This study was conducted on the “traditional area” of Dunsan in Daejeon, and 22 apartment complexes in Doan new city in the “new urban area”. Its goal was to compare and analyze green percentage of each apartment complex’s exterior space. The application examples of the green percentage were examined. Through the advanced research, exterior space types of apartment housing were divided according to chronical change. Five kinds of space (entry space, main pedestrian space, auxiliary pedestrian space, building surroundings space, and playground space) were designated to enable comparison analyses between green-space percentages of the apartment complex in both the Dunsan and Doan areas. Five exterior spaces and 22 apartment complexes in the Dunsan area and in the Doan new urban area were photographed. This study serves as a basic exploratory study to derive the baseline Index of Greenness results of traditional area and new urban area, addressing the lack of such research on the residential facilities. The study also analyzed differences between the two greenness indexes with respect to shape and space. Compared with the average rates of index of greening in traditional areas and new urban areas, Doan (a new urban area) showed an Index of Greenness rate of 34.1%, and Dunsan (a traditional area) showed an Index of Greenness rate of 40.5%, which was 6.4% higher. It is considered that the shape of each green space, the arrangement of various facilities, and the design of the spaces have a great influence on the differences of the Index of Greenness.

This study was carried out to evaluate the characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes emission as a function of airtight time in new apartment. Sampling was undertaken at 34 new apartments located in 4 different cities of Korea from February to November 2005. The measurement data were collected every one hour from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. toward increasing airtight time in a day. The concentrations of VOCs and aldehydes were analysed by GC/MS and HPLC method, respectively. These methods showed good sensitivity, linearity, and repeatability. In this study, the most abundant compounds at new apartments appeared to be toluene, m,p-xylene, formaldehyde and acetone. Moreover, the concentration variations at a closed rooms progressively increased by airtight time of 5 hours. Airtight time of new apartment was a most important and affective factor which influenced concentration change.

This study was undertaken to investigate the concentration of VOCs from newly built apartments in three cities (Suncheon, Yeosu, and Gwangyang) of Honam province in Korea. VOCs were sampled using canister and analyzed by GC/MSD. The result of the canister blank test showed that, most VOCs were not detected when 5 ppb was cleaned once and 10 ppb was cleaned with two times. In case of the replicate alalysis to check for the precision of GC/MSD, RSD values were found to be excellent at 6%. The upper floor of C apartment (25 pyong) showed the highest concentration of TVOCs at 3,235 ㎍/㎥. The average concentration of TVOCs was the highest in C apartment (25 pyong) as 1,833±1,217 ㎍/㎥. The average concentration of TVOCs in K (52 pyong) and S apartment (16 pyong) were 1,820±1,035 ㎍/㎥ and 498±71 ㎍/㎥, respectively. The I/O ratio of TVOCs were 8.99∼35.90 (mean : 25.99), 11.51∼35.43 (mean : 20.07) and 6.03∼7.90 (mean : 6.92) in K, C and S apartment, respectively. From these results, it is believed that the concentration of TVOCs was comparatively high in new apartment. Therefore, it is important to use low VOC emission materials to reduce the emission concentration of VOCs from in new apartment. It is hence necessary that a scientific study is performed to secure clean indoor air quality.

Building materials are composed of very complex chemical compounds. The aims of this paper are to investigate the emission concentrations of indoor pollutants from new apartment house and the emission variation patterns during 75 days. The average value of total volatile organic compounds(TVOCs) concentration was 3,768 ㎍/㎥ in five new apartments. Major VOCs included toluene, ethylbenzene, m,p-xylene and o-xylene. The average concentrations of each compound were measured as : benzene(58㎍/㎥), toluene (793㎍/㎥), ethylbenzene(438㎍/㎥), styrene(79㎍/㎥), m,p-xylene(1,210㎍/㎥), o-xylene(364㎍/㎥). The results indicated that the major VOCs from the new apartment were affected by building products such as on aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. TVOCs emission are characterized as high emission level at initial time (12,856㎍/㎥) and decreased through time. After a lapse of 75 days in sample house, TVOCs concentration decreased in about 20 times as compared with the initial concentration. The TVOCs emission profiles strongly depended on the generation mode and the concentration of the VOCs in building material.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the concentration of aldehydes from new apartments in three cities(Suncheon, Yeosu, and Gwangyang) of Chonnam region. The target apartments were within 3 months after the completion of construction. Aldehydes were sampled using 2,4-DNPH cartridge and analyzed by HPLC. Temperature and relative humidity were monitored continuously every one minute by digital temperature and hygrometer. As the concentration ratio of formaldehyde between back-up and front cartridge was 3.94 6.97%, the 2,4-DNPH cartridge method satisfied a breakthrough problem for the sample collection. The repeatability of retention time and peak area for HPLC were excellent as 0.5 and 1.5%, respectively. The upper floor of S apartment (16 pyong) showed the highest concentration of formaldehyde as 1,093㎍/㎥. The average concentration of formaldehyde was the highest in K apartment(52 pyong) as 1,045㎍/㎥. The average concentration of formaldehyde in S apartment(16 pyong) and C apartment(25 pyong) were 872.6㎍/㎥ and 737.5㎍/㎥, respectively. The I/O ratios of formaldehyde were 56.9 60.0(mean : 59.1), 37.9 43.3(mean : 39.8) and 18.3 29.3(mean : 23.3) in K, C and S apartment, respectively. Therefore, it is believed that the indoor concentration of formaldehyde was very serious in new apartment. From these results, it is important that building material which emit low indoor pollutant should be selected for new apartments. In addition, management program for indoor air, such as using an adequate amount of adhesives, should be considered and indoor optimum condition should be maintained in new apartments.

Recently, concern about Sick House Syndrome (SHS) has been increased in Korea. And it is suspected that formaldehyde (HCHO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are major factors for SHS. This study was surveyed the indoor air quality in new apartments in Korea. The HCHO and VOCs were measured at 90 sites and analysed by HPLC-UV and GC/MS, respectively. The range of HCHO concentrations at 90 sites were 9.39∼248.78㎍/㎥ and the mean value 105.41㎍/㎥ and the concentrations of HCHO at 42 sites (46.7%) exceeded the indoor air quality guideline (100㎍/㎥) in Japan. Among the 4 VOCs, toluene concentrations were the highest and the mean value 127.33㎍/㎥ and that concentrations at 12 sites (13.8%) were exceeded the indoor air quality guideline (260㎍/㎥) in Japan. There was a tendency which the longer the movement and measurement period is, the more the pollutants concentration is decreased. HCHO and VOCs concentrations of domestic results was similar to Japan's survey results in 2000.

The study is about variations in Carbonyl compounds concentration within apartment buildings according to pre-residence and residence. We consecutively investigated indoor air pollutants in 120 households in 6 cities at pre-residence and residence. Carbonyl compounds were collected using the 2,4-DNPH cartridge and were analyzed using HPLC. The carbonyls concentration of indoor air in the new apartments before occupation measured formadlehyde(76.0㎍/㎥), acetone(85.9㎛/㎥), acetaldehyde(13.8㎍/㎥). The carbonyls concentration of indoor air in the new apartments after occupation measured formadlehyde(233.1㎍/㎥), acetone(128.9㎍/㎥), acetaldehyde(29.8㎍/㎥), respectively. As a result, the mean concentration of carbonyl compounds within the pre-occupancy stage was lower than those of residence.

Indoor air quality is the dominant contributor to total personal exposure because most people spend a majority of their time indoors. Especially when indoor environments have sources of contaminants, exposure to indoor air can potentially pose a greater threat than exposure to ambient air. In this study, estimations of volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde emission rate in indoor environments of new apartments were carried out using mass balance model in indoor environment, because indoor air quality can be affected by source generation, outdoor air level, ventilation, decay by reaction, temperature, humidity, mixing condition and so on. Considering the estimated emission rate of volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde, it is suggested that new apartment should be designed and constructed in the aspect of using construction materials to emit low hazardous air pollutants.

The cost of the construction and management of new apartment buildings was evaluated using a monetary analysis and an emergy concept to provide a new perspective regarding the housing policy of Korea. The systems of analyses were typical apartment buildings with an area of 76.03㎡ per household in Korea built on the same size of land area. Three apartment buildings with different stories were evaluated and compared; 5-story, 15-story, and 20-story apartment buildings. The durable years of those apartments were assumed to be 40 years. The total cost of the construction and management of an apartment building was divided into three categories of construction, land purchase, and management. A 20-story apartment showed the highest cost and a 15-story apartment the lowest in the monetary cost analysis. In contrast, the emergy evaluation revealed a different pattern in the cost of construction and management, the cost increasing from a 5-story apartment to a 20-story one. This means that the higher the apartment constructed, the greater the cost in terms of real wealth. This result suggests that new evaluation methodologies like the emergy analysis should be used together with the monetary analysis to provide better insights on the national housing policy.