Creating Community Among Older Adults in Southwest Virginia Through Social Participation

Taking a social design approach to aging, we relate earlier work in age-friendly communities, aging in place and social isolation to landscape design. Identifying the critical principles of social participation and how these needs can be met through landscape intervention, we formulate a set of criteria, through which the landscape architect can design healthy and sustainable communities for active, rural, older adults. We begin by breaking down some common social issues of modern-day older adults and conclude that to begin improving the lives of this sector of the population we must seek to reduce social isolation. Social participation chosen as the antithesis of isolation is then broken down into three main principles: autonomy, social opportunity and health. These main principles are developed into a set of physical design criteria to be implemented through the redevelopment of a historical school within the rural community of Pulaski, Virginia. Further discussing elements related to site-scale design, this project wraps up with the creation of a standard evaluation form, designed to give feedback for not only the current project, but those wishing to develop communities that encourage social participation among older adults.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Landscape Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Landscape Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Landscape Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Shelburne, William Robert

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Clements, Terry Lynn

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Heavers, Nathan
• Teaster, Pamela B.

• Landscape architecture
• Senior housing
• Older adults
• Gerontology
• Adaptive reuse
• Social participation

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:35024

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/112879