• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.30-39
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• 2014

Korean society is running fast toward a super aging society. This means that new solutions for new problems of aged people are needed. An important area to prove is the aging-friendly neighborhood environments supporting casual contacts and meetings of old residents. This study attempts to suggest neighborhood design indicators which support casual contacts and meetings of old residents. The subjects were 24 professionals who had studied on housing environment for the elderly. They answered through the on-line questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of items which evaluate the appropriateness of classification of neighborhood area and the indicators of each area using 5-points Likert scale. Also open questions asking adding or eliminating areas or indicator and other opinions were included. On the basis of these answers, the aging-friendly neighborhood design indicators supporting contacts and meetings of old residents was developed. They are consisted of 7 areas in neighborhood and 60 indicators. Those areas were semi-public residential area, commercial area, cultural & educational area, health & medical area, park & green area, walkway, and public traffic facilities. This would be used to design the neighborhood environments that are aging-friendly and facilitating casual contacts and meetings of all residents, especially old residents.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.217-226
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• 2015

As the aging society is globally increasing, the guide for the aged-friendly city is suggested by WHO and many cities are preparing to meet with it. The base of this guide for an age-friendly city is an active aging. This study examined how degree the neighborhood environment is age-friendly from older persons' standpoints. The data were collected through the interview with old persons who aged more than 65 years, 117 persons in an urban area and 110 ones in a rural area. The age-friendly degree of neighborhood environment was examined from two aspects. One is how close 12 neighborhood facilities were from the elderly's houses. Another one is how degree the elderly were considered in 4 areas: pedestrian road, traffic, the amount of housing for the elderly, and space layouts of their houses. Findings were as follows. First, the elderly related neighborhood facilities in urban area were closer located to old persons' houses than in rural area, except the senior center. Second, in case of the age-friendly degree of their neighborhood environments, the space layout of house was the highest, and then traffic, pedestrian road, and the amount of housing for the elderly, in order. The consideration degree of wheelchair users was the lowest. Third, the age-friendly degree of pedestrian road, traffic, and room layout of house in rural area were higher than in urban area. However, the amount of housing for the elderly in urban area was higher than in rural area.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2022

Prior studies have shown positive effects of outdoor activities on the elderly's physical, mental and social health. 'Active aging' and 'age-friendly' neighborhood can be created by modifying the experiences and perceptions of the outdoor environment. This study aims to investigate the outdoor activities of the elderly living in a low-income elderly concentrated area and their perception of the neighborhood environment. We also explored the context of interactions between the facilitators and inhibitors of outdoor activities on the basis of temporal, spatial, and social conditions. We used a mixed method approach by collecting two different types of qualitative GIS data : observation maps of the main places and individual cognitive maps with in-depth interviews. The observational map analysis indicated that the preferred places and activity patterns differ by age, gender, and size of the group. The cognitive map and interviews demonstrated that the elderly's activity goals and perception of the landscape differ by places such as forests, parks, streams, open-spaces, vegetable gardens, and alleys. The elderly's desire for outdoor activities can be better fulfilled when their front doors and alleys are well-connected to an open-sight pleasant space. Familiarity is an important factor for the elderly, therefore it is important to remove the psychological and physical barriers by increasing the legibility and accessibility of places. In addition, social interactions and conflicts can have a significant influence on the elderly's occupation of space in the neighborhood environment.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.173-200
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• 2016

This study has two objectives. First, this study examines subjective well-being among elders that operationalize life satisfaction and aging anxiety, guided by life-course perspective. Second, it examines the relationship between subjective well-being and age-friendly environment factor structure among age-cohort groups. This study employs the stratified sampling method from 4,000 Seoul citizens. Main findings from the multivariate regression analyses include: (1) as age increases, aging anxiety levels appeared to be higher, while decreasing the life satisfaction. (2) a substantially larger variance of life satisfaction and aging anxiety was accounted for by demographic variables and age-friendly environments across age-cohort groups. (3) the influence of age-friendly environment factors such as neighborhood problems, accessibility to social activities, social services and parks on subjective well-being was different across age-cohort groups. This study discusses the policy and practical implications of the results.

• Korea Science and Art Forum
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• v.20
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• pp.279-292
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• 2015

As the aging society is rapidly coming, the needs for the elderly-friendly living environments was also increasing. The purpose of this study was to examine how frequently 25 neighborhood facilities were used by the elderly and what facility they wanted to be arranged within their walking distance. The subject of this study were 158 elderlies who were their ages of more than 65 years and lived in Busan. The data were collected by using an one to one interview method. Findings were as follows; 1) The elderly used very frequently facility for the elderly such as a senior center, walking road, and park and green space. Also, bus stop, traditional market, and resting facilities were used relatively frequently. 2) Some neighborhood facilities were used not frequently, but periodically. 3) Using frequencies of some neighborhood facilities were different by the elderly's characteristics. 4) Among 25 neighborhood facilities, the facilities which the old persons wanted to be arranged within walking distance were medical clinics, facilities for the elderly, subway station, bus stop, traditional market, park and green space, walking road, and food market/convenience store.