the doors. Here, Lin reduced the number of runaways by using a kind of vertical lattice fencing common in the Beitou Hot Springs district to conceal the glass exterior doors.

Lin incorporated an encircling hallway around the central core of the space. Seniors with dementia tend to wander about, and the track-like hall helps with patient management by keeping them in sight. She also located the residential and office spaces along the edges of the space.

Case Study 2: Chaicheng Daycare Center

It is very important that the spatial layout of a daycare center provide workers with the unobstructed field of view they need to keep a constant eye on the seniors.

Interior designers use latticed brick and tiles that mimic old-fashioned red brickwork to create a nostalgic atmosphere that makes the space feel familiar to seniors. The latticed bricks also make it easier for workers to manage and care for their patients.

As seniors’ eyesight fades, they have trouble distinguishing colors. Those with dementia also have difficulty recognizing spaces. Care facilities therefore seek to create a sense of dimensionality in different spaces through the use of highly contrasting materials and colors.

Human reflections can startle seniors with dementia and trigger delusions, so long-term care facilities eschew mirrors and other highly reflective materials. Even their bathrooms have no mirrors.

courtesy of the Lantan Garden design team

Lantan Garden

Although nearly every building is intended to last, few do.

Architect Jason Chen built a private residence in the Ali­shan foothills of ­Chiayi County for chemicals tycoon Sun Jan-yen, whom he has known for more than 30 years. In addition to viewing the residence as his personal retirement home, Sun hopes to pass it on to his descendants as a lasting “clan headquarters.”

Chen designed the home with the flexibility to adapt to meet the demands of the three stages of old age. Constructed using smart building and green construction techniques, and well integrated into its environment, the home provides a sustainable solution to aging in place, while also being a suitable living space for persons of any age.

“The key thing when designing buildings for seniors is to understand who you are building for. Not every elderly person is disabled!”

The head of his own architecture studio, Chen is an authority on building for Taiwan’s elderly. In addition to having designed many projects for the elderly, Chen has taught at ­Chung Yuan Christian University and National Tai­pei University of Technology. Now nearly 80 years old, he still exudes health and vitality, and continues to teach, lecture, and write articles for publication.

Architect Jason Chen

Flexible Spatial Design: The Secret to Aging in Place

The most secluded portion of the home is the “basement” story (set into the hillside at the rear, but with windows on the other three sides). It is set aside as the owner’s personal space. The architect arranged the various spaces within it to meet the needs of the different stages of old age.

(1) The healthy stage

The basement focuses on Sun’s diverse interests and on helping him maintain his physical health. In addition to a study and sitting room, it includes a fitness room and a repository for his book and painting collections.

(2) The disabled stage

This stage will require a wheelchair, so creating an accessible space was important. Passages are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, and the doorways of the bathroom and balcony have no thresholds. Since the fitness room will no longer be needed at this stage, it can be converted into a suite (with its own bathroom) for a caregiver.

(3) The bedridden stage

During this stage the focus will be on caring for a bedbound resident. A hoist and tracks installed along the ceiling will enable the patient to get to the toilet and bath on his own in spite of difficulties with walking. Since the adjacent study will likely go unused, it can be converted into a second bedroom.

A green building

The interior stairway also functions as a buoyancy ventilation tower, drawing warm interior air up and out through self-venting windows at the top.

An ecological building

Sited in a seismic zone, the home was built with an expensive earthquake protection system even though it is only a private residence. The building includes seismic isolation devices that sit between the main structure and the foundations.

An open building

The home is designed around a non-traditional open plan. Aside from the durable structural supports, interior spaces can be rearranged using “modular lattices.” Windows, floors, and balconies can all be altered to meet the tastes and needs of users. The flexibility of the layout suits Sun’s desire to leave the building to his descendants.