O IDOSO, A CIDADE E A APO:

UMA RELAÇÃO ENTRE PERCEPÇÃO E APROPRIAÇÃO

Abstract

This completed master's research raises questions about the perception of the environment built by the elderly and how they appropriate it. The motivation arose from the need to adapt the cities to the aging population. Therefore, the central problem is the creation of cities that are planned based on the perception and behavior of the elderly. The study was based on the area of Architecture and Urbanism, with interfaces in Environmental Perception and Gerontology. Through APO instruments, an environment-behavior relationship was explained that aimed to add knowledge to the other initiatives that make up the global network of city-friendly elderly development. The research was conducted from the case study applied in Pelotas, in the districts Centro, Fragata and São Gonçalo. The results indicated that in the Center, where there is the best quality of urban space, there is the greater appropriation represented by the number of elderly in the study areas; and in São Gonçalo, where the quality of space was identified as the worst, there is less appropriation. It was concluded that the presented results point to the influence that the quality of the built space exerts on the way the elderly perceive it and the defluence of this perception in the way of this place they appropriate.