Interchangeable Sensorial Encounters With Nature in Older Adults’ Domestic Space in Indonesia

Abstract

This study investigates how older individuals encounter nature through sensorial contact in their domestic settings. It argues that nature should be integrated into the older adults’ domestic spaces to foster connections with nature that promote active living and improve their well-being. Such interactions with nature are captured by understanding the relationships between the degrees of connection with nature: viewing nature, being in nature, and doing in nature. This study was conducted through field observations and interviews with 24 older adults with varying physical capacities and levels of independence across 15 households in Jakarta and West Java. It further maps the nature-related elements within households and reveals the trajectories of sensorial engagements among older adults, nature, and the surrounding domestic space. This study redefines nature in six roles: as an image, object, surface, threshold, living being, and space. Such roles were defined based on the elements of nature found in the domestic space. Furthermore, this study reveals how sensorial contact with nature is understood through their actions towards nature, particularly in personalizing their domestic space, by replicating, ordering, and caring for nature. It is found that degrees of connection with nature, from viewing to being to doing, are embedded in how older adults interact with nature and must be considered in developing spatial design for older adults' domestic settings to promote active living by incorporating nature elements into domestic space design.