A Study on the Development Directions for the Urban-life-housing Reflecting Characteristics ofSingle-person Households - Focused on the Share Housing -

The government introduced the urban life housing system on May 4, 2009 in order to activate the supply of small-sized housing, but there has been much concern with the possibility that the quality of life of residents will decrease in many cases where completed urban life houses lack convenience facilities and infrastructure in the surroundings. This study thus set out to compare the cases of urban life housing in South Korea with those of share housing in Japan and propose directions for the development of urban life housing with the advantages of share housing added. Previous studies were examined to review single-person households and urban life housing and understand the concepts and characteristics of share housing. Then the cases of urban life housing in the nation were compared and analyzed with those of share housing in Japan to figure out directions for developing urban life housing fit for single-person households. The subjects were two urban life houses that were located in Seodaemun-gu, had public space, and were completed within a year in the nation, as well as two collections of Rebita, a Japanese share housing company, in Tokyo. Those cases were examined for the month of August, 2012. As a result, the share housing cases of Japan were using public space in more active forms than the urban life housing of South Korea and organized public space with various leisure and cultural features incorporated in it. Meanwhile, the South Korean cases had a more high-grade image than the Japanese cases. Considering the small sample size of the study and the resulting limitations, it is required to compare and analyze more cases in future and study a model to develop urban life housing