Recently, the Korean government suggested various measures for normalization of housing market and for stable revitalization of real estate market. Among them, as a method for revitalization of remodeling, the Revised Housing Act was initiated in the National Assembly with the main subject of vertical extension. The supply of the domain housing has been satisfied since the early years of 1990 with the increasing number of apartment houses, but the level of the national housing welfare has decreased because of the outdated conditions of apartment houses. The revised legislation was intended to solve these problems. Until now, Government did not approve vertical extension due to the safety requirements. Academic and Industrial sectors have suggested the possibility of vertical extension as long as the safety is closely checked in the process of design and construction. The core of the revised act in the revitalization is as follows. Permission of vertical extension for 2~3 floors on the wornout apartment houses dated over 15 years old could be momentum thrust as a driving force. Thus, the procedure of securing safety would be strengthened for resolving stumbling block.
In this edition, the authors discussed the contents of the revised act and the measures to provide solutions to the safety problem in the vertical extension. The government’s policy to allow the vertical extention can bring a positive effects for the wornout apartment houses dated over 15 years old. But with this present system, it could not guarantee the safety. In case of remodeling projects, a high technology to connect additional part to present part, so close examination of structural specialist should be requested in each process. Especially, most apartment houses in the new city have the flat plate structure that contains risks of chain collapse as happened to the Sampung Department Store. So the structural specialist should participate in the remodeling process.
In conclusion, the more detailed securing safety must be required because vertical extension could add additional load to the existing building. Therefore, a special law that has the final responsibility of architectural structure profession engineers rather than architects in existing law must be made. If this institutional support takes place, the market would be cultivated for the highest construction technology and would be helpful for securing construction technology competitiveness.