Analysis of Space Planning of Elderly Universities in China - A Case of Shandong Province of Weihai -

중국 노인대학의 공간계획특성 분석 - 산동성 위해시 중심으로 -

Nowadays low birth rate and aging of population are emerging as societal problems in the whole world. China, especially, has a great amount of elderly group as its population is 1.3 billion. The aging of population is expected to be severe because the baby boomers are soon becoming elderly. Moreover, the population of elderly and laboring population are extremely unbalanced because of the one-child policy in China. These elements together make the aging problem in China even more severe. Under this circumstance, it is important that elderly actively empower their independence, and maintain and raise their living quality to reduce the burden to their family and society. To achieve this, elderly education that helps elderly strengthen themselves is expected and environmental base for elderly universities to activate elderly education service as their self-development and health-management tools. However, elderly has been alienated from education and elderly education has also been considered more as a leisure activity to kill time than a tool to adapt to modern society. Because of this planning knowledge and skills for elderly friendly educational environment has not accumulated. Nonetheless, there environments have already emerged and are about to grow rapidly. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify characteristics of current elderly universities and to suggest directions to improve the environment. In this study, field survey was used and four elderly universities in Weihai city of Shandong province were studied. The result shows that elderly universities are emerging at a fast pace, yet the quality is still growing slowly comparing to the quantity. Elder and elderly education specific features are not taken into consideration. Therefore, in the future, elderly universities in China should be planned in a way that takes account of elderly features.