But there are so many "blind spots" in life. Designer of "aging friendly renovation": A small renovation may save the community | Wang Chen | Life
In April this year, aging friendly renovation designer Wang Chen carried out aging friendly renovation design for the home of renowned Chinese conductor Cao Peng. The biggest change is the bathroom, where the bathtub filled with safety hazards has been replaced with a shower room. The height difference inside and outside the shower room has been smoothed out, and there is no longer a risk of tripping for the elderly entering and exiting. Wheelchairs that may be used in the future can also be freely pushed into the shower room. Cao Peng and his wife are very satisfied with the renovation.
For the past 10 years, Wang Chen, founder of Shisheng Welfare, has led a team to carry out aging friendly renovation designs for many families and communities. "Aging friendly renovation is something worth investing in. A small renovation can help the elderly avoid risks in life and improve the quality of life in their later years," said Wang Chen. However, in reality, there are still many blind spots that urgently need to be renovated.
Aging friendly transformation focuses on the present and more on the future
What diseases do elderly people most fear in their later years? The answer is a fracture. "Fractures bring enormous pressure to the elderly and their families. It is estimated that 20 million elderly people in China fall each year, and even if 1% of them suffer from fractures, the social losses caused are enormous. Through age appropriate rehabilitation, this risk can be greatly reduced," said Wang Chen.
Cao Peng and his wife are both in their 90s, and their physical condition is still good, allowing them to move freely. The primary goal of their home's aging friendly renovation is to eliminate potential risks and hazards. At their request, this renovation mainly focuses on the bathroom section.
"The bathroom is often a place where elderly people are prone to falling accidents, and it is the focus of family aging renovation." Wang Chen told reporters that bathtubs are shower facilities that elderly people must not continue to use. Many falls occur when the elderly step in and out of the edge of the bathtub.
There is a bathtub in Cao Peng's bathroom, and Wang Chen's renovation design first involves replacing the bathtub with a shower room. But unlike shower rooms built during regular decoration, shower rooms that are suitable for aging must remove the "water blocking board" and "smooth out" the height difference inside and outside the shower room, allowing the elderly to enter and exit the shower room without any obstacles. "Technically, the 'strip floor drain' embedded in the ground can completely solve this problem. However, when designing the shower room, Wang Chen also needs to consider the 'future time' of the elderly.".
Wang Chen is checking some blind spots at Cao Peng's house
For the renovation of most elderly families, the use of wheelchairs in the future must be taken into consideration, not only focusing on the current situation of the elderly, but also considering their pathological and physiological development. "If the elderly use a wheelchair in the future, they may need to push the wheelchair into the shower room when taking a shower. This is to consider whether the space in the shower room is large enough and whether the entrance is wide enough?"
In the initial design draft, Wang Chen provided a shower curtain for the shower room. The advantage of using shower curtains is that there are no entrance restrictions. But Cao Peng's family doesn't like shower curtains; They hope to use glass doors, feeling that they can more effectively block water splashing outside the shower room.
Respecting their ideas, Wang Chen accurately measured and redesigned two sliding doors for the shower room: one on the front and one on the side. "Due to the limitation of the position of the sink in the bathroom and the width of the front entrance of the shower room, it is not possible for wheelchairs to pass through. Therefore, I have designed another sliding door on the side. As soon as the two sliding doors are opened, wheelchairs can pass through the intersection."
What to change and how to change it? "One household, one policy"
The renovation of the bathroom is of utmost importance, but aging friendly renovation is not limited to this.
For example, an aging chair can sometimes be a lifesaver.
Wang Chen's family has an aging friendly chair with armrests on both sides. The depth of the chair, the height of the armrests, and the softness and hardness of the backrest are all emphasized. This is what he bought for his grandmother. Once, my grandmother was sitting on a chair without an arm. When she got up, her leg softened and she fell, resulting in a hip fracture. That year, my grandmother was 92 years old. At that time, none of his chairs had armrests. "If the old man had been sitting on such a chair at the time, he might not have fallen."
What should be changed to adapt to aging in families? It involves various aspects and can be described as "one household, one policy". "Designers need to conduct on-site visits, observe carefully, and identify safety hazards; they need to have face-to-face conversations with the elderly and their families to find and discover their needs."
Ten years ago, Wang Chen performed renovations for an elderly couple living in their husband's house on the TV program "Dream Transformation Home", which was also his first aging friendly family renovation in China. At that time, the old lady was still in good health, but the old man had difficulty with his legs and needed to use a wheelchair. The old man has a wish: he has been taken care of by his spouse for more than 10 years. He feels that his spouse is working too hard, and even when he wakes up and changes from bed to wheelchair, he needs his spouse to help him every time. He hopes to achieve the transition from bed to wheelchair.
The first household renovated by Wang Chen, the picture shows before and after the bedroom renovation
"If the elderly can engage in moderate physical activity within their ability range, it is beneficial for their physical health." Wang Chen designed and customized a bed for the elderly gentleman. The height of the bed is similar to that of a wheelchair, and the lower part is empty. This design allows the wheelchair to be pushed very close to the bed, and the old man can easily switch between the bed and wheelchair on his own.
Before and after toilet renovation
In Wang Chen's view, there is another "golden principle" for age appropriate transformation: that is, the transformation should have a positive impact on the psychology of the elderly.
When renovating the couple living in their husband's house, he insisted on adding a wheelchair accessible ramp at the entrance of the building. He was not afraid of trouble and knocked on the doors of the neighbors in the entire building to seek their advice on installing the ramp. In the end, the ramp was built. The old man, who had not been out for a long time, operated his wheelchair and went out very happily.
"We should encourage the elderly to leave their homes as much as possible, communicate and interact with the outside world, and realize their self-worth in this process. This is also the scenario that aging friendly transformation needs to achieve," said Wang Chen.
In front of some accessible toilet seats, there are actually several steps
When the elderly leave their homes, more aging friendly renovations should take place in communities and neighborhoods. In recent years, Wang Chen and his team have extended aging friendly renovation design services to communities and neighborhoods.
Wang Chen and his team found that in some public places in China, aging friendly facilities are still quite inadequate. "Many accessible toilets in shopping malls in Shanghai are virtually non-existent. Some toilets have several steps in front of them, making it impossible for wheelchairs to cross them; some toilets have reverse handrails, making it difficult for elderly people to use them."
After the demolition, reconstruction, and renovation of a well-known worker's new village in Shanghai, the living environment of the residents has greatly improved, and the community has also become a "popular community". But the public toilets here are not very convenient to use. The young designer of Wang Chen's team once had a practical experience in a wheelchair: on a slope, the wheelchair passed smoothly, but encountered difficulties when reaching the toilet door. The toilet adopts a spring door design, and when a person pulls the door, the wheelchair cannot be operated. Once the wheel and chair are operated, the hand must be released, and the door will automatically bounce back.
"A considerable number of accessible facilities in public places have not achieved 'accessibility', and the underlying reason is that these facilities have not undergone effective acceptance and supervision of whether they have achieved 'accessibility' after completion." Wang Chen said.
In Japan, the construction of accessible facilities has been included in relevant regulations for a long time. "Japan has introduced the" Accessibility Law ", which specifies in great detail what standards various accessibility facilities should meet. Imagine, it may be difficult to guide blind people to cross the road alone. However, Japan's accessibility facilities have been implemented. When crossing the road, when it is horizontally passable, the neighborhood will sound, and when it is vertically passable, another sound will sound to guide visually impaired people to cross the road safely." Wang Chen said.
Helping the elderly stay connected to society and providing spiritual comfort
In recent years, various communities in Shanghai have been vigorously building community comprehensive service centers for residents, mainly targeting the elderly. Therefore, community canteens, elderly care homes, and daycare centers have become standard features.
Wang Chen believes that the construction of community comprehensive service centers not only requires hardware that is suitable for aging, but also incorporates a business philosophy that is suitable for aging.
"Those who can reach the community comprehensive service center must be elderly people who can walk around. Most of them are in their sixties or seventies, but they may still have 'elderly parents and young grandchildren'. What can we provide for the construction of the community comprehensive service center?"
In his vision, the community comprehensive service center should gradually transform into an age friendly community center. Not only should there be medical services, daycare centers, and dining options here, but there should also be a childcare center and a silver haired creative space similar to Wework.
These "little elderly people" can spend such a day at the age friendly community comprehensive service center: early in the morning, they send their elderly parents to daycare, send their young grandchildren to daycare, and go to the silver haired co creation space for work, entrepreneurship, entertainment, and a cup of coffee; At noon, they bring their parents and grandchildren out and have a meal together at the community cafeteria; In the afternoon, send them back to the daycare and childcare center, and the "little elderly" can continue to do their own things; In the evening, the children who work come back. If they don't want to cook, the whole family can go to the community cafeteria for meals... "When there are enough resources and attractive projects, such a scene is not impossible to achieve."
"When the elderly gradually begin to decline physically, through some changes, they can not be separated from society and find spiritual comfort. This is also a scenario that can be achieved through aging adaptation," said Wang Chen.
Japan is a highly aging country, and the government is implementing a model called "multi generational living together", where the elderly and young live in the same building, overcoming obstacles from different eras, and engaging in communication and interaction in daily life. There is a Shindai Apartment located in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. There are 8 single rooms, each covering over 20 square meters, with independent toilets and bathrooms, and fully equipped with aging friendly facilities. There are three elderly people, four young people, and one young person in a wheelchair living in the apartment.
Photo by Wang Qing from "Shendai Apartment"
Monthly tea parties for young and elderly people
The rent charged by apartment managers to the elderly is higher than the market average, but the rent for young people is only half of the rent for the elderly. Young people need to enjoy such preferential rent on the condition that they greet the elderly in the morning and evening when entering and leaving the apartment, chat about family matters, and organize a tea party once a month. Across from the apartment, there is a building with a caf é, laundry room, home care center, and home medical clinic, which can meet the daily social and basic living needs of the elderly.
Photo by Wang Qing from Cafe
The coffee shop is somewhat unique, recruiting elderly people to work in the shop, packaging coffee beans and labeling, and the elderly can receive their wages. The elderly are eager to sign up because they can walk a few steps to work and have access to society, making them feel like useful people. It is said that the elderly living here look younger than their actual age.
