Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore a life-supportive housing alternative for single-parent family, focused on cohousing. Single-parent family is considerably increasing according to diverse social changes. In foreign countries, for instance, Scandinavian countries where dual-income households and single-parent families occupy comparatively higher proportion of the whole households, cohousing has been implemented as one of the life-supportive housing alternatives. Cohousing community has been developed aiming to reduce burden of housework, child-care and loneliness through mutual support amongst inhabitants. Opinions of single-parent families are described in this study in order to explore any possibility of development of cohousing for single-parent families for their well-being in Korea. The study was fulfilled by intensive interviews with 4 heads of single-parent families as well as inhabitants of collective housing and cohousing in Korea and foreign countries.
