earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to give some suggestions for the legal supplement of the regulation on the balcony expansion for the optimal use of apartment balcony. For the purpose, this study focused on the characteristics of spaces expanded to the balcony, in the plans supplied after the legalization of balcony expansion, comparing them by their location; the metropolitan
area of Seoul·Gyeonggi and the districts of the other areas. The 168 plans of apartments in the supplied by top 10 constructors in the metropolitan areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi, together with the 92 plans in the other smaller districts in 2006 to 2007 were analyzed with the tools of frequency and chi-square analysis. The result is as follows.
(1) The region showed no difference in the plans of balcony; whereas the size, the position and access of the shelter explained some differences of balcony plan. (2) In wider plans, balconies were placed in all sides of plan-front, rear and side, and were remodeled to expand facing rooms. (3) The balcony expansion tended to increase the number of bays. (4) In almost cases, the living rooms were expanded to balcony. In smaller plans, the balconies were remodeled to supply supplementary kitchen space, splitting it from laundry. (5) The shelters were placed at the rear or side of plans, but the shelter facing room could be dangerous in case of fire.
The balcony expansion, despite of legalization spirit to adopt diverse use of additional spaces for residents' needs, was only a tool for the space expansion. The amendment of the regulation is needed to accommodate these findings that the balconies should be identified by their function, that the front corridor-type balcony should be limited in length and magnitude, and that the shelter should be positioned with easy access.