• Design Convergence Study
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.199-211
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• 2016

The study examined how age-friendly their living environments the aged perceived and it's significant difference depending on their characteristics. The subject were 96 old persons who aged more than 60 years and lived in Nagasaki city, Japan. They asked how far each neighborhood facility related to the aged was located from their houses, and the age-friendliness of walk way, traffic, multi-family houses for the aged, and interior space of their living houses. Data were collected by using one to one interview. Results were as follows: 1) Most neighborhood facilities related to the aged were located within a walking distance or 10 min. distance by bus from their houses. 2) Among 5 areas of living environments, while traffic, house interior, and pedestrians road were relatively age-friendly, the amount of multi-unit dwellings for the elderly and the usability of wheelchair users in house interior were not age-friendly. 3) Age and education level of the aged influenced on the age-friendliness of their living environments.

• Design Convergence Study
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.203-222
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• 2016

The age-friendly environments have the benefits that they provide not only the elderly, but also the disabled, children, pregnant, and young persons with the convenient environments. The study examined how degree the aged perceived their physical living environments were age-friendly. The data were collected from 525 old peoples living in Busan using by the person to person interview. All 34 items related to the age-friendliness of outdoor space and building, traffic, and housing were analyzed. The aged perceived that the agefriendliness of their living environments were mid-range. This implies that the improvements of their physical living environments were needed. The age-friendliness of housing area was the lowest among three areas. This means that the alternatives for improving the old persons' houses were needed. The characteristics which affected the aged' perception of the age-friendliness of physical living environments were economic level, housing type, home-ownership, and health condition.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.119-126
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• 2019

The active living of the elderly leads to improve their lives and enhance social networks. In the view of the active living, the walkability is an essential factor for the elderly's daily life. To support the active living, making age-friendly environment is important. Considering that the elderly mainly carry out activities through walking, making the age-friendly walking environment is a preliminary action. The existing studies applied various methods such as surveys by experts. In spite of the benefits in theirs, there is still a limitation that current walkability measurement methods did not incorporate the actual elderly's walking activity. Thus, the purposes of this study is to measure the elderly's walking quantitatively using a wearable sensor, and to investigate the feasibility of comparing several walking environments based on the data collected from the actual elderly's walking. To do this, experiment was conducted in four types environments with 22 senior subjects. The walkability was measured by walking stability represented quantitatively as Maximum Lyapunov Exponent (MaxLE). Through the experiment results, it was confirmed that the stability of the elderly walking was different according to the walking environment, which also meant that bodily responses (walking stability) is highly related to walkability. The results will provide an opportunity for the continuous diagnosis of walking environments, thereby enhancing the active living of the elderly.

• Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.261-266
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify the perception of residents on green home and their green residential life. For this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted and the items consisted of whether green home was perceived and how well green residential life was maintained in 6 types of environments. A total 118 responses of residents living in apartments of Seoul Metropolitan Area were used for data analysis. Using statistical program SPSS Win 18.0, frequency analysis, t-test, One-way ANOVA, and factor analysis was employed. The major findings were as follows: 1) slightly more than half of the respondents were aware of green home, and the vast majority were in favor of the green home policy; 2) most of the respondents carried out guidelines of green residential life, and in particular, green living on air environment was well done, followed by consumption, waste, energy, traffic and water; 3) the six kinds of environments were subcategorized by using factor analysis, and 3 to 5 factors were included in each category of environment. Also, it was found that age, educational level, employment status of respondents, housing tenure and duration were related to the degree of green residential life. In midst of global movement toward sustainability, environmentally friendly living is not optional but mandatory, so it's important to change each individual's value on the relation between people and environment and to facilitate more environmentally conscious behaviors.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.25-32
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• 2018

Purpose: This study was conducted to figure out the cognitive characteristics of the elderly living in apartment complex in order to construct basic data for the design of sustainable and age friendly apartment area. Methods: Cognitive map was used to identify and analyze the elderly residents' status of residential environment cognitions. The elderly living in Gongreung-dong apartment was randomly interviewed outdoor area and requested to draw cognitive maps on their living environment. 26 valid cognitive maps collected were analyzed, classified into two different types: Line type and Dot type. The average age, cognitive distance, length of residence, number of elements in the map(complexity) were then compared by Line and Dot type, as well as by gender. Correlations among variables also were analysed. Results: Males showed a tendency to draw dot types, which means they are place-centered, and females drew line types more than males, which means they are way-centered. The average cognitive distance of male group was greater than that of female group. As the age went up, the number of perceived place and the cognitive distance decreased. Oder people tended to draw line types rather than dot types. As the cognitive distance was longer, the perceived place and the number of lines increased. Implications: The age was more related to the recognition of the residential environment. The younger the residents were, the more they recognized the elements. The points that were represented by dots in the cognitive maps are places for memories for the individuals. Creating more memorable spaces will affect the cognition of residents on living environment. It is better to improve the cognitive environments before cognitive abilities of residents decrease.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.75-84
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• 2018

This study analyzed users' acceptance and intention to use in addition to needs and preferences of smart home technologies, and identified the differences in technology preference and acceptance by different factors. The subjects were residents in the 40s and 60s residing in the Seoul or suburbs of Seoul, and questionnaires were conducted in the 40s while interviews with questionnaires were conducted in the 60s. A total of 105 questionnaires were used as data, and frequency, mean, crossover, independent sample t test, one-way ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were performaed using SPSS23. The results of this study are as follows. First, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hypercholesterolemia were the most common diseases among respondents and if there was no discomfort, they would like to continue living in the homes of the current residence. Therefore, the direction of smart home development should support the daily living and health care so that residents can live a healthy life for a long time in their living space. Second, the technologies that residents most need were a control technology of residential environments and a monitoring technology of residents' health and physiological changes. The most preferred sensor types are motion sensors and speech recognition while video cameras have a very low preference. Third, technology anxiety was the most significant factor influencing intention to accept smart home technology. The greater the technology anxiety is, the weaker the acceptance of technology. Fourth, when applying smart residential technology in homes, various resident characteristics should be considered. Age and technology intimacy were the most influential variables, and accordingly there were differences in technology preference and acceptance. Therefore, a user-friendly smart home plan should be done in the consideration of the results.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.39-48
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• 2011

Korea is rapidly becoming an aging society. This study aims to examine the existing conditions of outdoor living environments to assist a healthy lifestyle for senior citizens and to determine the most influential factor in a senior-friendly outdoor space as well as to suggest improvements in existing conditions focused on the prospective senior population. This study relied on two methods: a descriptive method of researching publications and related scholastic writings and an empirical study that included a survey of present conditions and interviews with the prospective seniors and senior citizens in Daejeon. Conditions of outdoor living environments for seniors were found to be more than adequate in general. But some factors evaluated as low must be carefully tailored for seniors. First, the study showed that seniors evaluated as highest the 'use of a walkway' for a stroll and stayed outside for 1~2 hours at a time. Many vehicles parked in walkways were the most inconvenient factors in going for a walk. Second, the study showed that the evaluation of outdoor space was about average and 'sociality' was evaluated as the lowest. Third, the study showed that men evaluated lower than women 4 items: 'use and convenience of a wheelchair', 'night lighting', 'discrimination of signage at nighttime' and 'trees'. Respondents above the age of 66 are more uncomfortable with items such as 'slippery walking surface', 'stair handrail', 'discrimination of signage at nighttime' and 'direction of apartment complex' while respondents above the age of 80 are more uncomfortable with items of 'slippery walking surface', 'stair handrail' and 'discrimination of signage at nighttime'. Fourth, the evaluation by existing housing patterns was statistically significant in 20 of 22 evaluated items. This means that residents in apartment complex evaluated as high these items in general. In this study, existing outdoor living environments for the elderly did not display any immediately serious issues in the overall evaluation items. Assuming, however, that the aging population will quickly increase in the next ten years, items which are evaluated as low in descriptive statistics and items which give inconvenience to the elderly above the age of 80 in particular will need to be the first areas to be improved.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.109-120
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• 2012

As Korea has rapidly entered the aging society, the Korean government and academia are currently undergoing many researches on senior citizens. There also has been an increase in senior citizens' awareness on the importance of spatial designs that reflect the newly emerged needs brought out by their psychological and emotional changes as well as their physical aspects. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to propose a model for senior citizens' image preference to be adopted in future developments for senior-friendly spatial designs. A literature review and a questionnaire survey were implemented as research methods. The questionnaire survey was conducted at two senior welfare centers located in Seoul and Ansan and two disparate senior colleges, on the subjects of 86 senior citizens aged 60 and older. 7 styles of Romantic, Classic, Country, Modern, Natural, Casual, and Traditional were chosen for the study and the realms to apply the image preference were divided into Space, Element1 and Element2. For Space, its subcategories have been restricted to living room and bedroom while color, furniture and lighting for Element1 and material, pattern and props for Element2. Survey results were statistically analyzed for the correlation among socio-demographic factors of senior citizens, spaces and the elements. The study result showed that older age and men tended to prefer the modern style than younger age or women, and younger women preferred the romantic style. For the color preference in Element1, older men preferred the classic style while women preferred the romantic style. And, for the furniture preference, men with higher income preferred the natural style while women preferred the romantic style. For the pattern preference in Element2, younger people preferred the casual style and it showed that the housing type was the main reason for their preferences. Therefore, the image preference according to their age and gender shall be taken account of as the most important factors when designing environments for senior citizens.

• 한국노년학
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.669-686
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate types of neighborhood environments and to verify whether the types of neighborhood environments are directly related to life satisfaction of older adults. To achieve this goal, I used'2014 National Survey on Older Koreans' data which surveyed the older adults aged 65 and over living in the community and a total of 10,281 respondents were analyzed. To determine the types of neighborhood environment, the time taken by walking from community organizations or places such as grocery stores, medical centers, administrative agencies, welfare centers, public transportation was used as an neighborhood environment indicators. As a results, there were six types of neighborhood environment: a leisure-welfare walk-limited type(20.3%), a leisure-welfare long-distance type(15.5%), a balanced proximity type(7.8%), a store-traffic type(35.8%), a traffic proximity type(10.1%), and a marginalized area type(11.3%). Compared to the balanced proximity type, older adults living in a store-traffic type and a marginalized area type were more likely to have negative life satisfaction. older adults who have higher life satisfaction were more likely to be female, more educated, get higher household income, and have a spouses or partner. Moreover, the better the health conditions, the higher the frequency of contact with children, siblings, friends and neighbors, the higher the satisfaction of life. Finding from the study highlight the importance of neighborhood environment in late life and provide implications for building age-friendly community.