Streets Of Seoul Research Articles

Pedestrian-path pavement materials to improve microclimate and air quality on current pedestrian paths

In this study, I investigated pavement materials to improve the microclimate and air quality of pedestrian paths on streets in Seoul, South Korea. Existing pedestrian-path pavement materials were assessed, and several pavement materials were simulated. Asphalt had greater air (Ta) and ground surface (Tg) temperatures than the granite pavement. The granite pavement had a greater mean radiant temperature (Tmrt) and physiologically equivalent temperature than asphalt. Asphalt had a 3.2-times higher sensible heat flux than the granite pavement. The granite pavement reflected approximately 3.9-times more radiation than asphalt and emitted lower NO2 and NOx concentrations than interlock blocks. The high-albedo granite pavement showed a low Ta, and the high-albedo granite pavement + grass showed a low Tg; these Ta and Tg values were lower than those of asphalt. The grass pavement had lower Tmrt and PET values, than the granite pavement. The high-albedo granite pavement exhibited an endothermic phenomenon during the day, whereas grass showed a high sensible heat flux due to an exothermic phenomenon. The granite pavement, with higher albedo, reflected approximately 2.7-times more radiation than the unmodified granite pavement. High-albedo granite pavement material had the lowest NO2 and NOx concentrations, which were lower than those of interlock blocks.

Exploring the association between environmental factors and fear of crime in residential streets: an eye-tracking and questionnaire study

ABSTRACT Fear of crime is one of the most significant factors affecting citizen’s quality of life. It isparticularly necessary to control the environmental factors that cause fear of crime in the neighborhood, as that is more worrisome. This study aimed to investigate women’s fear of crime in public streets in their neighborhoods and to identify the environmental factors that affect their fear of crime using a questionnaire and an eye-tracking experiment, respectively. Thirty participants watched four low-rise residential streets in Seoul and responded to a survey about their fear of crime. Through a multiple regression analysis, Factors such as “maintenance”, “pilotis”, “building entrance”, and “emergency bell” were found to largely influence fear of crime. This study contributes to the literature by identifying specific physical environment factors in parallel with eye tracking experiments, and our results have implications for future street design aimed at reducing the fear of crime.

Environmental factors affecting fear of crime among young women on streets in Seoul

ABSTRACT In modern society, the fear of crime and actual criminal activities influences the quality of daily life. Individuals vulnerable to crime are more impacted by its fear than its potential direct damage. This study aims to determine the factors affecting the fear of crime, experienced by women in open public spaces, which city dwellers use every day. We visited a specific area to survey the points, reasons, and intensity of this fear in 195 female pedestrians belonging to the age group of 20–29. After the data collection on factors influencing fear of crime (human factors, crime prevention facilities, and spatial structural factors), the effect of each element was analyzed. Through a step-by-step regression analysis, “human factors” and “crime prevention facilities” were found to largely influence the fear of crime in women. This study subdivided the demographic characteristics affecting the frequency and intensity of the fear of criminality. Thus, the study is expected to be used as a basis for instituting policies to reduce the fear of crime in women.

Places “for the gram”: Millennials, specialty coffee bars and the gentrification of commercial streets in Seoul

Commercial gentrification in contemporary cities is fed by the Instagrammable nature of a growing number and variety of consumption spaces. A prominent example is the rise of specialty coffee bars (SCBs), with their offline spreading and the impact of online ‘clickable aesthetics’ via Instagram. In-depth interviews and Instagram go-alongs with 17 female millennials in Seoul revealed that SCBs are often visited for their Instagrammable aesthetics and less so for the quality of the coffee. Taking pictures in “photo zones” is typical behaviour in coffee bars, often imitating symbolic images of place as proof of a successful visit. Moreover, the intertwined online and offline popularity of SCBs spurs the gentrification of commercial streets in Seoul neighbourhoods. It generates a growing dominance of replicated coffee bars lacking authenticity and drawing gentrifying businesses together in Instagrammable clusters. SCBs going viral may eventually result in the experience of “placelessness”, not only for affected local residents but also for visiting gentrifiers.Self-critical gentrifiers often stop sharing geotags to avoid further commercial gentrification of neighbourhoods and streets.

야경을 보는 열 가지 방식

The cultural landscape has served as a means of exploring the repertoires of cultural areas and cultural diffusion. Recent discussion features the thicket of analogies identified with new cultural geography as well as the rhetoric of performativity decreed by the affective turn. However there remains a critical caveat in that landscape interpretation has been pursued on the sole backdrop of daytime. Nighttime scenery has been muted with few attempt to interpret the real and symbolic meanings and consistently marginalized in landscape studies. It is the advent of 24-hour life style in tandem with the post-industrial consumer society that allows cityscape to see the light of night. In this article I try to test the plausibility of D. Meinig’s ten versions of an ordinary landscape by loitering along the streets of Seoul in an attempt to look into a diversity of everynight urban landscapes amid floods of incandescent electric lights. The journey conforms that Seoul’s nightscapes have multiple meanings of nature, habitat, artifact, system, problem, wealth, ideology, history, place and aesthetic in line with Meinig’s conceptualization. It is time to further the discourse by relying on such highly insightful metaphors as text, theatre, carnival, spectacle, ways of seeing, symbol, sign and icon.

From garbage to COVID-19: theorizing ‘Multilingual Commanding Urgency’ in the linguistic landscape

AbstractAcross the globe signage which conveys directives regarding appropriate behavior in public, such as ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, is made multilingual in ways that other signage is not. This paper examines two examples of multilingualism in directive signs within Seoul, South Korea in order to theorize what gives rise to multilingualism in directive signage while other signage remains monolingual. Examination of Vietnamese and Arabic on signs prohibiting the illegal disposal of household garbage on side streets in Seoul, and English, Chinese, and Japanese on mask-required due to COVID-19 signs within the Seoul subway system allows for a robust analysis of what shapes the inclusion of additional languages on directive signage. We posit the construction of a differently speaking other who is seen as likely to disobey stated regulations alongside the desire by authorities to minimize the effort required to respond to rule breaking results in amultilingual commanding urgencythat shapes multilingualism in directive signage. The concept of multilingual commanding urgency emphasizes the role enforcement practices have in shaping multilingualism, an important development in understanding this form of signage. Multilingual commanding urgency is especially relevant as it shapes signage deployed in emergency contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

서울시 ‘~리단길’ 골목상권 상가거래가격에 영향을 미치는 요인 분석*

‘~Ridan-gil’ is a similarly named commercial streets which has developed into a brand through social media. Though it is one of the benchmarking elements of street revitalization projects, such streets are indeed declining due to gentrification. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to identify the factors that affect the commercial property price of ‘~Ridan-gil’ side streets in Seoul. As a methodology, this study conducted a multiple regression analysis on the physical and social determinants of commercial property price shared between ‘~Ridan-gil’ side streets in Seoul. As the result, factors with positive correlation include ‘internet search frequency’, ‘the number of bus stops in range’, ‘the number of subway stations in range’, ‘floor area’, ‘floating population in range’, ‘building age’ and ‘main street oriented dummy’. Factors with negative correlation were ‘third-class small road dummy’ and ‘merchant-led dummy’. This study empirically analyzed how the characteristics shared between ‘~Ridan-gil’ side streets affected the commercial property price of the area. As the shared features between ‘~Ridan-gil’ do significantly affect the commercial property price, it is empirically proven that the similarly-named street do act as a brand. However, in terms of accessibility, there is few difference with other types of commercial districts or streets.

Pedestrianization Impacts on Air Quality Perceptions and Environment Satisfaction: The Case of Regenerated Streets in Downtown Seoul.

Previous studies have investigated the increased volume of pedestrians to establish success rates of the pedestrian-friendly policy after a street redesign intervention. However, few studies have focused on the effect of street regeneration on air quality perception and user satisfaction. The influence of the physical environment on street vitality may vary, depending on area context and regional factors. A comprehensive understanding of effective interventions could increase pedestrians’ satisfaction with their walking environment. This study examines the effect of pedestrianization on individuals’ air quality perception and satisfaction, based on three regenerated streets in Seoul, Korea. We analyzed data from 672 questionnaires administered after the pedestrianization project. We used a subset of variables in a binary logistic regression model to understand general determinants of user satisfaction toward their walking environment. Our case study contributes to the verification of pedestrianization effects on air quality perceptions. Results show that overall satisfaction could be acquired through positive perceptions of air quality, as achieved through pedestrianization of streets. Moreover, pedestrian satisfaction varies according to the purpose, activities and health-related behaviors and attitudes. The interrelationships between environmental health, activity, satisfaction and quality of life provide design insights to consider when implementing pedestrianization projects in the future.

The Gye, the No-Name Hair Salon, the Coup d’État, and the Small Dreamers

The Gye, the No-Name Hair Salon, the Coup d’État, and the Small Dreamers Jung Hae Chae (bio) I. THE WOMEN End of month. Here we are, together with the ladies of the First Home Ownership Gye, gathered at the no-name hair salon next to my grandmother’s house, and again you could tell who the hoarders, the cheaters, the coup d’état-ers were by watching them drop fiery spit-bombs at the organizer, an older lady who’d lost her husband in the war and hadn’t enough management sense to foresee the runaway who’d skipped town with an early payout—yet another gye to go bust that month. Always, the show went down at the neighborhood hair salon, which sat under the old gingko with its limbs hanging over the mud-swept streets like the twisted fingernails of a soothsayer, in that iodine-soaked one-room den with fly traps hanging overhead where I’d spent all my lazy afternoons, watching the ladies pretty up to a better version of themselves—a halcyon dream in this nation of amnesiacs. They’d welcomed me, the almost-mute five-year-old who always came wrinkled and clutched to her grandmother, into their lair. It was here at last they sat their weary selves down, loosened their hair from buns for their hours-long ajumma perms. It was here they sometimes cussed, sometimes cried—having left behind their wretched lives for the afternoon—about their drunken-crazed-butcher-knife-wielding husbands who’d dragged them by their hair through the playground just weeks before. It was here they dreamed their small postwar dreams. Outside, the soon-to-ignite military coup smoldered in the streets of Seoul. In 1970s South Korea, the era in which I grew up, just about every woman I knew and my mother knew and my grandmother knew belonged to a gye, a crude, early form of a savings club. A one- or two-year term, with a sky-high “interest rate.” Get in, get out, get house, get rich. Fast. Korean people are fast. Everyone, well, not everyone, but everyone watching and listening and feeling knew in the lowest substation of their gut that change was coming. And not a household-variety change but a mantle-shattering, sea-bottom-quaking kind of change. Like a tsunami descending on a beach resort for fat, rich tourists, except in the opposite direction. It was the tsunami of an opportunity for the poor, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the formerly colonized who lost nothing during the war because they’d started with nothing, the outermost fringe class of this war-torn, village-turned-nation, [End Page 135] this protoplasm of a society that South Korea was back then. You didn’t need to be the Yangban class—the patrician, the formerly powerful, the inbred class that had kept their privilege strictly gated for millennia—to get in on the real estate boom. No one could come in and confiscate your house while you slept, as they had under the old colonial rule. Real estate had become real again. Hello, property rights, nice to see you again. I don’t know who was the first woman to invent this get-rich-quick scheme dressed up as savings and loans, but it was always and only women who ran the local gyes. In the shadows of a colonial past, reeling from the wreckage of a war that had splintered their land and souls in half, it was the women who were the most eager to mend, rebuild, or crowd-source their people. It was the women who would save their households and their husbands, chronically unemployed and drunk, and free the people from poverty and the violence that came from poverty, assuage their shame/sorrow/self-reproach—the trifecta of the dispossessed people—and their once broad-chested idealism and whatever other ills that had made them go mad or turn up as perverts in playgrounds. It was the women who would pay for their children’s college tuition, put the down payment on the thousand-dollar apartment that would go on to become a million-dollar property in...

Comparing associations among sound sources, human behaviors, and soundscapes on central business and commercial streets in Seoul, Korea

This study focuses on how urban functions influence the soundscape in streets by exploring associations among human behaviors, soundscape, acoustic indicators. On-site soundscape assessments were conducted in eight urban streets located in Seoul employing a soundwalk method. The eight streets were classified into two place functions: central business district (CBD) and commercial areas. Through the soundwalks, acoustic recordings and perceptual responses to soundscapes in the streets were collected. As a human behavioral indicator, crowd density was calculated in the streets. The results showed that place function plays a critical role in soundscape evaluation in urban streets. Pleasantness decreased with increasing Eventfulness on streets in CBD. In contrast, Pleasantness had a positive correlation with Eventfulness on commercial streets. This difference in the correlation could be attributed to the difference in the compositions of sound sources between central business and commercial areas. Traffic noise was the most dominant sound source in CBD, which increased Eventfulness and decreased Pleasantness of the soundscape in the streets. Meanwhile, sounds from human activities contributed to an increase in both Pleasantness and Eventfulness in commercial streets. Predictive models of soundscape reflecting the contexts of CBD and commercial streets were developed using acoustic parameters and crowd density. In the context of CBD, acoustic parameters describing spectro-temporal characteristics of traffic noise were important indicators, whereas crowd density was found to be a critical indicator to predict soundscape in the commercial streets. These findings could help in better understanding the relationships between the soundscape and place functions in urban streets.

The Design Characteristics of Street Fashion in Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo

This research aims to identify the design characteristics of street fashion between selected trendsetters in Asia and thus support Korean fashion designers’ efforts to attract international customers. It explores the cultural influence of Korean Wave including on other nations’ (such as China and Japan) fashion industries. To collect sufficient data, three main fashion streets in Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo were selected to undertake research development. The research methodology is based on a quantitative approach with a statistics method. The data about women’s clothing was used to underpin the analysis process. The analysis was based on four main attributes: style, silhouette, pattern, and color. To provide reliable data for constructing the analysis framework, the results are presented in a series of tables with respect to frequency. The key findings are as follows: in style, Jean and Easy Casual are identified as the most popular genres in the three cities; in silhouette, H-line is identified as the highest position in the three venues. Third, achromatic color tones obtained the highest preference in the three destinations. Lastly, “no pattern” had the highest frequency in all cities. It is hoped that Korean designers can use these results to develop their designs and expand their targeting of Chinese and Japanese consumers.

Diurnal Variations of Surface and Air Temperatures on the Urban Streets in Seoul, Korea: An Observational Analysis during BBMEX Campaign

In this study, we used an intensive observation dataset of a mobile observation vehicle (MOVE) to investigate the characteristics of thermal environments and diurnal variations of road surface temperature (RST) and air temperature, particularly at the urban street level, during the 2019 Building Block 3-dimensional urban Meteorological Experiment (BBMEX) campaign in Seoul. For the purpose of comparing characteristics of RST and air temperature with different surrounding thermal environments, we divided the road into four sections (S1: Open Section, S2: High-Rise Buildings, S3: Low-Rise Buildings, S4: Street Trees). This study demonstrates that the greater sky view factors (SVFs) are generally coincident with the greater RSTs, with a significance at the 5% level. The diurnal variations indicated that the time lag between observed maximum air temperature and RST has about one hour, which is attributable to an increase air temperatures above artificial pavement through heat convection with some latency. The diurnal temperature ranges (DTRs) of RST in S2 and S4 were relatively smaller than those of S1 and S3, with differences ranging from 2.9 °C to 4.5 °C. The current results will assist planners and decision makers in determining policy priorities with regard to urban street design and planning.

The Impact of PM10 Levels on Pedestrian Volume: Findings from Streets in Seoul, South Korea.

Although many studies have revealed that both air quality and walking activity are dominant contributors to public health, little is known about the relationship between them. Moreover, previous studies on this subject have given little consideration to the day-to-day atmospheric conditions and floating populations of surrounding areas even though most pedestrian count surveys are not conducted on a single day. Against this backdrop, using the 2015 Pedestrian Volume Survey data and quasi-real-time weather, air quality, and transit ridership data in Seoul, this study investigates the relationship between particulate matter (PM)10 and pedestrian street volumes empirically. The regression results suggest that PM10 concentration determines people’s intention to walk and affects the volume of street-level pedestrians. The three regression models, which adopted different spatial aggregation units of air quality, demonstrated that PM10 elasticity of pedestrian volume is the largest in the borough-level (the smallest spatial unit of air quality alert) model. This means that people react to the most accurate information they can access, implying that air quality information should be provided in smaller spatial units for public health. Thus, strengthening air quality warning standards of PM is an effective measure for enhancing public health.

Collective Subjects and Bodies in Alliance: Judith Butler on Public Assembly

Looking at recent assembles and mass protests, including the candlelight rallies over ex-president Park Geun-hye’s impeachment in the streets of Seoul, Korea, this paper aims to examine the performative ways assembling bodies claim rights and the roles of democratic assemblies in the making of a new collective, plural and relational subjectivity. I mainly refer to Judith Butler s recent books and articles for the development of my opinion. For this purpose, I investigate the roles precarity plays in various assembles and contemporary forms of economic abandonment that follow from the differential distribution of precarity. Then, after showing what separates the democratic assemblies of bodies from the U.S Tea Party crowds or Korean Taegeukgi Rally composed of far-right groups, I try to show lives and bodies are interconnected to one another and how bodily acts become performative. Finally, rethinking the bodily dimensions of the “becoming-collective-subjectivity,” I suggest the significance of assembly as performative and relational subjects in alliance in which people are “exercising a right to appear” and open up time and space outside and against the established regime.

Analyzing Thermal Characteristics of Urban Streets Using a Thermal Imaging Camera: A Case Study on Commercial Streets in Seoul, Korea

Due to continuing city growth and global warming over the past decades, urban heat island (UHI) effects, referring to the phenomena wherein the ambient air temperatures in cities are higher than those in rural areas, have become a serious threat to urban populations. Impervious surfaces, buildings with low-albedo materials, and a lack of vegetated areas are the major causes of poor urban thermal environments, particularly during the summer. Previous research has focused primarily on the thermal characteristics of individual building units. Few studies consider the impact of the street-scale thermal environments on the surface temperature, which affects pedestrian thermal comfort. The purpose of this study is to analyze the thermal characteristics of various physical elements on urban streets using thermal imaging cameras, and present policy implications for improving pedestrian thermal comfort. This study examines street-scale thermal environments of three major commercial streets: Garosu road, Serosu road, and Narosu road, in Seoul, Korea. This study conducted field measurements both during the day and the night in June 2017 in order to investigate changes in the urban surface temperatures across time. The results show that street trees are the most effective mitigation element for reducing surface temperatures. With regard to building use types, the highest surface temperatures are typically measured near restaurant buildings. Building façades that are dark-colored or partially covered with a metal contribute to high surface temperatures. Similarly, the temperatures of artificial turf or wooden decks on urban streets are also significantly high during the daytime. The thermal characteristics of various urban street elements should be considered to reduce the surface temperature and mitigate the urban heat island effect.

Foundation for a smoke-free world

The current and future health effects of smoking are well described. More than 7 million deaths per year are attributable to smoking, and projections suggest 1 billion deaths this century. 1 WHOWHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017: monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. World Health Organization, Geneva2017http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_report/en Google Scholar Over a decade ago, in my role to facilitate the establishment of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), I warned about the potential for complacency in the years following the FCTC's adoption. 2 Yach D Injecting greater urgency into global tobacco control. Tob Control. 2005; 14: 145-148 Crossref PubMed Scopus (12) Google Scholar We knew that implementation of the FCTC would take decades, and that it would be challenged from the outset by constrained funding, shifting priorities and political will, weak human and institutional capacity, and continuing opposition from the tobacco industry. Tobacco control: a Foundation too far?Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable mortality worldwide and is responsible for more than 7 million deaths each year. In today's issue of The Lancet, we publish a Viewpoint describing the mission and goals of the recently established Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris International. Led by former WHO executive director Derek Yach, the Foundation, whose aim is “to eliminate cigarette smoking worldwide”, will receive US$1 billion in funding over the next 12 years. Full-Text PDF Towards a smoke-free world? Philip Morris International's new Foundation is not credibleSmoking causes more than 7 million deaths each year1 and tobacco companies have known, since at least 1950, that their products are lethal and addictive. Now Philip Morris International (PMI) is committing nearly US$1 billion over 12 years to the Philip Morris Foundation for a Smoke-Free World that will “fund scientific research designed to eliminate the use of smoked tobacco around the globe”.2 In a Lancet Viewpoint in this issue, the Foundation's President Derek Yach argues it will support “an unswerving focus…to improve public health and human wellbeing”. Full-Text PDF Condemning industry attempts to subvert public policy for a tobacco-free worldThe World Heart Federation, alongside its partners in the Global Coalition for Circulatory Health, condemns outright the launch of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World,1 which is a vehicle for the tobacco industry. Full-Text PDF Department of ErrorYach D. Foundation for a smoke-free world. Lancet 2017; 390: 1807–10—The third sentence of the second paragraph of this Viewpoint should have read “Nonetheless, the capacity of developing countries remains threatened by the growing health and financial burden associated with behavioural risk factors contributing to non-communicable diseases.” with a revised citation from Bollyky TJ, Templin T, Cohen M, Dieleman JL. Lower-income countries that face the most rapid shift in noncommunicable disease burden are also the least prepared. Full-Text PDF Nuclear war and public health: rebalancing priorities and global health leadershipRecently, the North Korean nuclear and missile crisis has gripped international media headlines.1 In the streets of Seoul, the vast majority of civilians remain remarkably calm, confident that this threat will pass like those of the past. Yet, complacency would not serve an excuse in the face of war by either intention or tragic miscalculation. By then, the silence of the global health community will likely be seen as an opportunity missed. Why does it remain silent? Perhaps the community feels out of its depth in an area of competence of the UN Security Council—surely they must know what they are doing? Full-Text PDF

Pedestrian Path Choice with Diagonal Streets

The aim of this study is to investigate pedestrian path choice between diagonal and straight streets. We selected 16 streets including both straight and diagonal streets in Seoul for this study. We then investigated the environments and structures of these streets and surveyed pedestrians about which streets they would choose when they had no destination. First, the participants tend to choose diagonal streets. Second, street angle and street width were identified as the structural factors that had the strongest effects on path choice among diagonal streets. Some environmental factors were also found to be significant: presence of sidewalk, road pavement type, commercial use, presence of street trees, and use of the acute angle plot at an intersection. Overall, the results indicated that some structural and environmental factors associated with diagonal streets affected the pedestrian path choice.

Characteristics of Commercial Gentrification and Change in Perception of Placeness in Cultural Districts : The Case of Samcheong-dong and Sinsa-dong Streets in Seoul

As commercial gentrification has recently become a social concern in Korea, this study attempts to provide quantitative empirical evidences on how commercial gentrification progresses and how it affects visitors’ perception of placeness in cultural districts. The study area is Samcheong-dong and Sinsa-dong streets in Seoul and the spatio-temporal data are collected from internet media. In physical aspect, intertemporal changes in land/building uses including store types are characterized by hierarchical order: In the streets of relatively low level of commercialization with small number of visitors, non-commercial use including housing, neighborhood/local retail stores, and culture-related facilities have converted into independent stores (new entrepreneurial retail), while in the streets of relatively high level of commercialization with large number of visitors, independent stores have been converted into standardized stores (corporate retail). In cognitive aspect, with conversion of independent to standardized stores, the district’s collective image comprised of streets and cultural/commercial activities has been fragmented into individual image limited to particular store or commodity, wheras place image has changed from ‘beautiful’ to ‘famous’ place. Policy implication is derived focusing on the issues of displacement of small business and loss of placeness resulted from the commercial gentrification.

The Seventeenth-century Transition of Seoul′s Spatial Structure to Functional Pragmatism

This paper explores the functional pragmatism embedded in the transformation of feudal Seoul′s urban structure. Using historic maps drawn between 1751 and 1914 and an analytical method of space syntax, the paper documents changes in the distribution of major administrative buildings and streets in Seoul (″Hanseongbu″) during the Joseon Dynasty. The results indicate that administrative buildings such as palaces, royal villas, economic authority buildings, and military headquarters were relocated along major commercial corridors such as Jongro and Namdaemunro Boulevard during the period. Based on a geographical information analysis, Jongro showed the highest street integration value over time, followed by the southwestern part of the city, because of the overlap between commercial boulevards and administrative buildings. The results suggest that the principle of urban design in which government districts were separated from commercial areas was incrementally abandoned during the late Joseon Dynasty. This functional merging was encoded into the shaping of contemporary Seoul instead of following the old Chinese regulation of urban-form making.

Seoul Flâneur? Breathless and Café Noir

This article tests out the feasibility of identifying the ‘flâneur’ as a mode of observation or being, in contemporary South Korean cinema and explores the extent to which the flâneur may illuminate the relationships forged between characters and the urban space of Seoul in the two films: Breathless (Ddongpari, Yang Ik-june, 2008) and Café Noir (Kape neuwareu, Jeong Seong-il, 2009). The two ‘romantic’ couples in these films walk the streets of Seoul, only to discover their inherent inability to socially integrate and fulfil romantic desire. I pay particular attention to the presentation of two locations – the streets of the tourist district Insadong in the former, and the newly renovated and gentrified Cheonggyecheon stream area in the latter – and examine how neither ‘traditional’ nor modern spaces allow for emotional satisfaction for the protagonists.