Lighting Environment in the Outdoor Space of Apartment Complexes

Abstract

This study aims to identify the current state of night outdoor-lighting environments for apartment complexes in Korea in order to provide ways to improve that environment. Field studies of two apartment complexes were conducted to measure physical environments and analyze the psychological assessment results. The physical environments were measured with horizontal illumination, and the psychological assessments were carried out with a survey of students using the semantic differential method (SD method). The study was conducted from November 2015 to January 2016. The study results were as follows. The mean illuminance at the complex entry, square, pedestrian paths, exercise facility, and children’s playground did not meet the standard illuminance of the KS illuminance criteria. The assessment result on location and sense of security revealed that the complex entry and building entry were safe, which was a positive assessment; however, the pedestrian path, square facility, and childrens playground were felt to be insecure, which was a negative assessment. The assessment of sense of security according to gender showed that female students felt more insecure than male students. The factor analysis result showed that four factors were derived from each apartment: security, activity, openness, and glare for the S apartment complex, and brightness, security, activity, and openness for the I apartment complex.