Yeunsook Lee

The Study on Housing Characteristics Preferred by Babyboomer After Retirement - Focusing on Apartment`s Residents of Gangnam Region in Seoul -

The advent of an aging society has raised the necessity for housing development to meet the growing demands of baby boomers expected to act as the main consumers in the future housing market. This study aims to identify the characteristics of apartment houses favored by baby boomers in their post-retirement plans. Based on a literature review and survey, the study is targeted at a certain baby boom generation residing in mid- sized and large-sized apartments with a floor space of more than 30 pyeong in Gangnam, Seoul. The study reveals that baby boomers favor an active post-retirement life where they can enjoy proper leisure without considerable change in daily routines, and for that reason they choose an apartment house well equipped with neighboring, convenient facilities for their post-retirement. Their housing size shows a downward tendency in response to changes in economic conditions and number of family members living together. Health-related factors such as a comfortable natural environment and greenery also play a key role in their residence selection. Their regional preference is divided into the downtown and suburbs, and thus it will be necessary to satisfy the needs of these two consumer groups in the future housing market. This study lays the foundation for offering basic materials for the development and marketing of apartment houses.

The Improvement of Ventilation Behaviours in Kitchens of Residential Buildings

This research investigated resident behaviours in relation to kitchen ventilation in residential buildings in order to improve kitchen indoor air quality (IAQ) in South Korean living spaces. The research involved a survey study of 182 households, which identified resident behaviour with respect to ventilation, their satisfaction level regarding the IAQ, and their use and maintenance of range hoods in the kitchens. This paper describes the kitchen CO2 concentrations with both natural and mechanical ventilation. The adequacy of the ventilation behaviour was determined by monitoring the CO2 concentration and ventilation behaviours in 10 sampled households of residential buildings. The results showed that natural ventilation was conducted for less than 20 min once a day and that 23.3% of respondents used both natural ventilation and mechanical ventilators. Moreover, the results demonstrated that mechanical ventilators were not properly maintained. In addition, the average CO2 concentration was greater than 1000 ppm during cooking, and natural ventilation was more effective than were mechanical ventilators. Most residents performed inadequate kitchen ventilation to achieve comfortable IAQ. This study suggests ways to improve the ventilation behaviours of residents. The findings of this research should aid in the development of IAQ standards for Korean residential buildings and may contribute to the establishment of ventilation guidelines.

Health-enhancing Architectural Features of Modern Hanok, Experienced in and Desired by Korean Residents

One of the essential functions of the modern residential buildings should be to support health and well-being of occupants in a holistic way. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the health-friendly features of a Modern Hanok (Korean urban traditional house), much valued by residents of these types of homes. In this research, the factors related to ‘‘health and well-being’’ were considered as parts of a holistic concept including assessment of physical/physiological, psychological/ emotional and social health dimensions. The health friendly architectural characteristics of Modern Hanok were identified based on literature survey and classified according to the Murtha and Lee’s U.B.C Theory of three health dimensions. A questionnaire study involving 300 residents of Modern Hanok and apartment homes was conducted to analyse the various ‘‘health supportabilities’’ of Modern Hanok. The similarities and dissimilarities of the two sets of residents were analysed, together with the perceived health-related features. The study has provided a new perspective of the interactive relationship, both systematically and empirically, between objective health-related architectural features and subjective perception of occupants, to inform architects to design homes that would encompass the healthy features of Modern Hanok for modern contemporary healthy living of Korean residents.

Housing Alternatives to Promote Holistic Health of the Fragile Aged

The purpose of this study was to provide research-based argument for a better housing for the dementia elderly within the apartment complex neighbourhood. Six case study’s designs are included to illustrate the types of facilities that could be possible that would provide a better environment for the care of elderly and older people with dementia. Literature was analyzed to give the perspectives of “sustainable and aging society,” “social integration” and “natural environment that promotes health.” Small group workshop was carried out with experienced professionals to discuss the concepts and features of the developed housing alternatives plans to validate the proposal to integrate local residents and promote holistic health for the fragile aged. The findings illustrate the vision for the shared space community, a community home for the dementia elderly, with appropriate scale for easy management and being connected with local community and with affluent green environment for healing and natural environment that would ease local residents’ aversion towards elderly housing. These housing alternatives would enable the elderly to age in place and with the most natural social integration available to local people, with a proper spatial planning to promote holistic health of the fragile aged.

Spatial Representation of Community Shared Spaces Preferred by Residents

Accessibility is the most important element for creating a successful and robust environmental condition to enhance community vitality and health. In the era of diversity where all residents need to be respected, finding the optimal group in providing shared spaces is essential for satisfying residents to the greatest extent. Shared spaces considered here are those for general residents and for the elderly residents. In this context, this study intended to compare space arrangement preferences of three different age groups for creating a community with diverse shared facilities. Online questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from residents in their 30s, 40s and 50s; and individual interviews of residents in their 60s and 70s. F-test and MDS with PROXSCAL method were carried out to achieve spatial map where various shared spaces were allocated in the most adequate way. As a result, the spatial configuration preferred by the three age groups was found to be different and details of those differences were identified. These results from scientific empirical analysis will be useful to explore a community agreement; providing solutions for the community location that would satisfy the potential users to the greatest extent, thereby promoting a socially integrated community for all ages.

The Effect of the Public Exercise Environment on the Physical Activity for the Active Ageing of the Elderly

Recent medical studies have revealed that the physical activity for active ageing is very important for health and well-being of elderly’s life. This study aims to identify the current situation of public exercise environments where the elderly in urban areas exercise daily, and to research how public exercise environments could influence the physical activities for the active ageing of the elderly. The site of this study is an underprivileged urban area where the low-income elderly population is dominant. Through field observations, and through direct interviews using questionnaire form for 180 subjects over a period in October to November 2011, data on the elderly’s physical activity were collected. The result of this study revealed that the elderly in underprivileged urban areas were using the public exercise environment regardless of their perceived health, and that the older residents would undertake less vigorous physical activities. The regular users of these public facilities would tend to be more active than those who do not. The research illustrates the significance of public exercise environments which should have a role in health promotion. Therefore, availability of public places, such as small neighbourhood gardens and parks, should be part of a nation’s strategy to encourage active ageing for the elderly, particular in low-income areas.

Identifying Characteristics of Design Guidelines for Elderly Care Environments from the Holistic Health Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify features of space planning guidelines for elderly care environments from a holistic health perspective. This was undertaken with the expected outcome of promoting a better understanding of elderly care environment as a health resource. The major method used was a content analysis technique that employed physical, psychological, and social health criteria. Data for analysis were collected through care facility administrators using a checklist of 114 items related to spatial planning, developed through analyzing design guidelines from Japan, the UK, Germany, and the USA. As a supplementary method, a literature review was conducted on the current status of Korean healthcare facilities and recent trends in design theories for elderly care facilities. To measure results, a matrix was developed in which each guideline item was matched to each of the three health dimensions, thereby delineating the relationship between them. The elderly care environment is a vital resource to provide and support holistic health, and it is. Thus, important to understand how these factors relate to and utilize one another in order to increase their congruence. The resulting matrix is expected to function as a foundation for providing better planning services, which could develop further into “elderly care facility design guidelines for holistic health”.

Health Promoting Spatial Design Characteristics of Korean Apartment House in a User Benefit Perspective

This study was intended to evaluate the empirically spatial design characteristics from a perspective of users and to determine what kind of benefits that health-promoting spatial design characteristics can give to residents. The major method used in this study was the web questionnaire survey. Two hundred ten people between the ages of thirty and fifty who live in Seoul and the metropolitan area were surveyed. As a result, “Physiological Maintenance” was ranked top in the list of four categories for user benefit criteria (UBC), followed by behavioural facilitation, social facilitation and perceptual maintenance. Among the items of sub-categories, consumer’s demand for physiological maintenance was most highly regarded as essential. Demand for “No poisonous element” was the highest followed by “Good natural and artificial ventilation” and “Good day-lighting.” In this study, health promoting, spatial design characteristics were investigated pragmatically based on the UBC theory as well as diverse demands given by the residents. This paper was presented to provide the design characteristics that are required for healthy housing to meet the various consumers’ demand. The findings of this study would provide pragmatic information for architectural design for healthy living.

A Study on the Change in the Performing Subject of Life Behavior in Future House Looked through Life Scenarios

With rapid development of various information and communication technologies, to forecast future became important for coping with new environment. Experts in each field of study are forecasting future society, and considerable life scenarios are derived in the process. Life scenarios help people to approach and understand future circumstances easily. Therefore, to study future housing with life scenarios as materials will be helpful to establish the direction to the development of current housing. The purpose of this research is to examine what characterizes the housing functions and life behaviors of future house and what is changing from the housing functions and life behaviors of past and present. Content analysis was used as research method. The subject was 10 future forecasting books which reflects daily life in the house, and 1 episode relating residential space as 1 analysis unit, the total of 213 episodes were analyzed as materials. As a result, most of the life behaviors in the house are expected to be performed by robots instead of humans in the future. On the other hand, partial life behaviors are already being performed mostly by computer system, and another partial life behaviors show that the role-performance of them are not being totally by robots but partially with human.

A Study on Community Shared Space Desired by Apartment Residents for Super High Rise Apartment

High rise apartments and super high rise apartments have recently been widely and rapidly disseminated throughout Korea in a very productively efficient way. Within this process, strategies to enhance communal culture have been absent. The purpose of this research is to examine the requirements for community shared spaces for super high rise apartments as expressed by apartment residents. A questionnaire was developed and a web survey was utilized. The respondents were 247 apartment residents. The results showed that a substantial number of residents desired social interaction. This implies the necessity for the promotion of shared spaces. In terms of the possible preferred locations of most possible shared spaces, including sports related space, childcare space, educational space, elderly space, residents` gathering space, and administration space, the lobby proved to be the most popular. Other diverse locations, however, also seemed promising. In conclusion, the residents` desires indicated possibilities of a vertical community culture due to the diverse desires for community spaces. This can be used as evidence to facilitate the vertical community of super high rise apartments.