Housing Site Development and a Shift in Urban Architecture at Mok-dong in seoul

Abstract

The background, processes and characteristics of changing urban planning paradigms in Seoul can be seen as an essential constituent of Seoul’s urban studies. This paper discusses the transformation of urban form and architecture in Seoul in the 1980s brought on by the emergence of Housing Site Development(HSD), the last major urban planning tool introduced in Korea. Using Mok-dong in Seoul as a model, since it is the first development project based solely on HSD principles, this paper first reviews the socio-political background and characteristics of the HSD project. Second, the macro-spatial structure and micro-urban fabric of Mok-dong are analyzed and compared with an adjacent area constructed under the previous major urban planning tool-Land Readjustment(LR). This analysis combines an understanding of the programmatic architectural requirements with an awareness of the external urban circumstances in Seoul in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of the character of Seoul’s urban architecture. While the Mok-dong plan was based on the winning scheme from a public design competition, the detailed land use plan and land subdivision plan saw significant divergence from the original scheme as a result of economic changes and market demand in the city. The geometric qualities of the land ‘grid’ found in LR development projects disappeared in the HSD layout of the apartment complex(danji), while the grid patterned blocks and plots in the business and commercial districts were significantly augmented. The increase in scale of the urban components yielded larger and higher building typologies. Consequently, the medium-rise buildings in the more compact LR areas of adjacent Sinjeong-4-dong stand in sharp contrast to-and perhaps even in the shadows of-the high-rise apartments and the business and commercial towers at Mok-dong. There, the relationship of the buildings to street orientation is linked to the divergence of ‘thin’ and ‘thick’ building plans, where narrowing and elongating was favored in the apartment buildings, while squaring or ‘thickening’ was preferred for the commercial buildings. These morphological findings may not point directly to an alternative conceptualization of urban architecture, but they could be the foundation on which to build a theory about Seoul’s architecture and urbanism as it relates to the lived identity of the city.