The challenge of creating age-friendly indoor environments in a high-density city: Case study of Hong Kong’s care and attention homes

Abstract

Aiming to find out whether the indoor environment quality (IEQ) of Care and Attention (C&A) homes in Hong Kong could meet the need of older people, this research conducted a field measurement and occupancy survey in nine C&A homes to assess their thermal, lighting, and noise environments according to both building standards and occupant satisfaction. The findings indicated that an operative indoor temperature of 24–27 °C in summer and above 23 °C in winter could be considered to mark a thermally comfortable zone. Noticeably, older people preferred a warmer environment in both summer and winter, while the measurement results showed that the indoor operative temperature was lower, and the humidity was higher than the comfort standard for summer, which was confirmed by the occupant survey. The mean illuminance level could meet the national threshold; interestingly, there was a negative correlation between age groups and their satisfaction of natural lighting in winter. The mean street noise level was between 74-75 dB, exceeding the maximum 55 dB for neighborhoods. The street noise level was significantly negatively correlated with residents’ satisfaction. The study made recommendations for regulating both outdoor and indoor environments for improving the elderly living conditions in high-density urban areas with hot humid climates.