Socio-spatial and quality of life themes in aged care architecture: A qualitative methods protocol

To evaluate the connection between residential aged care architecture, the residents' ability to find home and Quality of Life themes.

This study uses convergent qualitative mixed methods approach across the three phases of the research project to explore the lived experience of residential aged care residents, their family members, and direct care staff.

The chosen qualitative methodology is based on a constructionist paradigm and uses a combination of observations, photo production and prompted discussions, and architectural visual data collection methods. Funding was approved in March 2018.

This research will provide a novel approach to understanding ways by which residents of residential aged care facilities engage with their surrounding environments and make those surroundings into a place they 'called home'. The research will serve to articulate the core elements of residential aged care building types which lead to an enhanced quality of life and sense of place for residents.

There is little contemporary socio-spatial, lived experience research on the implications of new building types, such as small household aged care facilities on residents quality of life. This research contributes and is significant, to the disciplines of aged care, nursing, architecture, and user studies. The research will provide new knowledge about the influences of the physical environment on resident's quality of life and their ability to find home across different building types, while providing insight into how quality of life might be improved through spatial strategies.