• Land and Housing Review
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.223-232
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study is to identify the supply status and planning trend of North Korean housing through analysis on the North Korean architecture specialized media data. The flat composition is changing and the living room is becoming the center of the houses. Also, in the urban areas, the standard apartment type is four apartments in a row and the plan form is getting diversified into circle type, Y type, and irregular type. On the other hand, in the rural areas, two houses in a row and single house are typical and the change in planning scale and space structure are not substantial. Since the 2000s, design changes have been made to emphasize the third dimensional structure of buildings such as the elliptical houses and L-shaped houses. Furthermore, 8~10 households are located on one floor which leads to the tendency of the building enlargement. In terms of house size, a square concept was introduced to replace the initial 2~3 room concept and the basic module of the room planning the 3 room house based on $3m{\times}3m$. However, there seems to be no standard house size, and the house size may differ depending on the social classandregion. In the early 1980s, when there was focus on the apartment complex construction, the high-rise apartment buildings of 30~40 floors was planned. However, during the Pyongyang redevelopment project, apartments of more or less than 10 floors were built and row-houses of more or less than 4 floors were built. In terms of the complex scale, a lot of small complexes of around 300 households are emerging after 2010. The construction projects are mainly limited to specific regions such as Pyongyang and Samjiyeon, and also limited to specific classes such as the workers and soldiers initially and the scientists lately. In addition, living boundary composition and ancillary facilities for sufficient green area ratio securement and the people of North Korea are maintained consistently. In recent years, the specialized floor planning such as solar house and the house for the disabled people, framework houses for redevelopment business, and multi-storied house construction technology are also emerging.