A Study on Healing Environment Design Elements in Commercial Space

(Background and Purpose) Due to the prolonged COVID-19 and continuous social distancing, restrictions on daily life have increased, leading more people to feel depressed or lethargic, and interest in ‘healing codes’ such as health and rest is increasing in order to escape from the feeling of helplessness and fatigue caused by COVID-19 and burnout. Therefore, it is important to consider the psychological situation of customers and their needs when planning a commercial space. In particular, in the case of urban entertainment center, visitors spend their leisure time consuming various spatial contents to satisfy their emotional and psychological needs, so there is a need for research related to it. Against the background, this study intends to examine the healing environment design subject to urban entertainment center. The research trend of healing environment design in the early stage in Korea was mostly hospital and patient-related studies. After 2009, as the trend of people-centered research became prominent, studies related to rest areas such as parks and forests, cultural arts, residential complexes, and leisure appeared, but there were significantly fewer studies on commercial space. Also, most of the research was about physical environment elements among the healing environment components. (Method) As a method of research, it first looks at the concept of healing and healing environment design through literature research as theoretical consideration, and considers the need for healing environment design in commercial space. Second, it presents healing environment design elements that can be applied to commercial Space. Third, based on it, a case analysis is conducted focusing on urban entertainment center in Korea to derive characteristics of each healing environment design element. Finally, it derives the characteristics of healing environment design in urban entertainment center in Korea by synthesizing case analysis focusing on analysis items. (Results) As a result of deriving the healing environment design elements of the commercial space, the aesthetic elements showed the characteristics with formative expressions and open space design, and the nature-friendly elements showed their characteristics with direct and indirect expressions in terms of physical environment. In terms of psychological environment, extraordinary elements showed the characteristics with event element and overscale expressions, and entertaining elements showed the characteristics with cultural and participatory experience. These elements can be expected to give users psychological and emotional stability and to help them escape from stress by providing a positive environment by drawing users' interest. (Conclusions) As a commercial space has been transformed into a new consumption space that gains value through experience, it has become an experiential space where various activities can be performed. The experience refreshes people's mood and plays a role of emotional recovery and plays a healing function. In order to create an environment for the commercial space that brings out such diverse and new experiences, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the physical and psychological environment to plan.