The minimum dwelling approach by the Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Institute (HURPI) of South Korea in the 1960s

Abstract

While the Japanese legacy remained in Korean urban planning even after the country's independence following the Second World War, direct influence from Western countries became available through various aid programmes. Amongst planning-related programmes, the Asia Foundation's HURPI (Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Institute), led by Oswald Nagler, an urban planning consultant, was noteworthy in its experimental approach and influence. HUPRI's urban planning approach focussed on minimum dwelling studies which reflected Korea's housing traditions, culture and economic conditions, and expanded them to large-scale planning. Even though literature on modern Korean planning history has acknowledged HURPI, its minimum dwelling approach is rarely mentioned, mainly because of the lack of documentation. By recovering unpublished materials personally kept by HURPI members and interviewing key individuals, this paper identifies the contents and the meaning of HURPI's minimum dwelling approach in the history of architecture and urban planning in South Korea. Comparative analyses with Western precedents and works by other Korean planning agencies at the time are also considered in order to understand HURPI's approach, and to identify how imported architectural and planning methodologies responded to Korean local contexts.