Modification of roof structure of the traditional wood houses in the urban area of daegu, korea during mid twentieth century

This study focuses on the roof structure modification of hanok, the traditional Korean timber frame house, in the central urban area of Daegu city, Korea during mid twentieth century. It is based on the 2 years survey of 10,753 cases of hanok architectures in this city. The urban sprawl and population growth gave an impetus to house builders developing new residential areas with modifing traditional plan and structure of hanok. Instead of traditional way, the wood house builders of this period choose simpler and cheaper roof structure for housing in the dense urban area. They wanted to make the familiar and popular image of tile-roofed traditional wood house using heavy timber frame with cheaper cost and shorter construction time for adapting to housing market. New method using sparsely arranged small square cross-section rafters was in fashion. Other roof type with short and asymmetric eaves was used at small sites. Some special houses have newly designed structure for long span, too. These modified wood houses shows that there were diverse needs at the housing market. But after this period wood house lost the popularity in the market as modern house building technology, and reinforced concrete construction was widely utilized.