Nanjing Pension Center

BACKGROUND China is running into an aging society. Studies have shown that by 2030, China's population over 60 will exceed 400 million. Affected by traditional Confucianism and ethical concepts, the Chinese are also the most afraid of aging in the world. In this context, "old care" is now a social issue in the process of continuous change and development. JYL Studio takes "research and creation of the future" as its research and creation direction, and regards the construction of senior living environment as one of its research and creation directions. PROJECT SITUATION The Nanjing Pension Center project belongs to a new suburban area. It is located in Lishui, Nanjing, a national-level ecological civilization construction demonstration area known as the "Green Capital". The site itself has complete professional facilities and superior natural conditions. It sits on Xiushan Lake and the original coast. At the same time, for thousands of years, literati love Jinling's spirit and beauty. The famous poet and gourmet Yuan Mei lived here in his later years and wrote "Suiyuan Poetry Talk" to enjoy the leisurely spirit. The project has unique natural and humanistic advantages, but the "suburbanized" exclusive community for the elderly also brings some potential inconveniences. For example, the elderly will stay away from their children and their neighbors in the past, and their social relations have gradually weakened. How to create a scientific elderly care community with both body and mind is a topic for us. DESIGN STRATEGY Although the project has a superior natural environment, the physical space can’t satisfy the spiritual needs of the elderly. With this kind of thinking, JYL Studio believes that only the simultaneous construction of "material environment" and "spiritual connotation" can create a scientific, healthy and sustainable elderly care community. We try to jump out of the conventional "material environment construction" perspective, and through the way of space construction, to study and create social relations, in order to complete a new perspective of design creation. Reconstruction of social relations The reconstruction of the social relationship of the elderly is inseparable from social interaction. The prerequisite for building an environment that encourages more social behaviors is to be truly people-oriented and actively respond to the needs of the elderly in all aspects. Studies have shown that for the elderly, the needs of nursing activities are divided into three levels: health, comfort, safety and convenience of health and fitness, close to nature and improve self-healing needs, and return to social contact emotions. Through the research and analysis of the behavior of the elderly, the team exhaustively screened out the list of the three types of social activities that the elderly liked, and through the scientific analysis of the venue, completed the spatial organization of the multi-dimensional activity circle for health, and encouraged the elderly with different activity needs. Communicating friendly space construction At the same time, the team pioneered the HASINC standard for aging landscape that is more suitable for the elderly in China. The principle of H humanization, the principle of A is easy to reach, the principle of S is the principle of safety, the principle of I is easy to identify, and the principle of N is ecological and natural. Basically, the non-uniformity of the venue enriches the opportunities for the elderly to contact the outside world and participate in public activities, in order to obtain emotional comfort and psychological compensation, and to achieve the reconstruction of social relations. INSPIRATION The Nanjing Pension Center project takes the reconstruction of the social relations of the elderly as the starting point, based on the times and locality, and combines Lishui's cultural wealth "Suiyuan Poetry Talk" with modern oriental old-age care methods. Push open the door of Lishui cultural wealth-"Suiyuan Poetry Talk", reproduce the humanistic scene intention described by Yuan Mei with landscape, and create a paradise landscape pattern by implanting natural language, restore tea, chess and cards, painting and calligraphy, etc. The familiar life scenes of the older generation of Nanjing people, depicting the return to the pastoral, leisurely and spiritual contemporary old-age local life. The project starts from the three dimensions of health and nourishment, to create a Chinese-style CCRC. (Continuing Care Retirement Community, continuing to take care of the retirement community). SPACE DESIGN The entrance design of Nanjing Pension Center fully reflects the principle of humanity, easy-to-identify ceremonial gate, reasonable and convenient drop-off lines, and humanely caring entrance waiting space all demonstrate the aging tone of the community. The waiting space provides aging-appropriate rest seats, wheelchairs, umbrella rentals, letter boxes and other humanized ancillary facilities for the elderly to facilitate the rest and waiting needs of the elderly when they travel. At the same time, the east entrance landscape design combines the design concept of one pond and three mountains, shrinking the garden and setting the rock and water scenery between the square inch of landscape. The gurgling water brings a dynamic landscape effect. The health-preserving activity circle is designed based on exercise therapy, connecting various activity nodes between the building and the house, such as croquet, tennis, walking, square dance, aerobics, fitness equipment and other functional spaces. Surrounded by sparse forest, bamboo shadows whirling, the old man sweats in the nature, reminiscing with his companions the beauty of passionate youth. Nourishing activities are based on two levels of horticultural therapy and social relationship maintenance. On the one hand, healthy or sub-healthy groups use plants activities around plants to promote physical and mental health and spiritual recovery of the elderly. On the other hand, a venue suitable for all ages will be constructed to maintain the geographical and kinship of the elderly in the community. The heart-raising activity circle is designed around the central lawn and nearly 10,000 square meters of unbounded water garden. Through the combination of flexible cluster activity space and relatively independent pavilions and corridors of different scales, it can meet the needs of different types of social activities. Build emotional communication bridges among the elderly in the community. At the same time, due to the particularity of the project, the traditional single landscape design cannot meet the needs of the pension community. The behavioral pattern of the elderly and the particularity of their physical and mental needs determine that we must challenge the pragmatic industry-wide design. In addition to the construction of the landscape garden, the team used a large number of local seedlings with the healing properties of the five senses in the design to construct flower border gardening and create an adaptable ecological landscape. At the same time, research and development of nostalgic childhood IP amusement equipment, age-appropriate furniture and other disciplinary designs, to maximize support for the interaction of the elderly, more appropriate integration into the scene, more humane service to the elderly. The project’s first opening area was delivered in real life, and the team made the site as permanent as possible. The design retains 1,200 native coastal pine forests on the site, and maintains the original mountain terrain as much as possible, and directly seeks a balance between economy, landscape effects and functions. CONCLUSION When we are thinking about how to spend our old age calmly, the answers are varied, but there is no doubt that the old-age care model of basic material protection can no longer satisfy the current elderly people's needs. For designers, we hope that our later life will be fully respected and treated well, and we also hope to use professionalism to create a place full of feelings and warmth. The Nanjing Pension Center insists on restructuring the social relations of the elderly as its starting point, starting from nature, providing both body and mind, building an ideal home with an environment suitable for the elderly and friendly communication, and creating a palace-level holy place for nurturing. Help the elderly to realize the leap from "the elderly have the support" to "the elderly have the enjoyment". In the Nanjing Pension Center project, JYL studio adheres to the people oriented, successfully completed a research and creation of outdoor practice in the field of elderly care, and will continue to uphold a diversified perspective and an enthusiastic and open mind to stimulate creativity and innovation in the future. Original thinking, focusing on exploring more possibilities of design with the spirit of research and innovation, and committed to leading the development of the design industry.