FAR GAME

As everyone knows, Seoul is already very overcrowded. Nevertheless, the development pressure is still high. However, it is so difficult to make development under present regulations.

According to UN Habitat, Seoul population density is about 10,100 per square kilometers. As far as I know, the ESRi’s Headquarter is in California. Let Applying Seoul’s population density to California. It is 4.2 billion people. it means more than half of the world's population, Then what if it is Texas. One of the largest state in the U.S, it is about 7 billion people which means similar to the world's population.

You can see the population density in Seoul is very high compared to other regions.

The density of the city is controlled through floor area ratio regulation. Then what is the floor area ratio? Normally, It is abbreviated and called FAR, in Korean, it called 용적률

There is A four-story building which each floor area is 50, and a gross floor area is 200. FAR means total area by land area. Therefore, in this case, FAR is 200% . The higher the FAR, the wider the gross area compared to the land area, so the FAR can be seen as an indicator of the density of buildings.

Securing the maximum FAR is a prercondition for maximizing profits, and FAR is one of the measures of determining building value.

The beginning of urban density regulation through FAR begins in New York. Currently, the FAR in central New York is over 1,800% and the old downtown are over 500%. London has a citywide FAR around 500%. Surprisingly, the average of FAR in the Seoul commercial area is only 314%.

These figures show that Seoul's population density is very high compared to other large cities, and the also demand for space is high.

We confirmed that the application of the FAR varies depending on the zoning. Among them, the commercial area had a high FAR. Most of the commercial areas in Seoul are designated as general commercial areas, so the same FAR is set on 800% regardless of regional characteristics, but the realization area ratio varies depending on regional characteristics. For example we can find skyscraper in Gangnam easily, but It's hard to find in the historic downtown area. 

When we think of a commercial area, we often think of Gangnam. According to the 2030 Seoul Plan, Seoul is divided into 'HanyangDoseong', 'Yeongdeungpo, Yeouido' and 'Gangnam' and aims to strengthen global competitiveness. As a result, the commercial area is concentrated mainly in these three city centers.

Then we can ask ourselves, Why is the FAR in the historical area low? The reason for this is the existence of cultural heritage zones.

There are a total of 382 cultural heritages in Seoul, it is protected by the Cultural Heritage Protection Act. Among them, 189 cultural assets are located in Jongno-gu and Jung-gu. Look at the diagram. In case of the Seoul the Cultural Heritage Protection Ordinance recommends that the height be limited to 27° from a certain height based on the boundary of the Cultural Heritage Area.

What is the way to realize the unrealized FAR in downtown Seoul?

That is the Transferable Development Rights (TDR). In Korea, the relocation of the FAR can be realized by utilizing a system called combined architecture. The combined architecture was newly revised on January 8, 2021. This system has yet to be applied to our urban space.

TDR system is one of the compensates ways for losses incurred by land use regulations. The TDR allows the unused FAR to be moved to other areas. it is used as solution to place where cannot developed area due to regulations such as environmental protection and cultural heritage preservation. 

Case. One Vanderbilt Building in Manhattan

I brought the case of the United States to help understand. "One Vanderbilt," a new office building near Manhattan's Grand Central Station. This building is The second tallest building in New York . it created a new space in New York through TDR. It bought Air Right at Grand Central Terminal right next to the building.

The whole process of work is as follows.

Zoning data and Building data were combined to create the Building with landuse Data'by spatial join. Based on the Seoul Urban Planning Ordinance, FAR values were added, and outliers were then excluded. Based on the final Building data, L-FAR, D-FAR, and A-FAR were obtained. We use this data to proceed with the analysis. In this process, simulation sites are selected. At the same time, cultural heritage protection zones were obtained using cultural heritage data, based on this, Sending building was selected from Building data.

So far, it has been an explanation of the DATA preperation process. From now on, I will explain the next process. In Sending building, the 500m buffer find the receiving building. Since FAR is a ratio the gross floor area to Site area, Compared the site area between Sending & Receiving Building to find the minimum value. This process was carried out through repetitive syntax and applied to a total of 403 buildings. The resulting OPTIMAL TDR BUILDINGS were made into 3D LAYER by applying RULE created by CITY ENGINE and visualizing them through GIS ONLINE.

Conclusion

Large U.S. cities such as New York and Los Angeles have become difficult to develop due to high land prices, allowing them to buy and sell developable spaces through TDR.

Now that it is no longer possible to find developable land due to the spatial characteristics of Seoul, TDR will be an alternative to finding new development possibilities in Seoul, as in the cases of New York and Los Angeles.

Cultural properties are the assets of mankind that everyone must protect together. But our country has legally forced too many sacrifices to preserve its value.

I believed that TDR can serve as a tool to resolve conflicts over property rights violations of stakeholders around cultural assets and to guarantee development rights.

It is worth noting TDR as a way to solve these complex problems.