Seminar on Sound Mitigation Techniques in Aid of Revising the Housing Act to Allow Wood Structures for Small Apartment Construction
South Korea is the only country regulating performance requirements for heavy impact sound in multi-family housing. Under the current code, wood construction is being ruled out as a legitimate building system for multi-family housing as it’s not considered as adequate in limiting low-frequency sound between units.
As part of efforts to influence the reinstatement of wood structures as a viable multi-family method, the Korea National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS), the Korea Society of Wood Science and Technology (KSWST) and Canada Wood Korea jointly hosted a seminar for the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering (KSNVE) to shed light on some misperceptions about the sound performance of wood construction.
The April 27th seminar provided solid rationale as to why wood construction can deliver equivalent sound performance to conventional methods. The initiative is supported by 3-years of research conducted by the National Research Council of Canada. Canada Wood Korea, NIFoS and KSWST also provided solutions on the sound insulation measures 3for wood-frame structures and proposed code changes.