Revealing the mechanism of urban morphology affecting residential energy efficiency in Seoul, Korea

This study aims to expand understanding of the urban morphology's role on residential energy demand beyond the previous approach that focused only on the direct effect of physical urban form. This paper suggests the importance of indirect pathways through which three morphological factors―namely urban spatial conditions, land use and architectural attributes―affect the thermal efficiency of residential buildings and then the energy demand. To verify the alternative mechanism of morphology, an empirical building-level dataset of a residential area in Seoul, South Korea was established and analyzed using a structural equation modelling method. The urban morphology models substantially explained the variation in the thermal efficiency of houses, revealing the indirect contribution of the urban design and land use characteristics via other variables as well as the direct contribution of the architectural attributes. For instance, unfavorable urban design conditions of a parcel were associated with substantial underutilization of land property, consequently delaying improvement in residential thermal efficiency. The expectation of redevelopment or the complex ownership of a property also hindered the reinvestment efforts. Policy implications derived from the results were discussed at the end of the paper.