Lineamientos básicos para el diseño de un centro de promoción social para el adulto mayor

Abstract

We live in a society where the older adult population is constantly growing. In past generations we had the conception of large families, in which they shared grandparents, parents and children; these families were formed by paternal figures, the grandfather (elderly people), who shares his knowledge and his culture, it gives him a task that was irreplaceable. The worry for the elderly and their lifestyle in today's society is because there is no room for this family member; today we only see small families made up of minimal nucleus of parents and children. The elderly adult is a person who begins to have crisis due to their advanced age, such as physical exhaustion, job loss, dejection and even depression. The society or even the family puts them aside taking them as useless people, and it isn´t take into account that even by their age they are capable of perform secondary tasks, such as crafts guided by therapists. The older adult requires attention and affection, to compensate the losses that he or she is having during his advanced age which make him or her fragile and vulnerable. The elderly adult population in Bucaramanga is affected by multiple physical and a psychic factors and for this reason, the present project "Center of Social Promotion for the Elderly" is a life alternative for the elderly people, where they will have spaces for daily activities based on occupational therapy. Nowadays, in Bucaramanga there are centers for the elderly people, homes, hotels and shelters, but in most cases, the spaces aren´t suitable for the needs and improvement of the quality life. As most of these places are suitable old houses, they have many architectural barriers such as stairs, small and unsafe bathrooms, unsafe living spaces and overlooking high traffic flow paths and for that reason elderly people are exposed to pollution and the access to Spaces in the home have inadequate ramps that impede the mobility of them. The increase of this type of installation in the metropolitan area defines the fact that it is necessary to implement typologies that contribute to the optimal development of the elderly people, based on that there are basic design guidelines for a social promotion center from the optimum lot to the design of modules or internal minimum units such as: room areas, atelier area, medical area and others.