Author(s)

SoIm Park^1*, Kyung Wook Seo²

¹Division of Universal Design & Senior Housing, Korea Research Institute of Eco-Environmental Architecture, Seoul, Korea.
²Department of Architecture & Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

Medical facilities in retirement residential areas provide diverse medical and health-related services to retirees, and they are equipped and programed with various medical services for enhancing retirees’ daily activities. To find out the current status of using medical facilities by retirees, this study surveyed retirees in their fifties, sixties, and seventies, who live in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul. The survey data was sorted by the types of medical facilities they visit, reasons for their visit, and the types of medical facilities in a retirement residential area they would prefer to visit. The pros and cons of using private and general hospitals can be evaluated further to set up the right strategy to reconcile them; and each type of hospital can be improved by adding those missing elements that the interviewees mentioned. In the broad perspective, this indicates the need to suggest the direction of preparing residential areas that are technically planned for retirees on the basis of the analysis of Korean retirees’ needs.

Urban Retirees, Baby-Boomer, Retirement Residential Area, Neighborhood Regeneration, Age-Friendly Facility, Medical Service, Universal Design, Barrier-Free Design

Park, S. and Seo, K. (2017) Measuring the Needs for Medical Service in the Retirement Residential Community in Korea. Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research, 5, 116-127. doi: 10.4236/jbcpr.2017.53009.