PERCEIVED PREFERENCE IN LIVING AREAS FOR THE ELDERLY

Abstract

With the increase in the number of elderly people around the world, the demand for adapting built environments to the specific needs that accompany aging has grown. In this research, attention is paid to the perception of living areas for the elderly, where socialization and leisure activities take place, and which are essential for a dignified life in society. In this direction, this article aimed to evaluate the perceived preference in living areas for the elderly. From a methodological approach which adopted the Facet Theory in the design of the empirical investigation, 12 (twelve) photographs, in which three variables - complexity, naturalness, openness – were systematically manipulated, were shown to research participants. The main result obtained in the empirical evaluation, carried out with 10 individuals from Recife over 60 years old, corroborated the theoretical suggestions. That is, the perceived preference in scenes of living areas for the elderly was for with moderate complexity, present naturalness, and unobstructed openings.