A Park Inside Buildings... Introduction of 'Indoor Public Spaces' in Seoul's Building Ordinance

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] On the 2nd, Seoul City announced that it will introduce the nation's first ordinance to relax building standards when creating 'indoor public spaces' that can be used regardless of weather or season.

The city recently revised the ordinance to establish the definition and installation standards for 'indoor public spaces,' which was promulgated and implemented on December 30 of last year. When installing publicly accessible spaces under the Building Act, floor area ratio and height restrictions can be relaxed up to 120% depending on the area ratio. The relaxation ratio and standards are delegated to local government ordinances.

Publicly accessible spaces, which must be installed when constructing buildings above a certain scale, have typically been created outdoors in the form of parks or rest areas. However, due to climate change causing heatwaves, cold waves, and severe fine dust, outdoor activities have become restricted more frequently, leading to decreased utilization of these spaces.

Accordingly, the city introduced indoor public spaces, which are already common in overseas cities such as New York, for the first time among domestic local governments so that they can be installed in Seoul as well.

According to the revised ordinance, indoor public spaces refer to publicly accessible spaces created inside buildings considering climatic conditions, and they must be installed in spaces that are easily accessible to the general public and usable by many people. Since crowd density increases with larger areas, minimum width and height regulations are set in three stages according to the area to ensure the comfort of indoor spaces.

To prevent building owners from occupying indoor public spaces as private property, the city requires the installation of signs on entrances and other locations so that citizens can easily recognize them as 'indoor public spaces.' Quarterly and ad hoc inspections will be conducted.

Kim Seongbo, Director of Housing Policy at Seoul City, said, "Until now, it was natural to provide publicly accessible spaces outdoors, but by allowing them to be created indoors as well, we expect to provide spaces that can be freely used year-round without being affected by heatwaves or fine dust."

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