A Study on the Order of Healing Environment Elements of Nursing Homes by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

매스로우의 욕구단계이론에 의거한 노인요양시설 치유환경소의 위계에 관한 연구

Healing Environment is to cure the user as a whole by considering his social, psychological aspect, beyond the functional aspect of treatment. Various design elements of healing space have been developed so far, but they were mostly described with same rank. Even though every element is significant, facilities such as nursing homes tends to run with low budget, and they can't fulfill them all at the same time. It is important to find the sequence between design elements. The purpose of this study is to reorganize the design principles of healing environment by Maslow's hierarchy of needs(Physiological needs, Safety needs, Love/Affilitation needs, Self-Esteem needs and Self-Actualization needs), and analyze elderly nursing homes and examine the framework itself by application. Research method was consist of literature review on healing space design elements and hierarchy of needs, reconstruction of design elements with hierarchy, and application on 5 Korean nursing home cases. As the result, Maslow's hierarchy of needs and design elements were linked with good balance. Analysis of 5 nursing homes revealed that lower needs were short of environmental support compared to higher needs. Especially design elements related to Physiological needs should be improved. Also, new framework had strength in not only providing gasps on current situation in detail, but also suggesting elements for improvement with hierarchy and sequence. Through this research healing environment design elements and human needs were linked. Nursing home is the last environment for the elderly, which should help to heal their body and mind and also support them to accomplish self-actualization.