| Title |
Resident's Usage and needs for the improvement of Community Facilities in Public Rental Apartments |
| Keywords |
Public Rental Apartment ; Community Facilities ; Spacial Conditions ; Residential Needs |
| Abstract |
Nowadays, public rental apartments’ community facilities emphasize only their quantity aspect without considering residents’ characteristics, leading their installation regulations to be based on only the number of households, which is problematic. As a result, in many cases, residents, after moving in, alter the facility usage or remodel the facilities for their use. Hereby, this study conducted focus group interviews with public rental apartments’ residents as to find out space conditions of and improvement demands for the community facilities. Two public rental apartment complexes in Seoul and Gyeongi-do which were built after 2007 were selected for this study. As for the survey method, workshop panel was employed. Four people in each age class of infants, children, adolescents, adults, and seniors were formed into one group, and a total of 40 people in 10 groups were surveyed. The survey was continuously conducted from February to March in 2009. The study findings can be summarized as follows. 1) Among community facilities, there were more satisfactory outdoor facilities than satisfactory indoor facilities. Residents expressed satisfaction with the facilities linked with natural environment. The causes of unsatisfactory facilities were mostly poor management. 2) The facilities demanded by the residents included ones relevant to study, exercise, and hobbies. As public rental apartments are resided mostly by low-income families, study and hobby activities bring them cost problems. Therefore, it is needed that the apartment complexes support diverse such activities 3) As for facilities demanded for usage alteration, a residents’ meeting room accounted for the most popular opinions. As it was used only once a week, its usage was very low. It should be opened to the residents and allowed to be used in various ways. 4) As for demands of changing spatial characteristics, outdoor exercise facilities accounted for the most opinions. Although they were installed in most cases, they were damaged and poorly managed, therefore being in need of improvement in operation and management. In order to maximally utilize public rental apartments’ community facilities, facility planning in consideration of various age groups from residents’ viewpoint and sustainable systematic management are required. |