An Evaluation Study on Universal Designs for Complex Cultural Facilities: Focused on the Facility Group at Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site in Seoul

Abstract

(Background and Purposes) Everybody must be able to enjoy a fair cultural life and has a right to enjoy culture and improve the quality of life. Therefore, we need to think at least once if the cultural space is where everybody enjoys. In this study, we tried to check how the universal design has been reflected on the space for the complex cultural facilities and, on the contrary, if its evaluation method has been applied to the facilities. Hence, this study aims to propose a development direction of the universal design in the future as a space for everybody can use and enjoy comfortably through identification and analysis of the current state of its application on the facility group at Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site in Seoul.where the eligible complex cultural facilities were newly refurbished. (Method) This study has a great potential for development in the future and its scope is the facility group at Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site in Seoul that a wide range of users have a better chance of visit. A current state analysis on the above-mentioned scope of the study through theoretical considerations and an analysis framework extraction of the integrated guidelines and checklist of the universal design in Seoul present a basic analysis framework for its applicability as a core of this study. A field investigation and its analysis are carried out in order to figure out how much the checklist can be applied to the facilities in the end. In addition, we intend to figure out if the space has been applied as a design which embraces the people’s diversity and what is lacking and then present as basic data for the evaluation of the design which can be applied to the complex cultural space in the future. (Results) The field investigation results of this study look as if a universal design and barrier-free living environment have been applied, but visual or hearing information and a multinational guidance system are still lacking relatively. Meanwhile, the checklist for evaluation also appeared necessary to be complemented through some problems from its investigation process. Hence, this study attempts to propose a checklist which can be applied to the complex cultural facilities after some problems found in the investigation process have been complemented. (Conclusions) This study has a significance in its empirical evaluation by utilizing the existing materials of the universal design and applying them to Amsa-dong Prehistoric Site in Seoul, but failing to overcome such limitation remains as a regret. We hope that diverse studies with their domains deepened will be conducted in the future because the domestic cases of the universal design evaluation lack of diversity.