Space is a place occupied by a person or thing and a place where human activities are performed. Welfare means a happy life, which means a state of enjoying happiness in harmony with health, housing, childcare, education, transportation, care, nursing...
Space is a place occupied by a person or thing and a place where human activities are performed. Welfare means a happy life, which means a state of enjoying happiness in harmony with health, housing, childcare, education, transportation, care, nursing, and social environment. Therefore, Spatial Welfare is a holistic act that fills the space for the improvement of the quality of life and happy life of the users in the space. Buildings and spaces characterized by publicness and openness are public goods, so they have a deep relationship with welfare, which means a happy life. In particular, when creating and using a community-based infrastructure space within a 10-minute walk, the needs of the residents are the key, and the residents are the users. In other words, public support for the community can be said to be the implementation of spatial welfare in the end. There was a clear disparity between regions and classes. In this study, a satisfaction survey was conducted and the results were analyzed to see how the four types of Gangdong-type spatial welfare projects affected the residents in a community where various classes and generations coexist. In addition, through various case studies at home and abroad, I suggested alternatives to the improvement of spatial welfare.
The four Gangdong-type spatial welfare projects are ‘Happy School’, Book Cafe ‘Dadok Dadok’,‘Child-Mom Gangdong’, and Children's self-governing center‘Dream Smile’. Gangdong-Gu operates a general planner system for each sector to implement spatial welfare projects and establish a public design policy system. In Gangdong-Gu, the spatial welfare cases, which are created by fields such as infants, children, teenagers, youth, the elderly, and the disabled and the private expert participation system, which is boldly introduced in the landscape, architecture, and park fields, are good policies that add administrative innovation. Those are also becoming a good model for other local governments.
This study emphasized the importance of collaborating and establishing a cooperative system with residents by the districts under the general planner, general planners by field (night scenery, smart city, culture and arts, libraries), and related public officials as a way to improve spatial welfare in the future. The Gangdong-type spatial welfare project, which has been carried out so far, has not been taken the initiative by the residents(users) from the planning stage to facility operating stage but has been rushed by the administration's initiative. According to the analysis results, the Gangdong-type spatial welfare project has a high satisfaction, but the lack of initiative by residents is considered to be a critical issue in terms of project sustainability. The reason the Gusan-dong library village in Eunpyeong-gu is selected as an exemplary case of spatial welfare is not because of the pretty exterior of the library, but because of residents’ active participation from planning the library’s business plan to securing the budget, and creating and operating facilities. Gangdong-Gu must now create a local infrastructure space led by residents rather than the public and come up with a new strategy to realize the power and efficacy of the local community.
The theoretical basis of the Gangdong-type spatial welfare is neuroarchitecture which studies how a space or building affects the people in it. The four Gangdong-type space welfare spaces have been reborn as spaces suitable for the characteristics of users by utilizing neuroarchitecture, not just expanding space. As a result of this study, it was found that the Gangdong-type spatial welfare project gives great satisfaction to users who use the facility and contributes to the improvement of the quality of life. The administrative goal of Gangdong district during the 7th popular election is ‘A Happy Gangdong’. This goal has the meaning of eliminating discrimination between regions and classes. Gangdong-Gu should not be satisfied with the current spatial welfare policy, but in order to realize the goals of neuroarchitecture, 'happiness' and 'healing', we must actively promote spatial welfare with a high degree of perfection, that is, now shifting to the consumer-centered until the results of resolving considerable discrimination between regions and classes. Future research should try to break free from the limitations of the Gangdong area and target spatial welfare projects in a wider area.