Housing for the aging population

Based on the concept of 'aging in place,' design of houses in the past years are explored. Design features in the built environment become barriers for aging people with functional limitations. Initially, houses were designed according to the required needs of the user with the physical limitations. Later, adaptable house design was introduced that allows the house to meet the specific needs of the user, while maintaining the appearance of the house until more obvious accessibility features are needed. Today, 'design for all' is recognised as a tool for ensuring physical accessibility for aging people. The holistic perspective embedded in the universal design theory should be systematically and consistently developed during the design process. © European Group for Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA) 2007

A priority-based 'design for all' approach to guide home designers for independent living

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The aim is to provide a priority-based design for all' approach list that can be used as a guide in the architectural design process for independent living of the home users. It is important to prioritize design for all' factors and their items as well as the significant differences among adults, elderly and adults with physical disability and visual impairments for the design of homes. A survey was conducted with 161 participants, including adults, elderly and adults with physical disabilities and visual impairments. The results of a factor analysis test identified six high-loaded (adequate illumination level, ease of use in kitchen, adequate space for approach and use, adequate contrast between essential information and its surroundings, ease of use in accessories and functional vertical circulation) and three low-loaded factors (provision of privacy and safety in bathroom, safety of floors and accessibility to all spaces). Multiple comparison tests were done in order to determine the group differences in each prioritized factor for diverse users. Furthermore, a priority-based list with the characteristic features of the design for all' approach for independent living is developed as a guide for home designers

Inclusive design: developing students' knowledge and attitude through empathic modelling

Cataloged from PDF version of article.To enhance the function and quality of built environments, designers should consider all possible users in their design projects. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate inclusive design in the education of the design student. This study focuses on the educational objectives of and related learning activities in a course where inclusive design is one of the main subjects. Through empathic modelling, students' engagement with the course was enhanced. Within the course, students simulated disabled users while they experienced the campus environment using wheelchairs, crutches or blindfolds. Their experiences were reflected through descriptive texts and poster designs. Descriptive texts were analysed through developing themes and codes whereas posters were analysed through a content analysis method. Our findings showed that students developed their knowledge of inclusive design concerning the physical environment, the self and the social environment. They also developed immediate emotional responses and a positive attitude towards diversity and inclusion. Thus, empathic modelling supported the development of cognitive and affective learning domains of the novice designer, supporting inclusive design education

Colour and design: From natural patterns to monochrome compositions

Cataloged from PDF version of article.There is no doubt that nature provides endless inspiration to the world of design. In order to explore the role of colour in design, forty-two people were asked to first choose a pattern from nature, then to abstract this pattern into geometric shapes and finally to colour this pattern. All work done by the participants were statistically analysed to find out the effect of colour on design. Findings of the study suggest that colour in a pattern is the first principal component of design as a unifier whereas this is replaced with the number of shapes in one group in black and white patterns

Universal Product Design Involving Elderly Users: A Participatory Design Model

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Recent studies have shown that people prefer to age in their familiar environments, thus guiding designers to provide a safe and functionally appropriate environment for ageing people, regardless of their physical conditions or limitations. Therefore, a participatory design model is proposed where human beings can improve their quality of life by promoting independence, as well as safety, useability and attractiveness of the residence. Brainstorming, scenario building, unstructured interviews, sketching and videotaping are used as techniques in the participatory design sessions. Quality deployment matrices are employed to find the relationships between the elderly user's requirements and design specifications. A case study was devised to apply and test the conceptual model phase of the proposed model. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Spatial updating of objects after rotational and translational body movements in virtual environments

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Spatial reasoning in architectural design can be better understood by considering the factors that affect the spatial updating process of the individual in an environment. This study focuses on the issue of spatial updating of viewed and imagined objects after rotational and translational body movements in a virtual environment (VE). Rotational and translational movements based on an egocentric frame of reference where there is no control of the user are compared in a desktop VE. Moreover, preference in architectural drawing medium and gender are analyzed as the factors that affect the spatial updating of objects in each body movement type. The results indicated that translational movement was more efficient than the rotational movement in judgment of relative directions in viewed objects. Furthermore, the viewed objects were more correctly spatially updated than the imagined ones both in translational and rotational body movements. In comparison of hand, computer and both as the drawing media, findings indicated that preference in computer medium in architectural design drawings was an effective one in spatial updating process in a VE. Contrary to the previous studies, it is found that there was no significant difference between gender and movement types. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

An ontology-based universal design knowledge support system

Cataloged from PDF version of article.An effective and efficient knowledge support system is crucial for universal design process, as it has become a major design issue in the last decade with the growth of the elderly population and disabled people. There are a limited number of CAD investigations on the nature of knowledge processing that supports the cognitive activities of universal design process. Therefore, this paper proposes an ontology-based computer-assisted universal design (CAUD) plug-in tool that supports designers in developing satisfactory universal design solutions in the conceptual design phase. The required knowledge processing and representation of the developed tool is motivated by the ontological language. It is based on the multiple divergence-convergence cognitive strategies and cognitive needs of designers in the analysis/synthesis/evaluation operations. The CAUD plug-in tool is the first attempt to interface the universal design knowledge ontologically and respond to the requirements of conceptual design phase. According to the user acceptance study, the tool is assessed as useful, understandable, efficient, supportive and satisfactory

An Insight on Designers' Sketching Activities in Traditional versus Digital Media

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This study aims at gaining an insight on designers' cognitive processes while sketching in digital vs traditional media. Empirical data on design processes have been obtained from protocol analyses of six interior designers solving an interior space-planning problem through media transition. In order to encode the design behavior, a coding scheme was utilized that allowed the inspection of both the design activity and the responses to media transition in terms of the primitive cognitive actions of designers. The analyses of the coding scheme constituents, which are segmentation and cognitive action categories, allowed a comparative study demonstrating the effect of the use of different media in the conceptual design phase. The results showed that traditional media had advantages over the digital media, such as supporting the perception of visual-spatial features, and organizational relations of the design, production of alternative solutions and better conception of the design problem. These results also suggested implications for computer aids in architectural design to support the conceptual phase of the design process. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Experiences with Moodle as a communication tool for design teamwork: a users' perspective

Cataloged from PDF version of article

Focus on Architectural Design Process through Learning Styles

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Learning as an interactive process is an important issue in architectural design education. This study aims to focus on architectural design process through learning styles that are 'accommodating', 'diverging', 'assimilating' and 'converging' as stated in the Experiential Learning Theory of Kolb. A research was conducted to evaluate the effects of learning style preferences on the performance of design students in a design process. It was found that there were statistically significant differences between the performance scores of students having diverse learning styles at various stages of design process. Also, it was found that performance scores of all students having different learning styles had increased at the end of the design process where the progress of assimilating learners were the highest and accommodating learners the lowest