Research on the Exterior Color of Apartments in GyeongGi-Do for Aesthetic Visual Quality
Suk-Hee Han 1, a, Kyung-Sook Kim 2, b Jung-Woo Oh 3,c , Yoon-Sun, Lee 4,d , and Jae-Jun Kim 5,e
1 Dept. of Sustainable Architectural Engineering, Hanyang Univ., Seoul, Korea, 133-791 2 Dept. of Sustainable Architectural Engineering, Hanyang Univ., Seoul, Korea, 133-791 3 Dept. of Sustainable Architectural Engineering, Hanyang Univ., Seoul, Korea 5 Ph.d. Research Prof. of BK21 Architectural Engineering Program, Hanyang Univ., Seoul, Korea 4 Dept. of Sustainable Architectural Engineering, Hanyang Univ., Seoul, Korea a [email protected], b [email protected], c [email protected], [email protected] , e [email protected]
ABSTRACT
Apartment which is offering human the closest residing space have displayed my function in supply from quantitative increase. Specially, Korean housing distribution statistics indicate that apartment dwellers occupy well over 53%. But, Supply of this apartment brought change of housing life riding rapid stream. Also, Contradictory problems were begun to bring continuously along with positive member in urbanization process. This implies that apartment exterior exerts significant influence on the cityscape. The efforts from the city to coordinate exterior color designs have been nonexistent, however, due to the lack of related regulations and systems as well as the awareness about exterior colors. Most apartments decorate their building exterior by just painting colors over concrete walls. After 3 to 5 years paints fade and come off leaving drab bare walls, which in turn adversely affects the cityscape. The objective of this research is to promote qualitative improvement of cityscape by applying fairly coordinated exterior colors. First, I will document and analyze the regulations, previous research and literature about the apartment exterior colors and then derive some problems to correct and raise the importance of apartment exterior colors. Second, I will execute this research as one of the basic materials to present some rational approaches to apartment exterior colors.
KEYWORDS : Cityscape, Exterior Color Design, CIE L*a*b*
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background and Purposes
The recent increase to the quantity of apartments has enabled the supply market to function its supposed roles. But many problems have been raised with the supply of apartments as the suppliers tend to pursue their business profits more than anything else in the process of urbanization. One of the problems concerns exterior coloring, which accounts for a big portion of the urban environment. In particular, today's construction companies apply uniform and unified images to the exterior colors of their apartments by highlighting certain brands to maximize the promotion and advertising effects and ignoring the sentiment of the community and neighboring environment in the process. They have definitely contributed to the deterioration of the urban environment. And the problem seems to grow worse day by day as there are no enough institutions or laws regarding exterior colors, which should
465 be perceived as part of the urban landscape, and the consumers don't have the required awareness of the matter. As a preliminary study for quality improvement of the exterior color designs of brand apartments, this study set out to measure the exterior colors of today's brand apartments and to investigate the current state and characteristics of their exterior colors.
1.2 Methodology
The study searched for and suggested objectified methods to examine and analyze the color difference between the current exterior colors of brand apartments, which were located on the streets, and the urban images, as well as to evaluate and analyze the relationships between urban colors and brand apartments through the distribution. The scope of the study was restricted to the colors of apartments. The subject areas included three cities in Gyeonggi Province, which were Suwon, Goyang, and Bucheon. They were selected for the fact that they had a concentration of brand apartments, which were built by six major construction companies for the last five years and made the list of brand preference. They were also conveniently networked with Seoul and represented the regional features of Gyeonggi Province well. As for methodology, the first research consisted of comparing and analyzing the current state and characteristics of exterior colors of the apartments according to their locations, while the second research investigated their color characteristics according to the harmony and patterns of coloration of the main elevation sides.
2. PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS
2.1 Analysis of Previous Studies
Previous studies on the exterior colors of apartments in Korea tried to understand the characteristics of the changes to them according to regions and periods and search for the directions of arranging exterior colors to enhance the urban image. The measures suggested in those studies, however, only provided the directions of exterior colors through unilinear analysis. For those studies on the basis of the current state, they only conducted partial researches despite the fact that judgments of the current state should be preceded. And their concepts of colors only defined colors individually rather than within a larger framework of urban environment.
2.2 Literature Study
Before taking on the investigation, the study needed to set forth the distribution criteria of master and sub colors and accordingly to define colors according to the new criteria. In general terms, master colors are defined as the colors accounting for the most area of an exterior space. They are the base and dominate an image. Sub colors are also the base and add more changes or characteristics to the exterior walls. And accent colors are used only for a very small space on the exterior and defined to highlight the overall feel of the exterior. In this study, the colors were newly defined for the study purposes; master colors were defined as the colors that accounted for 70~75% of the exterior walls of an apartment; sub colors as those that accounted for 20~25%; and accent colors as those that accounted for 5% or less. Excluded from the investigation were the entrance moldings, the parts related to the name of the Construction Company and brand, block and household number, and supergraphics.
2.2 Color System
Using colors, it's not possible to describe individual colors in a specific and accurate manner since they offer only the names of colors and subjective signs. Introduced to solve that problem were the
466 color signs and color systems, which used objective amount and numbers to represent colors (Lee Jae- yong, 2003). A color system systematically organizes colors and uses consistent numbers or signs, thus enabling the users to distinguish colors easily, replicate colors exactly, and achieve accuracy in color combinations. The most well-known color systems are the CIE and Munsell(HV/C). This study adopted the CIE color system to measure the exterior colors of apartments. It's a CIE hue circle with the value axis of and the color coordinates of and. For the X axis of red-green, the +a direction represents red, while the -a direction green. For the Y axis of yellow-blue, the +b direction represents yellow, while the -b direction blue in the scope of -60 ~ +60.
3. PREMISES OF AN EXTERIOR COLOR PLAN
3.1 Methods to Select and Examine the Subjects
The study limited the scope to the exterior colors of apartments. Three cities of Suwon, Goyang, and Bucheon were selected in Gyeonggi Province as they had a concentration of six construction company brands that made the list of brand preference for the last five years and showed the conditions required by the study. They were conveniently connected to the Seoul Metropolitan areas and represented the regional features of Gyeonggi Province well. And they had a variety of location conditions and apartments that were high and large-scale, thus fulfilling the needs of the study. Two complexes (total 33) of each of the six brands were examined in the three cities. First a preliminary study was conducted to understand the size, colors, and surrounding environment of those apartments. The selected research areas were divided into three sections, and 11 apartments were examined in each of them. The first preliminary study (July 27~August 3, 2006) investigated the current state and distribution of the locations of the brand apartments in the three cities. In the secondary color measuring study (August 15~August 20, 2006), the apartments were photographed and measured for colors in the three cities. Total four individuals carried out the study with two forming a team and employed the methods of current state review, color measuring, and recording. The additional study (August 28~August 30, 2006) consisted of reexamination, another round of taking pictures, and administrative data.
3.2 Color Measurements
The investigation was conducted from 7am to noon on clear days from August 15 to August 20, 2006. The time slot was intentionally picked in order to avoid direct rays of light, to have the appropriate temperature and humidity, and thus to measure the colors of the apartment building exteriors as close to their actual colors as possible. Colors were measured with a spectrophotometer (Minolta CM- 2500d). The colors of the exterior walls of the apartments were measured in terms of master, sub, and accent colors. For the color regulation purpose, one master color, three sub colors, and two accent colors were measured. The colors were measured three times and their mean values were used for analysis in order to narrow the gap derived from the variables such as the state of sunlight, area effect, and distance and to ensure objective and uniform measures of colors.
4. ANALYSIS OF THE EXTERIOR COLOR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE APARTMENTS
4.1 Distribution Characteristics of Exterior Colors according to Brands
Table 1 shows the color distribution of the exterior colors according to brands. In the table, the distribution of master, sub, and accent colors is presented by a*b* according to brands with the horizontal axis representing a* values and the vertical axis b* values.
467 The six brands examined in the study were similar in using master colors, which were usually medium or high value and low chroma. But they attempted to show their own brand characteristics by using different sub and accent colors. Most of them used yellow as their master colors, which means that the master color itself was not enough to show their brand characteristics. But they did use partially bold and unique colors for accents, but those accent colors were temporary trends to increase visual stimuli too much and thus didn't seem to affect the overall flow. The six brands used the colors in vogue and failed to show their brand characteristics.
Table 1. The distribution of a*b* by brands
Master color Sub color Accent color
A
B
C
D
E
F
Note) A: Raemian/ B:e-Pyeonhan Sesang/ C: Prugio/ D: Home Town/ E: Xi/ F: I'PARK 4.1 Distribution Characteristics of Exterior Colors according to areas Table 2 presents the overall distribution of the exterior colors and the color distribution according to areas. In the table, the distribution of master, sub, and accent colors is presented by a*b* according to areas with the horizontal axis representing a* values and the vertical axis b* values.
468 The characteristics of the exterior colors according to areas were examined. As shown in Table 3, the master colors were distributed between 0 and 10 on a*b* in all of the three cities with sub and accent colors different a little bit among the cities. Suwon was the most diverse in the distribution of sub colors, which were a*b* -20~30, among the three cities. Its accent colors were distributed 0~30 on a*b*. Goyang's sub colors were distributed 0~30 and its accent colors -30~40, which was the biggest distribution area among the three cities. Thus Goyang used the most diverse colors for accents. And Bucheon's sub colors were most distributed -10~30 and its accent colors -30~20. The results of the color distribution according to areas demonstrate that the three cities usually used colors of high value and low chroma as the master colors. Their sub colors followed the basic colors of the master colors in terms of value, thus showing a similar distribution to the master colors. But their hue and chroma were different from the master colors in the general distribution. Compared with the master and sub colors, the accent colors were more diverse in hue. But it's hard to identify consistent distribution patterns among them in value and chroma. It's because construction companies usually place greater importance on master and sub colors in planning apartment exteriors and focus on the clear visual features in respect to accent colors. Table 2. The distribution of a*b* by overall and areas
Master color Sub color Accent color
overall
Suwon
Goyang
Bucheon
5. CONCLUSIONS
Trying to investigate the elements making up the visual image of a city, this study analyzed the characteristics and current color state of exterior colors of apartments as exterior colors had huge influence on the image creation of a city.
(1) Total 33 apartment complexes were measured for their exterior colors. As a result, the master colors became more diverse thanks to the changes to the finishing materials of exterior walls since
469 there were the new construction and remodeling projects for the last five years. But the overall distribution was relatively dull as they mostly tended to be yellow colors of medium or high value. Recent years have observed more environment-friendly apartments that fit the surrounding conditions better being constructed owing to the increasing interest in apartments, people being more exposed to diverse colors in the modern society, and changes to the perception of colors according to indirect education. Those apartments investigated in the study, however, didn't have clear criteria regarding compliance with the regional characteristics or adoption of exterior colors. Their exterior colors were usually selected according to the signature brand colors or subjective preference of the construction companies.
(2) The characteristics of exterior colors of the six apartments according to brands were as follows; the master colors were similar among them being medium or high value and low chroma, but the sub and accent colors were different from each other. The construction companies must have tried to show their brand characteristics with their color choices. But all of the six brands used yellow as their master color and accordingly failed to stand out from the rest. Although their accent colors were partially bold and unique, they simply reflected the temporary trends to increase the visual stimuli too much and didn't have any impact on the overall flow. The results prove that the companies just picked the colors in vogue rather than considering their brand characteristics.
(3) The characteristics of exterior colors of the apartments were measured first-hand. As a result, there were no rational and scientific color plans. The designers decided the colors depending on their personal experiences and past practices, which resulted in no regional or brand characteristics to stand out. Those findings suggest that the construction companies should take into account the unification and stability of different colors in planning exterior colors in order to strike harmony with the surrounding environment and enhance the quality of exterior color designs of brand apartments. It's also necessary to objectify the exterior color criteria of apartments and to develop them into a system by searching for the required color regulation and inducement approaches.
The analysis data of the characteristics and current color state of the apartments' exterior colors presented in this study will serve as useful data in studying the preference relationships of apartments' exterior colors in future study. There should be ongoing efforts to conduct professional researches to improve the exterior color design of brand apartments.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the SRC/ERC program of MOST/KOSEF (R11-2005-056-03001)
REFERENCES
Sung-Jin, Park., Chang-Geun, Yoo., Cheong-Woong, Lee., 2005. “A study on Influence of Exterior color for Buildings on Formation of Streetscape image,” Architectural Institute of Korea, v.21 n.4 Jang-Woo, Yoon., Chun-Kwen, Park., 2001. “A Study on the Characteristic of the Exterior Color in High-rise Apartments in Yang-San City,” Architectural Institute of Korea, v.17 n.12 Jae-Yong, Lee., Seong-Seok, Go., 2003. “Effect Analysis of Inorganic Pigment on the Colors of Colored Cement Mortars applying CIE L*a*b* Color System,” Architectural Institute of Korea, v.19 n.11
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