Winter Ergonomics in Korea

The Weather Outside is Frightful

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Waking up on Dec 1 in Korea, I'm with a barrage of Christmas music and universal decorations that seemed to have popped out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong, I'm as big a fan of Mariah Carey's “All I want for Christmas is You” as the next person and I'm excited about the holiday season. Hot toddies, vacation days with family and friends, and general brisk energy that snowballs into the New Year.

• The Feels. Source

But there is one caveat for entering winter season on the streets of Seoul. It is cold.

I won't whine about it in deference of all the readers from Anchorage and Moscow, but it is nonetheless a bitter biting cold. Korea is a very mountainous landscape and there is a constant striking wind that weaves through the combinations of hills and high rises. In a country that prides itself on efficiency and livability, allowing this natural phenomenon to disrupt daily life and energy is absolutely unacceptable. And as such, Korea has a few unique tricks up its sleeves to combat what seems like an unforgivable mainstay.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

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First things first, something needs to be done about the wind. In a mega-metropolis like Seoul where people are constantly buzzing in and out of everywhere, it's hard to keep the heat in and the cold out. Most places compensate by cranking up the hot interior air but that's just a bit wasteful.

• Source: Pinterest

So you'll find a simple and elegant solution in most public buildings, residential towers, and subway entries. Every entrance is precisely two sets of double doors. You enter the first set on one end and continue through the other on the opposite end. The effect is similar to a revolving door where at virtually no point can air pass freely from one side to the other. There is a no-man's-land of warm aim in the middle that catches the cold draft in the winter and blocks AC from leaking too freely during the summer.

Easy!

Only when called upon...

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This one requires a little more tech but is also a no brainer. While roaming around Korea, I have been faced with very very few (none in recent memory) automatic doors. Even big-box retailers don't immediately welcome you in unless you perform one simple task – press a button. This little knob offers that little assurance that the person standing there indeed wishes to enter. If you think about it, the vast majority of people who pass by a major storefront has no intention to enter, yet an automatic system would open and close upon every pass. This releases both stored heat and valuable AC needlessly.

• Source: felicianeo2 Photobucket

Just like the responsiveness of Korean elevators, doors will open immediately only when you wish them to. I've definitely pulled a pigeon and walked right into what I thought would be intelligent glass, only to be met by an unrelenting shield that quietly asked for permission.

Distributing the Hearth

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I've saved the best and my absolute favorite for last. As an architect, I know that we often consider the “hearth” the warmest part of the home and filled with all the liveliness and sustenance to keep you going. This is characterized by living rooms and fireplaces, bright lights and frequent circulation. If you want to feel safe and warm, you stay in the hearth.

Koreans have revamped this assumption. Warmth is now distributed in an ingenious way – the ubiquitous floor. The heating is called an “Ondol,” historically a heating system that used oven heat and pushed it underneath an elevated floor. Today's version uses no fire of course, coursing electricity right beneath apartment floors to radiate from wood panels.

• Source: Korea Tech Blog

• The modern day version. Source: Blogule

This has a drastic affect on the experience of warmth in a home. It warms you up from your furthest extremities, your feet, and rises evenly in a room, very different from corner radiators that unevely distribute. I even sleep on the floor in my parents' home on layers of thick blankets and feeling the radiating rising heat on my flat back at night is enough to put me away for hours.

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There you have it, three hacks and innovations that keep Koreans lively and drinking through the winter. How do you and your culture deal with the cold? Let me know your thoughts below!