In central Seoul city, approximately over 90% of residential areas are classified as a general residential district and the non-residential purpose commercial such as commercial and business office is allowed to move into this area, therefore, this re...
In central Seoul city, approximately over 90% of residential areas are classified as a general residential district and the non-residential purpose commercial such as commercial and business office is allowed to move into this area, therefore, this residential area has a mixture of various use and purpose mingling together. Especially, the general residential areas with good quality of site location and distinguished local characteristics are being invigorated as a commercial street based on culture and as commercial on the roadside is gradually expanding neighboring residential areas, commercialization of residential areas is taking place now. Mixture of residence and commercial results in a positive effect such as promoting revival of local economy and enhancing convenience for residents, however, the excessive mixture of purpose can cause some residential environmental problems in neighboring areas and this can result in a loss of residential function. This paper is focusing on residential environmental problems occurred by mixture of purpose of neighboring areas and revitalization as a commercial street and suggests the necessity for comprehensive improvement for a residential environment for ensuring habitability as a residential area in the city and consistent revitalization. This paper selected Garosu-gil area and Seorae village where include commercial street which is autochthonously vitalized and showing mixture of residential and commercial purpose among general residential areas to find direction for improvement in a residential environment through diversified analyses such as analysis of physical characteristics and comparison analysis of residential satisfaction.
According to results from the analysis of physical characteristics of Garosu-gil area and Seorae Village, Garosu-gil area is dense with lots of small sized individual lands so it is a multiplex housing residential area and Seorae Village is a mixture of block-unit row houses and multiplex housing of individual lands which is a diversity in a type of residential. According to the analysis, it was found that the difference between the two regions led to a difference in the quality of pedestrian environments including street space, green space and external space, and parking lot and it also affects pervasion of commercial use of residential area.
According to the result from residential satisfaction for Garosu-gil area and Seorae Village, it is expected that the region with mixture of residential and commercial purpose will constantly improve as a central city region, for the commercial street is positively recognized by the residents because of the quality of the site location and convenience. Furthermore, Seorae Village and Garosu-gil area showed a significant difference in satisfaction level in the aspect of safety, comfortability, convenient facility, neighborhood, and overall residential satisfaction level and residents in Seorae Village showed higher satisfaction. It is presumed that characteristics of structure of city space made by the different methods for developing residential buildings influences the residence satisfaction. According to the analysis, overall residential satisfaction influences in an order of comfortability, neighborhood, and safety. Most of major factors influencing residential satisfaction were related to exterior spaces of housing between residential and neighboring zone rather than interior spaces of housing, therefore, it is suggested that improvement of exterior spaces of housing environment needs to be preceded for improvement of residential satisfaction.
One important issue rising in the neighboring residential regions as a commercial street is that zoning system is not corresponding with commercial street and regional characteristics now and there is an inadequate systematic tool to regulate a mixed use phenomenon. Moreover, residential regions concentrated with multiplex houses of lots of individual lands have a combination of existing residential environmental problems and other issues caused by commercialization which occurs a qualitative decline in the residential environment and this may lead to a loss of residential function. Therefore, improvement in zoning system policy and residential environment of small land unit residences, and protecting of existing residences may be required. Based on examples from other countries, segmentation of zoning system and introduction of modular zoning, segmentation of use groups and re-setup of permission level, encouragement of small co-development for repairing small sized individual lands, introduction of physical plan of neighboring residential regions as a commercial street, and generating buffer zone were suggested for improvement in residential and commercial mixed-use regions.