Apartment Designs That Embrace Freedom... Relaxed Building Coverage Ratio for Creative Architecture

Mixed-use residential and commercial building 'Markthal' in Rotterdam, Netherlands. [Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The architectural design of sale buildings such as apartments and officetels will become more flexible. Special exceptions for floor area ratio (FAR) relaxation will also be provided for creative buildings.

On the 14th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that the partial amendment to the "Enforcement Decree of the Building Act," which includes these details, has passed the Cabinet meeting. Some of the content is part of the follow-up measures to the "Building Administrative Service Innovation Plan" announced in August last year.

When constructing sale-purpose buildings such as apartments and officetels, it has been mandatory to undergo architectural review by local architectural committees, leading to criticism that the design intent was compromised due to subjective reviews by some committee members. Accordingly, through this enforcement decree, sale buildings are, in principle, excluded from the review target. However, if each local government designates areas requiring architectural review in advance and announces the review criteria, the review must be conducted.

Regulations on the floor area ratio (FAR) for creative buildings will also be relaxed. FAR, which refers to the ratio of building area to site area, has been applied to secure urban openness. However, there have been criticisms that uniform FAR calculation hinders creative architecture, even when large open spaces are provided on the lower floors, such as the "Markthal" in Rotterdam, Netherlands, where apartment buildings are constructed in an arch shape with a hollow center and the central space is used as a traditional market. Accordingly, the amendment allows the exclusion of such parts from the building area calculation through review by the local architectural committee.

The amendment also includes measures to prevent accidents such as the 2018 earth retaining wall collapse accident in Sangdo-dong. Currently, supervision personnel are not required to be stationed for construction sites with a floor area under 5,000㎡, but for land excavation works deeper than 10m and retaining wall installation works higher than 5m, the amendment mandates the presence of supervision personnel even if they are not subject to mandatory supervision.

To secure the public nature of publicly accessible open spaces, where occupancy and business activities or installation of fences or walls have been carried out despite being open to the public, the amendment specifies these acts as restricted activities.

The amendment is scheduled to be promulgated soon after the President's approval. Each amendment will be enforced either on the 24th or six months after the promulgation date.

Kim Sang-moon, Director of Building Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Through this amendment, we expect to secure transparency in architectural review, activate creative architecture by relaxing FAR calculation for buildings with open lower floors, and contribute to improving urban landscapes."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.