The warm spring weather continues as the gyeongchip of all things awakening from hibernation has passed. It is the season when you want to change from the dull winter clothes you barely wore to bright spring clothes and go outside the house.
Sansuyu and plum blossoms, the messengers of spring, burst into buds earlier than usual, signaling the beginning of spring, the’Queen of the Seasons’. Perhaps because of the extremely cold and snowy last winter, the unknown spring flowers blooming at the mouth of the town are impressive. The vegetation with green sprouts sprout and buds of flowers is a feeling of relaxation of the body and mind that were tired of Corona 19.
Art that connects artificial structures to nature
“I want to build a picturesque house on that green meadow and live with our beloved one hundred years.” This is the lyrics of a popular song in the past. Man is a treacherous being who dreams of living in nature while living in an artificial building stacked high in tens of stories by developing nature. Here, it is the’landscape’ that plays the role of connecting the artefacts of architecture and nature.
In the dictionary, landscape architecture is defined as the art of planning, designing, constructing, and managing land by applying humanistic and scientific knowledge to create a beautiful, useful and healthy environment. Through landscaping, busy modern people meet nature, and a desolate city has an ecological foundation.
In apartments where Koreans live, landscaping can be said to fill the empty space between the inner building and the building. In the decades after the birth of complex apartments in Korea in the 1960s, apartments developed mainly for buildings, and most of the remaining ground space was used for parking lots. However, after the 2000s, when parking lots were installed underground, the landscaping space increased significantly and the change began. Landscaping in apartments these days has become the so-called hippest and hottest element.
Construction companies always use expressions such as eco-friendly, green or green, ecology, park type, and landscape premium when selling apartments. This is because consumers value landscaping. According to a survey conducted by Gallup Korea in February of this year,’Health Apartment’, which applied eco-friendly materials, ventilation, and health care system, took first place (34%) when asked about the type of apartment you prefer. ‘Landscape-specialized apartments’, which reinforced the rest area, took the second place (33%) in terms of occasional reasons.
As apartments with excellent landscaping are gaining great popularity, construction companies are focusing more on landscaping. Ⓒ GS E&C (left)/Samsung C&T (right)
The reason people choose the landscaping when choosing an apartment is that they can catch as many as five rabbits at once, including landscape, ecology, environment, health, and value. First, through the landscaping, the apartment is freed from a uniform matchbox and has its own color, and the exterior landscape is improved. Second, landscaping has an ecological function, such as restoring the soil ecosystem destroyed by architecture and providing habitat for various organisms.
Third, plants planted around us through landscaping improve the physical environment of apartments by absorbing pollutants such as automobile exhaust, purifying the air, and mitigating the urban heat island phenomenon. Fourth, landscaping has proven healing effects, such as relieving people’s stress and restoring physical and mental health. Fifth, if the landscaping is well done, the value of the apartment rises and the heating and cooling energy is saved, and there are significant economic benefits.
How to choose a tree well in the apartment and plant it well
Landscaping can be largely divided into planting materials using plants and other landscape facilities. Planting is the most essential part of landscaping by properly selecting plants that fit the surrounding environment, arranging them well, and planting them. Using plants, which are living organisms, as a material is also a part of fundamentally differentiating landscaping with neighboring fields such as architecture and civil engineering.
In apartment landscaping, planting is planned in consideration of the texture, color, and shape of the plant species. Since plants are living organisms, they continue to grow and change shape according to the seasons. Therefore, in order to create a beautiful landscape, such changes in plants must be considered, and harmony between trees must be taken into consideration so as not to be biased in a specific season.
The ecological interior is as important as the beautiful appearance. A successful planting should create an appropriate growing environment so that the plants grow well in harmony with each other and are easy to manage. For this reason, planting in landscape architecture is called art and science.
Let’s take a look at how to plant Korean apartments, focusing on the landscaping tree used as the main character. ‘Arboretum’ is a tall tree with a height of more than 2m. Among the evergreen coniferous trees in all seasons, pine and strobe pine are by far the most popular, and yew and fir, Bansong, Western cypress, Japanese cypress, and Kaizuka juniper are widely used. do.
In particular, pine trees are said to be the king of landscape trees, and natural mountains with good shapes can cost tens of thousands of won per tree. Trees are not made in a factory, and take at least 10 years, sometimes more than 100 years to take shape, so a good looking landscape tree is more expensive than the average person thinks. Among the evergreen broad-leaved trees, camellia is the most popular.
The deciduous arboretum boasts blue-green in summer and colorful foliage in autumn according to the change of the seasons. Fruits can give a point to the landscape. Among deciduous trees, the zelkova tree is by far the most popular, and cornus, blue maple, quince, persimmon tree, cornel tree, apricot tree, lagerstroemia tree, ivory tree, cherry tree, plum tree, etc. In the case of zelkova trees, the price of the zelkova tree can exceed hundreds of millions of won depending on the receipt.
Small’shrubs’ with a height of 2m or less are perfect for supporting the arboretum. Among the evergreen shrubs, boxwood is mainly used as a fence, and young sanhong and four-year-old trees are used. Among the deciduous shrubs, white azalea, Jasanhong, mountain azalea, sorghum bridge, and grasshopper are used.
Examples of desirable planting structures for the front and rear green areas, side green areas (top) and buffer zones (bottom) of an apartment complex. Ⓒ Dongwook Lee et al. 『A Study on Changes in Green Space Arrangement and Planting Structure in Apartment Complexes in Seoul』
As the parking lot becomes underground in the apartment complex, many trees used for landscaping are planted on the artificial ground made above the parking lot. The artificial ground has very disadvantageous environmental conditions, such as shallow soil depth, narrow growth space, and poor drainage. Because of this, the number of landscaping defects continues to increase, such as the death of expensive trees.
When planting on artificial ground, more careful consideration is required. If the depth of soil (soil depth) required for the tree to grow well is insufficient, measures are taken such as stacking soil to make hills or installing in the form of large pots.
Regarding the desirable planting structure of apartment complexes, experts say the parking lot should be completely underground and the green area ratio should be set to 40% or more, taking into account the characteristics of Korea, which lacks green space in the city center. It is explained that it is desirable to create the rest of the space centered on trees planting except for the minimum space, such as a pavement space for walking and a children’s playground.
In the case of artificial ground apartments, the front and rear green areas of the building should be at least 5 m wide, and the side green areas should be at least 3.2 m wide. The buffer green area is made to be 15m or more in width, connecting it to the green area inside the complex and connecting it to the green area outside the city center. For planting species, increase the rate of planting native species as much as possible and apply multi-layered planting techniques (refer to Dongwook Lee et al., 『A Study on Changes in Green Space Arrangement and Planting Structure of Apartment Complexes in Seoul』).
Installation from hands-on facilities to works of art
The landscaping of the apartment is completed with various landscaping facilities to create a pleasant environment with planting. Landscaping facilities of apartments include playgrounds, rest facilities, sports facilities, hydroponic facilities, information facilities, and environmental sculptures. The functional composition of landscape facilities is also important, but it must be unified as a whole and harmony with the surroundings is essential. In the past, there were many exhibition and contemplative types of landscape facilities, but in recent years, there is a tendency to develop into a participatory type and an experience type.
In the past, playgrounds were installed on sand floors with uniform steel play facilities in the form of matching assortments, but nowadays, there is a trend to install various playground equipment with complex functions on sand and rubber mats.
Rest facilities are being built as multipurpose spaces rather than simple resting functions in various spaces such as the rooftop and piloti, the sunken underground space, and the central plaza. A nature learning center, a camping garden, and a movie theater in the woods are built to give apartment residents a relaxing time. In order to create a central plaza in the apartment complex, the location of the building was moved and the size was reduced.
As sports facilities, tennis courts and badminton courts have been installed for a while, but recently, physical fitness facilities have been installed as a basis, and multi-purpose exercise spaces, cycling jogging courses, and golf practice facilities have been installed in various places in apartments.
The waterscape facility (left) and the central plaza in the center of the complex (right), which are recently gaining popularity in apartment complexes. Ⓒ Lotte E&C (left)/Hyundai E&C (right)
Among the landscaping facilities, the most popular recently is the hydroponic facilities. Elements such as movement, projection, and sound of water provide healing to people, and provide a sense of relaxation and a sense of coolness to enjoy reflection. These days, apartment complexes are rushing to introduce waterscape elements with various shapes and sounds, such as natural mountain streams, ecological ponds, waterfalls, and water playgrounds.
Environmental sculptures that could not be seen in the past are also a remarkable feature that appears in recent apartments. Large-scale sculptures by famous artists are increasingly being installed, and large-sized environmental sculptures provide artistic sights and provide identity to apartment complexes. For environmental landscapes, the key is to install works that harmonize with the surrounding space.
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