Abstract
Recently the importance of the elderly facilities and the eco-friendly buildings is on the rise, due to the rapid increase of the aged population and the more and more serious global environment issues, respectively. Thus, the purpose of this study is to suggest an eco-environmental improvement plan which aims to improve the quality of life for the aged in planning nursing homes hereafter by reviewing the theory of the eco-friendly architectural concept and the same conceptual design, which become the issues of late, and thus analyzing the state of applying the eco-friendly design techniques to the municipal nursing homes located in Seoul. In this study its direction of the eco-friendly design required in nursing homes was established by reviewing the characteristics which the aged and nursing homes may have, and thus extracting the elements required for the quality of life for them. The theoretical studies showed that the environment-friendly natural elements necessary for the nursing houses are light, air and plants, from which three design elements are obtained: daylighting, natural ventilation and natural landscape. In conclusion, the eco-friendly nursing homes must be planned to improve the quality of life for the aged by recognizing that the eco-friendly architecture concept, emerged as a new paradigm, is the one to be put before all the considerations for those who are sensitive to the environment, and thus reviewing the characteristics found out from them.