고령화 과정에서 거주행태 분석을 통한 고령자의 주택개조 수용력에 관한 연구

A Study on the Acceptability of Housing Adaptation by Elderly People through the Analysis on Resident’s Behaviours during the Ageing Process

There has been a rise of the number of elderly household partly because of needs of ageing in place rather than entering institutions. However, their living environment is less likely to guarantee safety,mobility, accessibility and independence at home as the existing housings may not reflect the bodies ageing of the residents during the ageing process. As a result of this, a large number of elderly people have exposed to unsafe living environment. To solve this problem, housing adaptation can be considered. Besides understanding elderly dwellers’ attitude towards adaptation is essential before the introduction of modification. As regard, this study investigates acceptability of the aged toward housing adaptation to suggest feasible ways of the modification for senescence. For doing this, the research employs qualitative research method and consists of ten cases amongst elderly people who have lived in the same apartments in Bundang-gu over a decade. The finding demonstrates that the participants' daily habits have been changed due to decrease in physical functions of their bodies and standardisation of housing facilities and furniture. According to this, they had needs to modify housing considering their decreasing capability. In spite of the fact, it is indicated that their willingness to implement the housing adaptation was rarely shown. These attitudes were affected by self-denial, affordability and desire to keep present conditions including physical housing environment and adjusted daily routines. Consequently, it is assumed that the acceptabilities of participants towards housing adaptation tend be low.