While more an more apartment houses have continued to be built in the downtown areas, large-scale apartment housing complexes have been constructed primarily of their cost-effective advantages. Recently, due to limited sites for large-scale apartment ...
While more an more apartment houses have continued to be built in the downtown areas, large-scale apartment housing complexes have been constructed primarily of their cost-effective advantages. Recently, due to limited sites for large-scale apartment housing complexes and potential residents'' financial difficulties, the number of the small-scale apartment houses redeveloped densely within the residential zones has increased remarkably, and as a result, the living environment of such small-scale apartment houses is seriously worsening. Small-scale apartment houses include multi-family houses, row houses and ordinary apartment houses, but the solitary apartment houses with less than 20 households being built on individual sites are the main sources of neighbors'' increasing complaints about infringed sunshine right or views. Under such circumstances, this study was aimed at investigating and analyzing the cases of solitary small-scale apartment houses being built in the ordinary residential areas and addressing their problems and suggesting the solutions to them. This study can be concluded as follows; First, we need to approach this issue in institutional terms. The reason why the living environment of the solitary small-scale apartment houses with less than 20 households is worsening may be that they are excluded from the category of the apartment houses subject to permission according to Housing Code. Namely, they can be developed without being approved or permitted by relevant authorities, and therefore, their living environment or public space is not taken into consideration. More over, most of their constructors are petty constructors selected arbitrarily by developers. In other words, they have few technologies accumulated, much less the financial capacity, which means that their apartment houses may be poor enough to cause various civil complaints. As it is, it is deemed necessary to rewrite the Housing Code in such a way that the solitary small-scale apartment houses and their petty constructors should be included in the scope of apartment houses and their constructors subject to permission. Second, it is essential to review the conditions from an architectural perspective. In order to maximize the profits and land use with the limited sites, the solitary small-scale apartment houses tend to be designed to maximize the building and floor area ratios, while meeting the requirements for parking lots. As a result, outside and public spaces fall short, deteriorating the living environment. Moreover, large vehicle cannot well be parked due to the mechanic parking facilities and reckless planning. Such a problem is combined with lack of cabinet spaces and service rooms only to increase residents'' inconveniences. Thus, it is essential to design the outside and public spaces for the solitary small-scale apartment houses even at the stage of masterplan, while securing the cabinet spaces, using the balconies effectively and finding some alternatives to the mechanic parking facilities. Lastly, while the solitary small-scale apartment houses are being established as major downtown shelters, it is necessary to improve their poor living environment caused primarily by commercialism of development and careless methods of development. In order to create a comfortable solitary apartment houses for their residents and neighbors just beyond the institutional or physical reforms, it is required to rearrange the relevant codes and regulations flexibly, while continuously developing new types of the solitary small-scale apartment houses in harmony with their communities.