Enhancing Quality of Life for elderly people through effective decision-making processes in the planning and design of the external residential environment on the UK South Coast

Abstract

With the increasing number of elderly people and higher expectations of a good life within society, this study recognised the need to provide an environment for enhancing Quality of Life for elderly people. At the heart of the research agenda was the need to provide a decision-support framework to assist decision-makers to take into account the requirements of elderly people in everyday pursuits in the context of the external residential environment.

The results of the study revealed a difference in responses between the built environment professional and elderly respondents. This mismatch and the built environment professionals’ views being more aligned with those of the care providers, could be construed to mean that built environment professionals rely more on providers of care services in making decisions that affect elderly people than elderly people themselves, creating a situation whereby the actual views of
elderly people are missed out.

These findings provided the platform upon which to develop a holistic decision-support framework for the built environment professionals to take into account the requirements of elderly people in the planning and design of the external residential environment. It was recognised that the framework needed to utilise the experience of the built environment professionals whilst making the requirements of elderly people the focus of the decision-making process.

The principle of Quality Function Deployment formed the foundation of the BEDSEQoL-QFD framework, which ensures that each step of the design process is linked to fulfilling a specific client requirement and that the voice of the client is always central to the planning and design process. The BEDSEQoL-QFD framework also enabled the research to claim an important contribution to
the body of knowledge. The validation exercise that followed the development of the framework confirmed its practical utility within the planning and design decision-making processes of the built environment in general, and elderly people’s external residential environment in particular.

Date of Award	Sept 2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	Cletus Moobela (Supervisor), Tim Whitehead (Supervisor) & Timothy Goodhead (Supervisor)