With many changes in the airport industry, this research aims to uncover the relationship between specific design features within an airport, and a traveler’s overall anxiety or satisfaction in the space. The atmosphere of an airport has been known to promote anxiety, increased tension, and negative emotional response. The traditional airport design was based on passenger flow, with a single goal of improving transportation efficiency however, an enjoyable traveler experience goes beyond efficiency. Through user-centered design, the airport can provide social spaces that promote health, wellness, and social participation. Design features including material, scent and a connection to nature will help to improve the overall enjoyment of travelers. Air travelers are very time-sensitive, therefore, providing a successful wayfinding system throughout terminals and gates will aid in alleviating anxiety in travelers. In addition, maintaining physical comfort is extremely important and can be improved through amenities that promote health and wellness, while reducing the stress of travel such as choice of seating areas, quiet spaces or even physical exercise opportunities.

Over the past decades, the population’s accelerated aging rate has become a major issue in the world. In 2017, more than 962 million people in the world were aged 60 years or more, with more than 137 million of people aged 80 years and over, and these numbers keep increasing.

With age, senior citizens are becoming more fragile, and are more susceptible to diseases, injuries etc. In particular, Alzheimer’s disease touches more than 50 million people in the world today, with nearly 10 million new cases diagnosed every year.

People with Alzheimer’s and other kinds of dementia are very sensitive to their environment : in fact, the environment in which they are living is critical for their well- being. My objective through this project is to understand how design and architecture can have an impact on the on the daily life of patients with Alzheimer’s, as well as on their quality of life.

The way we design offices reflects our values as a society. With our current startup culture, open offices have become the norm in the United States. Research by Sage finds that 80% of U.S. offices are designed with an open office scheme. Open offices are desirable to employers because they are cost effective and thought to promote collaboration and productivity.

Surveys by Sage have found that employees are in some ways dissatisfied by the open office environment. Many of the complaints of the open office are the levels of distractions. These distractions come in many forms, including human interaction interruptions. However, many of the distractions in the open office come in the form of sensory disruptions.

By focusing on occupants with sensory disorders, such as autism, designers will design a workplace that is better for everyone. Sensory stimuli can negatively impact everyone, not just those with diagnosed sensory disorders. These stimuli come in many forms, each of which should be considered and addressed when designing the workplace, a space where people spend much of their lives.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that slowly deteriorates human memory and the ability to perform simple tasks. It is projected that about 14 million people will suffer from Alzheimer’s in 2050 (Hebert, E., Weuve, A., Scherr, A., & Evans, A, 2013) which is a huge demographic change and must be addressed with importance. The focus of this research is primarily on people who suffer from Alzheimer’s in the early stages of late-onset disease type and who are living in assisted living communities to receive constant care. Behaviors and responses of people were studied and the most common behavior that is exhibited by 60% of the patients is wandering (Alzheimer’s Association). Wandering may be very dangerous for people as many people who wander alone are lost, confused, injured and, even die from harsh weather conditions and other safety risks (Patients at Risk for Wandering, VA National Center).

This research was constructed using experiences of the caregivers and understanding the behavioral patterns of wandering among older adults in assisted living facilities and interpreted those into the design recommendation to create environments for purposeful wandering within the facility. Many physical and environmental features signage, lighting, the layout of the building, graphics and color were considered and the behaviors to each of these components were studied based on the data collected by many physicians, therapists, and care-givers.