Abstract
Most residential buildings in Korea are preferred to have maximum interior spaces, rather than consider its original design, overall building performance, and any other aspects since early 1990's. Especially in high-rise apartment buildings, balcony has been merged to living room to get more interior spaces and this renovation trends have been producing deep and narrow shapes of living rooms that was not initially intended by architects. On the other hand, the same gross area of each unit does not necessarily mean same width and depth ratio of each residential unit. Generally, we can categorize it to the deep or wide unit based on its width and depth ratio. Under these circumstances, this study analyzes the room usage pattern changes based on the space width and depth ratio and the effect of expansion of room space to the balcony. This study also includes about 180 apartments plan case studies to find out the relationships among w/d ratio changes, furniture arrangement types, and room configurations. In this research, general apartment room w/d ratios are 0.97 ∼ 1.23; 0.7(south facing sitting room), 1.23(south facing bed room), and 0.95(north facing bedroom). But, after expanding room space to balcony w/d ratio increased as follows; sitting room become 1.31, general south facing bedroom become 1.23, and north facing bedroom become 1.45. In addition to user preference of w/d ratio, many people prefer rectangular room shape a little(w/d ratio is 0.9 or 1.2) than square style (w/d ratio is 1.0) or very deep room style (w/d ratio Is more over 1.5). Accordingly, expanding the room space to balcony may make unsatisfactory room w/d ratio. Expanding room space to balcony should be considered by existing room w/d ratio.