Design Elements in Apartments for Adapting to Climate: A Comparison between Korea and Singapore

Currently, almost 80% and 50% of Singapore’s and Korea’s residents, respectively, live in apartments. Despite their earlier unfamiliarity with apartments compared with traditional housing, they have accepted apartments for the convenience they offer and as a symbol of modernity. However, the climatic conditions of these countries are extremely different. Hence, this study first examined the critical regionalism that should be considered from the environmental context, such as the geography, climate, and topography, when building apartments. Reviewing the transformation process of apartments, we can determine the types of design elements and principles developed under different climatic conditions. The representative unit plans from 1960 to 2010 were collected for analysis from Singapore’s Housing and Development Board and the private sector in Korea. The analysis revealed that Singapore’s apartments have evolved to facilitate natural ventilation. Irregular unit forms, an atrium, and the location of the utility space are unique elements. The atrium-type apartment can be considered the most regionalized design. Conversely, in Korea, the focus is on heat gain and cross-ventilation, resulting in simple square-form units oriented toward the south and double enveloped by additional windows. The staircase-type apartment predominates. Thus, this study shows that apartments evolved differently in each country, resulting in unique regionalized forms primarily determined by climatic conditions.