The Planning Characteristics Analyzed by Spatial Composition of Domestic Share House

1.1. Background and Purpose of Study

Recently, Korea has been experiencing a social problem due to the surge of single households. According to ‘2010 Prospective Household Estimates’ of Korea National Statistical Office, single households are expected to increase from 23.9% in 2010 to 27.1% in 2015 and to 34.3% in 2035. This social change is proceeding with changes in lifestyle such as marriage, birth, divorce, etc., including changes in the population structure and the household structure. Specifically, it is seen due to the aging of the population, the increase of the single households, the diversification of occupation and life patterns, and the increase of the women participating in the society. This social change is emerging as global problems, not limited to Korea. In Europe and the US, the ratio of single households in the 1980s was close to 20%, especially in Northern Europe, exceeding 30%. In Japan, too, the spread of single households has been spreading ahead of Korea, and each country is providing housing supply and institutional support as a precaution against single households.

In Korea, the concept of ‘semi-housing’, which introduced the concept of urban-life-housing, was introduced into the housing law while implementing a policy to expand small-sized housing for single households such as the urban-life-housing system.¹⁾ As a result, building standards for small housing and auxiliary facilities of the residences that provide the residential functions such as the GoShiwon and the Officetel are being relaxed. In addition, each private company and public corporation are continuing to progress a shared housing project as part of the single household policies, and these projects are continuously expanding. Socially, since the late 2000s, shared type housing ²⁾that share housing space for people in their 20s and 30s have begun to emerge around Seoul, and new trend residential product called ‘share house’ has emerged in the real estate market. Since 2013, a variety of share house brands have emerged as leasing business model as a new real estate business and are being introduced mainly in domestic big cities.

As demand for domestic share houses grows, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis. However, study on domestic share houses can not keep pace with business development. In Europe and Japan, the study in various fields such as share house is already under way as a preparation for single households, and the institutional support of state through the results of study is being provided.

In this study, we try to derive comprehensive planning characteristics through space analysis of domestic share house. We try to grasp the basic consideration about share house, the appearance and trend of development of domestic share house, and utilize it as basic data for the development of urban-life-housing in Korea through a comprehensive analysis of the cases.

1.2. Method and Scope of Study

For the space analysis of domestic share house, this study focuses on share house and urban-life-housing which are currently operated in Korea. The outline and analysis results of each case are described in Chapter 3.

The methods and major contents of study are as follows.

First, we will establish the concept of share house through theoretical study and analyze the background and development pattern of domestic share house.

Second, we will examine the outline and overall characteristics of domestic share house and analyze the space composition. As the domestic share houses have different characteristics by type and structure, it is necessary to select standard and appropriate cases to analyze cases. We will analyze the each characteristics of private space and public space for space composition, and apply selected case based on residence type and resident type of each share house.

Third, we will examine the planning characteristics of domestic share house by analyzing the above analysis results.

Such a comprehensive analysis of the domestic share house is expected to be used as basic data for forming the urban shared housing suitable for domestic situation in the future.

2.1. Theoretical Review of Share House

Generally, the name ‘share house’ originated in Japan, and refers to the type of housing that many residents use personal space (bedroom) individually, but use living room, toilet, bathroom, etc. jointly while they live in a single house. Since then, the share house has evolved into an environment where people can share their hobbies and cultural life as communicative spaces rather than living together in the same space. There are two characteristics of share house. First, it is a type of housing emphasizing social exchanges, which share the lifestyle and form social intimacy by hobby and similar type of residents. Second, it is a type of housing emphasizing economical efficiency, which has features such as renting affordable housing in preparation for the surge of real estate price due to lack of land, and shared rent and reduced living expenses through joint use among residents.

Fig 1.

Features of Share House

Share house is a kind of jointly owned and shared housing, and is divided into four types such as a Collective House, Group House, Cooperative House, and Mingle House. [Table 1] Above classification standards are divided into or not the space is shared, whether the facility is shared, importance of private space. First, the public space is classified into the dormitory, the guest house, and collective house according to the size. The basic composition of shared space is similar, but the size of shared space changes according to the demand of the user. Second, as whether the facility is shared, it is possible to expand the facility from the basic facility share to the characteristics of residents, and divided into personal workspaces separation and share workspaces. Finally, it is classified according to importance of private space, and can be exemplified as a general one-room house.

Table 1.

Types of shared housing

In Korea, it has a concept similar to Gosiwon, dormitory, but it can be seen as a type of residence with clear separation of private space and public space focused on the concept of community.

2.2. Background and Status of Domestic Share House

In Korea, interest in share house is increasing due to TV programs and media reports. Until then, single residence was common to live in one room, dormitory, and boarding house through a real estate agent. However, with the development of the Internet, the real estate market has also changed. Especially, the concept of share house started to appear due to the appearance of internet sites or cafes that can save real estate agency fee. Since then, the culture of ‘sharing’ has been popularized in Korea, starting with the first share house ‘Yeonhee My Baum’, and social enterprise, ‘WOOZOO House’ appeared in 2011 and since then, a continuous share house business has been continuing.

Fig 2.

Development aspect of domestic share house

Currently, the method of operating the domestic share house is the method to re-rent after renting remodeling officetel and private house. The majority of early emerging share house consists of the multi-rooms and the number of residents was less than 5, but newly built share house is basically adapted to the requirements of the independent space and the convenience of the residents with the composition of the single room and various space composition.

2.3. Review of Previous Studies

The previous study on domestic share houses has been continuing since the late 2000s. Especially, As WOOZOO House, the first share house business in Korea, appeared and 「Urban-Life-Housing System」enforced, full-scale studies began. The studies on domestic share house are as follows.

The study of domestic share houses, as a basic research stage, based on the analysis of background and cultural aspects of share house entering Korea (Park Hyung-Soo, 2013), was carried out on comprehensive analysis of overseas share houses (Woo So-Yeon, 2013). In the case study analysis, most of the studies on analysis in Japanese share house were conducted, including a study of the types of Japanese share houses according to the arrangement of space (Son Jin-Ha, 2013) and a study focusing on the composition and kind of public spaces and design characteristics as a case study for the development direction of domestic share house. Case studies on domestic share houses were also conducted, including a study on the space characteristics of ‘WOOZOO House’ business which is centered on the Gangbuk area (Park Hye-joon, 2014) and a case study of share house that can accommodate one to two persons lifestyle (Jeong Mi Jeoong et al., 2014). And, studies analyzed on the residence trends of domestic share houses were conducted, including a study analyzing residential intention and demand characteristics of share house in Seoul (Kim Ji-Hwan, 2015) and a study on determinants of movement in share house of single house households(Shin Eunjung, 2014), a study on the awareness and demand characteristics of domestic share house (Oh Jeong, 2013).

Domestic share houses are not well established yet, so the cases as research subjects are not sufficiently secured, and rather than analyzing domestic cases, the analysis of share house cases abroad, especially in Japan, is the main study content. In addition, basic studies such as introduction, business analysis, and planning characteristics of share house, were carried out, and most of the studies are focused on private and university rather than on national level.

3.1. Case Analysis Standard and Case Selection

Domestic share houses are divided into various types as mentioned above. Especially, according to the characteristics of the share house, the whole plane plan including the movement line of residents is changed according to the importance of the public space and the private space, and the residence type changes flexibly according to the personality and situation of residents. Therefore, it is necessary to establish accurate standard for case analysis.

First, the analysis was conducted focusing on the arrangement of private space. Because share house is a place where many people live in the same space, the arrangement of individual spaces can change according to the characteristics of each occupant. Especially, the private space is greatly influenced on the noise including the privacy, the movement line of individual, and other types of spaces are formed depending on the connection manner and arrangement of the private space.

Second, the analysis was conducted focusing on the arrangement of public space and private space. The space required for a share house is divided into a private space and a public space, and according to the arrangement and scale of private space, the connection method, arrangement, and scale of public space are determined. Because the share house is a special type of housing specializing in the community focusing on the concept of ‘sharing’, the whole image of the share house is determined according to the nature of the public space.

Third, the analysis was conducted focusing on the type of resident and type of residence. Each share house implies the concept of ‘sharing’, but the concept tends to be reduced or expanded depending on the tendency and lifestyle of residents. Especially, general share houses are used by younger generations in their 20s and 30s, but in the special cases, they are also used by small families, and the elderly in their 50s and 60s. Also, the analysis was conducted on the residents who unwillingly live in a share house because of their environment and the residents who voluntarily live in a share house regardless of their environment. In other words, according to the characteristics of residents with various generations and lifestyles, the analysis by type of resident is needed because the type of share house does not stay constant but changes according to the situation

Finally, based on the above analysis, the space characteristic of each space is divided into four categories as openness, accessibility, individuality among residents, and functionality of space

The examples of a domestic share house have been doing business steadily in private companies and public corporations, starting with ‘WOOZOO House’ in 2011. Although there are not many cases because the history of Korea’s share house is rather short compared to other countries, we selected domestic cases that can be analyzed by applying the above standard.

3.2. Outline according to Business Type of Domestic Share House

As mentioned earlier, there are not many examples of domestic share houses, but there are distinct features and types for each share house. The outline of each share house is as follows.

‘WOOZOO’ House and ‘Borderless’ House operate the largest number of share houses in Korea, and except for certain branches, operating in the way to re-rent to actual residents after renting private houses and apartments and remodeling them. In addition, the above two share houses are located in the vicinity of universities in Seoul and the subway stations, and are used by university students and office workers. There is a limit to the age of residence between the ages of 20 and 35, and each branch has a space that shares interests and hobbies as a concept house. Especially, ‘Borderless’ House, as a company that entered the domestic market with its headquarters in Japan, has a feature of high percentage of foreign residents. ‘Tongui-dong house’ is a project jointly conducted by private companies and social companies as part of the project of Jeonglim Architecture & Culture Foundation. The first floor is used as the office used by Jeonglim Architecture & Culture Foundation, and the second and third floor are composed of residents space. ‘Lofty House’ appeared as the first domestic share house under the name ‘My Baum Banquet’ in the motif of the Japanese share house ‘Libita’. Unlike the previous case, it is operated by a private company and can accommodate many residents with a share house applied to new buildings. Except for the public space, which is available to residents on the first floor, each floor has a private space and sanitary facilities. ‘Bokjeong-dong share house’, as a project conducted by HN Housing Management of Hana Financial Group, is managed by a large company. Catering for residents, and card discounts. It provides welfare benefits such as car sharing, card discount, etc. for residents.

3.3. Analysis on spatial characteristics of domestic share house cases ³⁾

Because most branches of the ‘Borderless House’ and ‘WOOZOO House’ utilize apartments and houses, they show an arrangement in which private space is dispersed around a public space. Therefore, although the openness of space is low, the accessibility for each space in the inside of the residence is rather easy, and the functionality of space is low because the space can be changed according to the tastes of residents. In addition, since the two cases attract residents with specific themes and concepts, it is difficult to find the individual characteristics of residents having similar tendencies, and they show a tendency to contract in the short term and reside unvoluntarily by the workplace and school.

Unlike the existing ‘WOOZOO’ house, ‘WOOZOO’ houses 35 and 36 branches, as a medium sized share house, are vertically divided into public space and private space. As the private space is arranged in the double corridor type of apartments, the openness of space is good, but the accessibility of private space and the public space is low. As it is recruited similar types of residents by the existing company policy, the individuality of residents is low. Also, residents contract in the short term and reside unvoluntarily by their lifestyle.

‘Tongui-dong House’ is as share house with middle floor, private space is arranged around the public space, and the individuality among residents is high because private space is oriented toward one person one room, individual privacy is high. Because private space and public space is located in one space, the accessibility is easy and the openness is low. The residents of ‘Tongui-dong House’ contract in the short term and reside by unvoluntary environment because mainly newly workers and college students live.

The ‘Lofty House’ accommodates many residents, and has excellent personal privacy since the private space takes the form of one side corridor type of apartment, and individuality among the residents is good. Also, since the public space is located on only the first floor, the accessibility of private space and public space is not good, and the openness of space is also not good.

Lastly, ‘Bokjeong-dong share house’ has good accessibility and openness of each space by unitization of private space and public space. Emphasizing community elements, communication between residents is smooth and intentional exchange is aimed. In addition, resident welfare benefits such as car sharing and Hana card discounts show characteristics of residence regardless of residents’ situation. The detailed analysis of each case can be found in [Table 2] and [Table 3].

Table 2.

Characteristic analysis by domestic share house space composition

Table 3.

Analysis on the connection of domestic share house space

4.1. Type analysis of domestic share house

Based on the above case study, domestic share houses can be divided into the following types.

1) Type classification according to personal space arrangement

Because the share house must accommodate the residents of different environments, the arrangement and placement of the space actually used by the individual is important. In particular, it is necessary to classify the type of personal space according to the characteristics of the residents, because it affects directly or indirectly in the whole life part such as personal privacy problems, noise, public goods in a share house.

It can be classified into ‘Distributed Type’ arrangement where private space is distributed and arranged around the public space and ‘Concentrated Type’ arrangement where private space is gathered in one space. ‘Distributed Type’ arrangement are the type found in mostly small size share houses, and can be composed in various sizes from 1 ~ 2 persons to 3 ~ 4 persons in one room. ‘Concentrated Type’ arrangement can be divided into two types: ‘Double Corridor’ type arrangement which is arranged by dividing into two sides around the corridor and ‘Side Corridor(Stairways)’ type which is biased toward one side around the corridor, and these are the types that apply to relatively large size share houses. Also, it can be classified into ‘Unit Type’ arrangement, which is combination form of ‘Distributed Type’ and ‘Concentrated Type’, and two or three rooms are combined to form one unit. [Table 4]

Table 4.

Type according to private space arrangement

2) Type classification according to arrangement of private space and public space

Share house is a new type of residence that appears as a combination of public space and private space, and the connection type of the public space appears according to arrangement of private space. There are three types by the connection method of public space that provide hobbies and community activities among residents, and private spaces that the residents actually live in.

The horizontal connection (hereinafter ‘A’ Type) where public space and private space are combined horizontally, appears mainly in the low-floor share house, the size of the private space is small, and the accessibility with public space is easy. Vertical connection (hereinafter ‘B’ Type) where public space and private space are combined vertically, can be seen in an apartment-type share house, and the protection of personal privacy is easy. Finally, Horizontal-Vertical connection (hereinafter ‘C’ Type), which is the mixed type of horizontal and vertical connection, can be seen in a middle size share house of villa form. [Table 5]

Table 5.

Type according to arrangement of public space and private space

4.2. Characteristics according to type and size of domestic share house

As described above, domestic share houses can be classified into three directions. Residents can choose share house of lifestyle and character suitable for them, and within it, it is possible to change the space to suit them. The results of analysis by the previous case and type are as follows.

Since most domestic share houses use the method of remodeling houses, private space is dispersed and public space and private space are connected horizontally. In other words, since the largest type of domestic share house is located near university and subway station, the residence rate of college students and social freshmen is high. Therefore, this type of share house is experiencing rapid circulation of residents and live unwillingly due to the change of the present lifestyle.

Next, the arrangement of private space is dispersed and the share house vertically connected to public space and private space follows the single house form. The private space of each floor is dispersed and the public space is arranged. Generally, it is recognized as a lodging house in Korea, and the tenants reside in the short term since it is also resident mainly in college students and social freshmen, and shows the way of living unwillingly due to the realistic situation. As the size of share house increases, it can be seen that the combination type between the arrangement of private space and public space is different. Medium-sized share houses are generally recognized as dormitories and private space is arranged in a concentrated manner because it accommodates a large number of residents. Accordingly, public space can be minimized or arranged in another space by efficient use of space. This type can be seen in an apartment type house, and side corridor type arrangement that private space is divided around the corridor may be vulnerable to privacy protection of an individual. Also, the public space is also arranged in another space, making the accessibility low. As the size of share house increases, private spaces are concentrated and arranged, or several units are bound together to form one unit. Connection of public space and private space also shows the aspect of vertical connection and horizontal / vertical connection rather than horizontal connection. Because residents can regulate the personal privacy protection and communication activities between residents, a relatively wide range of age groups reside in large share houses. Therefore, residents are able to stay in this share house for a long time, and show aspects to reside voluntarily in share house regardless of their environment. [Table 6]

Table 6.

Type classification according to plan characteristics comprehensive