Placing concepts of sensory gardens as social nodes in Older Adult’s Daycare Centre’s design towards a sustainable community: Surabaya

The urban ageing population has become a global issue that affects the world’s population composition, with an increasing proportion of persons aged 65 and older in urban environments. Older adult’s communities, as integral parts of society, can respond to this by achieving active ageing. The term ‘active ageing’ refers to efforts to maximize health, safety, and community participation to enhance the quality of life in line with advancing age. Facilities catering to the older people, such as nursing homes, often do not comprehensively consider the mobility limitations of the older adults when providing accessibility. The human-centered method is employed in the implementation process of a sensory garden at the older adult’s daycare center facility. This method places its focus on deriving solutions for conflicts between the older people group and other groups in the context of connectivity and accessibility, with the objective of creating integration between outdoor spaces and the building mass within the older adult’s daycare center facility. By utilizing the human-centered method, the root causes of accessibility issues and persons aged 65 and elder’s declining abilities can be systematically understood and resolved through a straightforward design intervention, namely the implementation of a centrally located sensory garden that serves as social nodes. Using a centralized spatial organization in the arrangement of the building masses fosters a connected circulation in the form of a linear loop. With a clear sequence, this linear configuration can accommodate ease of visual access and movement. In the built environment with accessibility amenities, it can foster a sustainable older people community. Furthermore, through the holistic implementation of sensory garden arrangements, the older people community can achieve sustainability and optimal productivity.


Introduction
The latest projections from the United Nations indicate that the global population will reach 8.5 billion by the year 2030 [1].This creates an urgency for the availability of older adults' accommodation facilities oriented towards an Age-Friendly Environment (AFE).According to the US International Census Bureau, Indonesia is projected to rank fourth highest as a country with a population aged 65 and over by the year 2060 [2].Globally, life expectancy reached 72.8 years in 2019, increasing by nearly nine years since 1990.Further declines in mortality rates are projected to result in a global average life expectancy of about 77.2 years by 2050 [3].In line with the development of the urban ageing population phenomenon, there is a tendency for older people to experience declines in motor, cognitive, and psychological abilities when engaging in activities (Figure 1).Even in their advanced years, the older adults are expected to train their skills to remain active and reduce dependency on the productive age group.The needs of the older adults to achieve active ageing refer to efforts to enhance and optimize the quality of life as age advances.Ageing is a natural and inevitable process for every human being.During this phase, the older adults find themselves in a dilemma between maintaining ego integrity or succumbing to despair due to increased limitations in abilities.If this stage is well managed, people aged 65 and older have the potential to play a significant role in the societal context.The decline in physical and psycologycal conditions among older people varies and can influence their way of life and interpretation of their later years in diverse ways [4].Therefore, productive, and independent older people individuals, as a manifestation of active ageing, are expected to experience their later years with more meaningful significance for their surrounding environment.The concept of an older adults-friendly environment refers to an area where the older people's community actively participates, is respected, and is supported through effective structures and services that fulfil their needs [5].Public facilities that create a sense of safety and comfort contribute to the enthusiasm of the older people's community to interact within the social environment actively.Based on user context analysis, public facilities prioritizing the safety and comfort of older adults need to be equipped with easy accessibility and good connectivity.This will ensure their comfort and safety when moving between places and carrying out their daily activities.Accessibility ease relates to mobility patterns and visual convenience, enabling older people to orient themselves over a certain distance.
Surabaya, the capital of East Java, has a relatively large population of senior citizens.Through the design of an older adult's daycare centre that serves as a hub for services and rehabilitation for the older people in Surabaya, there is potential to support the activities of the older adults and accommodate social interactions.This also brings about positive impacts by enhancing the productivity of the older people's community through the accessibility ease provided by the older adult's daycare centre facilities.
Based on this explanation, the primary obstacle faced by the older adults in achieving active ageing is the incapability of public facilities to accommodate the differences and conflicts in the abilities of the older adults compared to other user groups.This creates difficulties for certain older adult individuals to access the available facilities.Therefore, the built environment needs to be created sustainably and holistically in order to shape a sustainable community.Productive older adults who achieve active ageing can form a sustainable societal community and create the best solutions for the cultural and demographic conditions in Surabaya.Through placing concepts of sensory gardens as social nodes, older adult's daycare centre in Surabaya could offer unrestricted entry to secure, encompassing, and convenient public green areas, with a particular focus on accommodating the older people and individuals with disabilities.

Older Adults Characteristics
The acceleration of the decline in motor, cognitive, and psychological abilities among the older population leads to changes in needs and behavioural patterns when engaging in activities.The reduction in physical abilities becomes a crucial factor affecting the mobility patterns of the older adults.Several physical declines that need to be considered include strength, stamina, mobility difficulties, and cognitive-sensory impairments (Figure 2).With advancing age, the decrease in muscle mass affects fatigue, agility, balance, coordination, and flexibility in the older adult's movements.Hence, mobilityrelated issues become a significant physical characteristic of their body.This issue will be addressed architecturally, encompassing site planning, building design, and detailing.
One example of the issues and conflicts arising from differences in mobility abilities between the older adults and the general adult population is the endurance and walking distance achievable.People aged 65 and older tend to be able to walk only short distances and on relatively even surfaces.They often can only walk for up to ten minutes without rest.This highlights the priority of ensuring ease and clarity of accessibility when creating a design for an older adult's daycare centre that is safe and comfortable.Sensory-related problems, such as hearing and vision impairments, also present challenges in creating accessible environments.Older adult's individuals with hearing impairments rely on tactile abilities through physical contact in their social interactions.Therefore, they require spaces with specific spans accommodating comfort and ease of interaction.Those with visual issues face an increased risk of falling during walking activities.This is due to decreased visual sensitivity and difficulty focusing, which affect depth perception.Thus, employing even surfaces, minimizing elevation differences, and using contrasting colours become the proper strategies to ease their accessibility for the visually impaired one.

Figure 2. Older adult's Capabilities Issues Related to Productivity and Independency
Architectural objects capable of facilitating the needs of the older people, such as older adult's daycare centres, should be able to accommodate indoor activity comfort while considering the participation of the older people in outdoor activities to boost their productivity and creativity.Older adult's daycare centre facilities should provide stimulation for the older population to remain active both physically and mentally.Furthermore, the facilities should also consider the limitations of the older people in providing accessibility ease so that the productivity achieved impacts the level of dependency on their daily activities.

Method
The human-centered method is a design process that focuses on humans as the primary users and a source of inspiration for designers to develop solutions to problems.The method emphasizes the process of meeting the physical and psychological needs of humans.Starting with understanding the capabilities, habits, behaviours, and characteristics of users as design subjects [6].This method is often applied in the design of healthcare and education facilities because it is oriented towards addressing the contextual needs of users.Three main interconnected principles exist for implementing a human-centered design in the context of older adult's capabilities and environmental limitations [7].Firstly, the 'Inspiration Stage' refers to the process of understanding and exploring the needs of humans as users to identify design problems by carefully listening to and observing the characteristics, behaviours, and habits of the human subjects of the design.Secondly, the 'Ideation Stage' focuses on an iterative process to generate various creative ideas to solve design problems and identify opportunities arising from design problems.Lastly, the 'Implementation Stage' focuses on implementing design solutions through testing (prototyping) and evaluation to maximize the satisfaction of user needs and resolve design problems (Figure 3).
This method can respond to the design of an older adult's daycare centre with the principle of an older adults-friendly design that is tailored to the needs and limitations of the older people and the activities that will be present at a site.Human-centered design is oriented towards design solutions that can meet user needs in entirety (desirability) under applicable feasibility standards and optimal resources (feasibility) while also being sustainable in providing benefits to users and the surrounding environment (viability).The human-centered design of the older adult's daycare centre facility aligns with efforts to respond to age-friendly accessibility forces.
Human-centered design concentrates on designing an older peoples-friendly environment and responds to design conflicts among users.Apart from considering the limitations faced by the older people, ensuring comfort and ease for all user groups to utilize the facilities becomes crucial.Implementing the human-centered approach in designing the older adult's daycare centre facility involves all user groups in the design process.Through this approach, the design criteria and concepts presented emphasize responding to the limitations of older individuals' capabilities compared to those of the general adult population, particularly regarding accessibility.The design process considers each user group's differing abilities to access spaces and engage in activities, thus reducing discrimination against specific user groups.

Source: personal documents
As the result of the design process, the design proposal yields a centre for social, activity, and communication services targeted at the older community, primarily focusing on enhancing their productivity and independence.The concept of productivity and independence in older adults holds specific contexts wherein they remain active in daily activities and participate in specific communities with relatively low dependency levels.The main goal of establishing the older adult's daycare centre facility is to maintain and enhance the health and productivity of the older people, encompassing physical, cognitive, and psychological aspects.

Result and Discussion
The older adult's daycare centre facility of Surabaya is a manifestation and integration of various formal and technical concepts aimed at responding to the main forces related to ease and clarity of accessibility.The application of a sensory garden as a central connection point and social node responds to forces related to accessibility through the arrangement of masses and circulation patterns that accommodate not only the limitations of the older people's abilities but also address conflicts in movement patterns with other user groups (adults, children, and people with disabilities).The utilization of outdoor spaces as communal areas aligns with the design goal of enhancing social interaction by integrating a sensory garden into the design of the older adult's daycare centre.This design strategy also acting as a connection point between building masses.The sensory garden as a social node accommodates various activities in the provided circulation space.Source: personal documents The arrangement of building masses applies indirectly to a horizontal distribution pattern rather than a vertical one.This is because a horizontal pattern allows for the creation of a central circulation that facilitates the movement patterns of the older adults.Its implementation is seen in the division and fragmentation of building masses (multi-mass buildings), which indirectly creates a 'street' ambience.The arrangement of centralized organization in building masses generates a centralized public space in the form of a sensory garden positioned in the middle of the site (Figure 4).This centralized public space attracts users engaged in activities, guiding them towards the central (nodes) of the sensory garden.
The square geometry applied to the sensory garden makes it easier for users to recognize and orient themselves.Its symmetrical nature maximizes connectivity and visual continuity.Moreover, it also creates a connection between each building mass through the main circulation surrounding the presence of the sensory garden.The main loop circulation facilitates user movement patterns due to its linear IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1351/1/0120026 form, minimizing ambiguity and clarifying spaces by expanding the visual span.This circulation functions as a social street, crucial in providing rest spaces without disrupting or halting existing movement flows.This circulation pattern indirectly supports the concept of a barrier-free environment that aims to optimize obstruction-free spaces for both movement and visual aspects.The central circulation in the sensory garden extends and branches horizontally, directing users towards building masses with their respective functions.This branching circulation becomes one of the strategies for integrating building masses with the landscape, thus creating active spaces both indoors and outdoors.This aligns with the design objective of enhancing social interaction among users and user interaction with the surrounding environment (Figure 5).
In addition to implementing concepts through circulation arrangement and mass distribution, opensided spaces with linear circulation patterns are used for a significant portion of building masses.The open-sided space supports the barrier-free concept by facilitating users' visual access to the sensory garden and other building masses.This is strengthened by the intimate scale established in the corridor spaces, accommodating user comfort, and minimizing feelings of pressure or intimidation when inside the building masses.Apart from spatial forms, the choice of materials on the facade indirectly affects the ease of visual accessibility.The use of glass material on the supporting building mass facade, which also serves as the user's entry point, is a suitable choice.This is due to the transparent nature of glass, making it easier for users to see the interior and several structural elements inside.The incorporation of glass material within the predominantly brick material building mass does not disrupt and is capable of unifying other facade elements.The consequence of expanding circulation spaces and outdoor areas is the creation of inter-building gaps.These gaps are utilized as active green spaces and as transitional spaces between building masses.These inter-building gaps maintain optimal spans in circulation spaces to minimize corridor-like spaces that might mislead user movement patterns.The implementation and integration of concepts in this design respond to issues related to accessibility and connectivity through an inclusive approach, mainly focusing on accessibility, legibility, and safety.

Conclusion
The development of the design concept begins with an understanding and study of the issue of the urban ageing population.The older people community from various backgrounds needs to optimize productivity by training their physical and cognitive abilities.Accommodation facilities for the people aged 65 and older, such as nursing homes, do not significantly stimulate their abilities nor consider ease of accessibility in responding to their limitations.Therefore, the development of older adult's daycare centre facilities will serve as an alternative to support the older population in achieving active ageing.Principles from the inclusive architecture approach are used to formulate design criteria and concepts.One of the main aspects considered is accessibility, safety, and legibility.An iterative process is carried out to develop the design concept comprehensively, addressing both formal and technical aspects for optimal implementation.Through this integration, the older adult's daycare centre facility can optimize its function as a centre for social services, activities, and communication for the older people, focusing on enhancing their productivity and independence.Integrating outdoor space with the building masses through a linear loop circulation system can enhance the productivity of the person's aged 65 and older by providing sensory stimulation and accommodating ease of accessibility.
The proposed design will ultimately integrate a sensory garden as a social node within the older adult's daycare centre facility.This concept creates ease and clarity of accessibility for various user types.The distribution of building masses and the centralization of the sensory garden with the arrangement of a centralized organization, combined with the linear loop circulation, resulted in ease and clarity of accessibility regarding movement and visual aspects.The concept of the sensory garden in the centre of the site, as social nodes, provides stimulation and accommodation for enhancing productivity for all user groups, thereby fostering social interaction among users and with the surrounding environment.This core concept is one of the differentiating and distinctive aspects, setting apart the older adult's daycare centre facility from similar ones.

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Implementation of the Human Centered Method in Design.Source: personal documents

Figure 4 .
Figure 4. Space Programming Arrangement with Zoning Division to Clarify Space Functions.Source: personal documents

Figure 5 .
Figure 5. Sensory Garden Features to Develop Older Adults's Productivity and Health in Physical, Cognitive, and Enhance Social Interaction Source: personal documents