Architecture Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2743
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Item Age in Place: Design for Dignity(2024) Perkins, Abigail Corinne; Bennett, Ralph; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The senior population in the United States is rapidly growing. As a result, there is a growing need for more affordable housing options for seniors. Assisted living centers can be a wonderful community for seniors to live in when they can no longer maintain their homes or if they need additional care. These apartments provide excellent opportunities for socialization, exercise, and travel. However, a variety of factors including cost, availability of specific care facility, and a desire for independence can cause a senior to not receive the help that they need in a timely manner. For seniors with additional care needs, such as a form of dementia, the need for flexible care is paramount. Current care options often lead to seniors with dementia having to move to facilities that are not designed for residents with dementia and hire additional care aids. The lifetime cost of dementia is a huge burden to the patient and their family. Affordable senior housing is needed for seniors who cannot afford memory care and choose to live in assisted living facilities in order to improve a senior’s quality of life. The thesis will explore how we can use findings of environmental psychology to improve the design of assisted living facilities for seniors dealing with rapid memory loss from dementia.Item Reframing Aging as Growth through Community(2020) Na, Min; Noonan, Peter V; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The human lifespan has steadily increased over the last two centuries; however, the level of life satisfaction in later life shows a steep decline. Everyone is susceptible to aging. How can we gracefully embrace the transition as we age later in life? How can we be prepared for the future when we retire earlier than we anticipated? And in certain cases, how can someone cope with aging alone? This thesis will review our cultural perspective on aging and its negative impact with respect to society that is harmful to people of all ages. This thesis aims to explore creating a sustainable built environment to alleviate age-related socioeconomic issues and, as a result, embrace aging, live healthier, and grow together.Item Can Design Evoke Youth? Exploring Paradigms of Intergenerational Interactions(2019) Weber, Emma Isabella; Abrams, Michael C.; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Society lacks a thorough understanding of the concept of aging. By the time Americans reach their senior years, they have little concept of what life will become as an aging adult. Older adults begin to grow isolated from society both physically and mentally. Health limitations, technological or transportation limitations, and spatial discrepancies generate barriers to seniors, perpetuating a cycle of isolation and loneliness. As the senior population rapidly increases with the aging of Baby Boomers, can architecture break this cycle and stimulate the creation of a society of intertwined generations? This thesis challenges the design of senior housing to become a vehicle through which seniors might reconnect with society through intellectual, physical, and social engagement. Designing spaces that foster new paradigms of intergenerational relationships may become the tool through society is exposed to the beauty and importance of aging.Item Architect, Mind, and Memory: Design for Alzheimer's(2010) McKeron, Maureen Ellen; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)By the year 2029, America's entire baby boomer generation will be 65 years of age or older. An estimated 7.7 million people in the United States will be living with Alzheimer's disease, compared to the 5 million individuals afflicted today. The illness, which often begins with a failure to remember new information, can eventually result in a complete loss of the ability to communicate. Common symptoms of Alzheimer's include disorientation in relation to both space and time and disorganized thinking. Victims of Alzheimer's often require care beyond what some individuals and families can provide, and so many elderly people are relocated from their homes to long-term care facilities. Can these spaces be designed to respond to the cognitive challenges of Alzheimer's patients in a progressive way, providing not just a place of shelter, but a home that is sensitive to the processes of human memory? Advances in the field of neuroscience provide new insight into the workings of the human mind. Scientists investigate how the brain reacts to sensations of light, visual cues, sounds, smells, and the varying scales of space. Theories about how humans cognitively map their surroundings reveal the importance of the built environment in daily activities and overall mental health. A growing understanding of these issues in relation to Alzheimer's suggests that the built environment, while certainly not a remedy, can be more helpful and attentive to the specific obstacles of dementia. This thesis will address the issue of Alzheimer's and the built environment through the design of a small-scale residential facility. Given the disease's prevalence and the growing elderly population, senior care centers are needed in all places, and this project will focus on senior care in an urban setting. It is hypothesized that the city will offer services and cultural stimulation that will help preserve each resident's quality of life for as long as possible. The architecture of the space will be centered on ideas and research regarding sensory experience, memory, and the human mind, relating specifically to Alzheimer's. This integrated exploration of the fields of neuroscience and architecture will strive to create a physical environment more attuned to the human experience.