Jugong Apartment
Solve noise complaint problems in densely built Korea apartments
About
This project started from noise complaint problems in apartments.
As seen in the satellite photograph below of Seoul, Korea, due to rapid economic growth, thousands of apartments have been built in a short period of time in the center of the city.
High density apartments in Seoul, smap.seoul.go.kr
Problem
Process
The densely built apartments resulted in noise complaints and became a major problem for citizens. Apartment noise problems arise from the lack of legal standards for construction and community management, and the lack of legal standards for resolving disputes, as well as the absence of a caring residential culture.
Wall-type apartments, which account for 85% of all apartments, are vulnerable to noise between floors because they do not use pillars or beams to transmit noise through walls. As issued, the noise pollution between houses worsened and the deepened conflict led to violence.
Neighbor brawl on news, JTBC
User Research
To solve this chronic problem, I initially started with categorizing types of apartments since different forms of apartments have different parts where the noises come from.
Each from top and perspective view, the apartments are simply sorted into four forms. They are selected as they were popularly built in each chronological order from 1980 to now.
Final Solution
Instead of tearing down the apartment walls and remodel to improve the noise pollution, a practicable alternative is to install the ANC-equipped wall in the interior space or set the ANC wall in space between one’s wall and the neighbor’s wall as well as application in the pipes.
Analysis
Prototype
I conducted surveys to 50 residents living in Korea apartments to understand the specific issues that the residents are suffering from. Based on the result, the charts depict what sound residents sensitively reacted to, while drawing shows ‘Private Space Noise Pollution’ happening specifically between walls and floors in households.
The final solution contains ANC technology which can be applied in between the walls, floors, and vents where the conflict between the residents will be effectively improved through this application.