A Comparative Study on the Boundary Characteristics of Interface Spaces in Low-Rise Residential Areas along Continuous Streets - Focusing on Frontage Depth and Usage in Yangjae-dong and Shimouma -

Purpose: Previous studies on low-rise residential areas often focused on fragmented individual plots, failing to capture the continuous street experience. To overcome this limitation, this study shifts the analytical focus to the ‘continuous street’ context, comparing ground-floor interface spaces in Yangjae-dong, Seoul and Shimouma, Tokyo to identify how frontage depth variations construct different boundary characteristics. Method: Analyzing 24 (Seoul), 31 (Tokyo) buildings on comparable 180m continuous streets, this study applies an integrated analytical framework that extends previous indicators to the continuous street context, auxiliarily combining ‘frontage depth variation’ at 500mm units, ‘R:G:N (Red, Green, Not-colored) mapping’, and eye-level photograph analysis to explore ‘potential affordance’. Result: Seoul’s interface spaces present a rigid 0~1,500mm depth, heavily dominated by parking spaces (Red, 44.3%) that severely disconnect pedestrians. Conversely, Tokyo features more potential conditions for interaction with flexible depths of 0~3,500mm; this multi-layered variation accommodates abundant landscaping (Green, 25.3%) and informal elements, generating spatial affordances that invite social interaction. Ultimately, by proving that the monotony of individual plots accumulates into a disconnected street rhythm in Seoul, this study proposes micro-design guidelines for the 1.5m frontage to foster interaction-oriented streets.