Abstract
As the elderly population are rapidly growing, the elderly who needs special care and nursing homes for them are also growing. However, many nursing homes were planned without considering the hierarchial space organization such as division of housing unit and nursing unit based on the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of the elderly or accessibility and supportiveness of the staff. This study was to examine the hierarchial characteristics in space organization of nursing homes by using Space Syntax. The subjects were 8 nursing homes in Busan. First, spaces in nursing homes were divided into five areas based on the literature review. Then the hierarchy of space organization for the access layer and layers of living floors was grasped by using G-graph. The access layer has a tree-type hierarchical structure and high visuality. Also, average depth of the space was 5. Then the full integration was analyzed. Mobile area, such as elevator, hallways, or living rooms has a high accessibility and the middle corridor type has commonly been characterized. The nursing stations were analyzed through the control degree and it was low in three nursing homes such as B, C, and G. The low clarity was showed in B, D, and F. The low clarity means that it is relatively difficult to recognize the whole space organization of nursing home. Even though the hierarchy of their living floors was tree-type structure with a high visuality, they has a type of grouping spaces around hallways and spreading, or a ring type.
