Evaluation of Color Status in the perspective of CPTED for Underground Parking Spaces in Apartment Houses

Abstract

(Background and Purpose) After the introduction of the concept of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) in South Korea in the 1990s, crime prevention building standards have been established and are currently being enforced. These standards are mandatory for buildings such as apartment houses. Recently constructed residential buildings' parking lots are mostly designed underground. However, underground parking spaces often have difficulty finding entrances due to repetitive modular spaces, and it is difficult to feel psychological safety compared to above-ground parking spaces due to limitations in daylight influx. Despite the heightened importance of crime prevention environmental design compared to other spaces, emphasizing crime prevention can sometimes lead to a lack of aesthetics. This study aims to investigate the current status of color schemes in underground parking lots of apartments constructed in areas designated for urban landscape planning and assess through emotional evaluation whether the colors applied in the parking lots effectively contribute to both aesthetic and crime prevention aspects. (Method) The research subject is recently constructed apartment complexes in a new city, where crime prevention building standards and underground parking color planning were applied through deliberation by the architectural committee. The research method is to first analyze the color distribution measured through on-site investigation, and then perform emotional evaluation for analyzing the color planning status. Secondly, the subjects were composed of a group of participants, including individuals without color perception difficulties who use underground parking spaces, and an analysis using SPSS was conducted with a 7-point Likert scale through a Google online survey. (Results) As an analysis result, firstly, three axes of aesthetic image factors were identified as 'modern and luxurious, fancy and lively, cool,' which revealed some differences compared to the urban landscape concept images to which the evaluation subjects belonged. Secondly, in terms of Psychological Safety, only 40% were evaluated as comfortable, and it was confirmed that they felt comfortable mainly when colors of high brightness and low chroma were used. Thirdly, in terms of Recognizability, only 50% were evaluated as clear, and evaluation targets with high brightness and high chroma were confirmed to have high recognition. (Conclusions) Despite the application of urban landscape concept images and crime prevention building standards, it was found that the color planning in underground parking spaces is still inadequate in terms of aesthetic image, psychological safety, and perceptibility. This is believed to be due to arbitrary color choices resulting from the absence of guidelines for color planning in crime prevention environmental design for underground parking spaces. It is hoped that through this study, follow-up research will be conducted to develop color guidelines for the CPTED aspects.