Architectural Catalogue - D.I.Y Urbanism Scenario of Hoehyeon

Yonsei University (YU), Department of Architectural Engineering, Seoul

Project idea

A sustainable development scheme for dealing typical old and deprived downtown districts such as Hoehyeon. Instead of a totalizing masterplan, I proposed a small tailor-made development based on bottom-up approach. It was intended to increase adaptability and flexibility in urban planning, which I believe is important in rapidly evolving urban life.

Project description

Prologue – Korea’s Urban Development and its approach
Korean urban planning is experiencing a paradigm shift. The previous redevelopment method in planning is noted to be a quick, large-scale, and top-down process. Controlled by capital and power, this type of development often leads to gentrification and displacement of the locals.
On the other hand, urban regeneration is promoted as an alternative to this exogenous approach. It is rather a sustainable method maintaining the physical urban conditions. It includes activities such as wall painting, repairing infrastructure, public programs such as a library, playground, and sports center. However, this approach seems to be quite passive to come up with a fundamental solution for physical urban conditions. In long-term, it cannot reach progress due to the lack of momentum.
Meanwhile, the urban planning governance system is shifting from a top-down approach to bottom-up approach engaging participation process. The local’s participation in planning implies empowerment, and it is an ideal way to raise the sense of community and reflect the actual needs of people. How can this participation process be encouraged in governance? What if the locals take the lead of development projects as in D.I.Y method? I suggest a gradual, small-scale urban transformation process based on a bottom-up approach as a compromise of two pillars of urban development.

Urban Development Scenario in Hoehyeon
How would Hoehyeon look like undergoing the redevelopment and the regeneration type of urban transformation? Allowing the redevelopment would result in a dense urbanscape full of highrise obliterating the traces of the old city. Meanwhile, the regeneration could preserve the spatial identity but has its limit for a long-term physical improvement of urban condition.

Hoehyeon Site Analysis
The site Hoehyeon-dong is a typical old downtown area in Seoul and a deprived residential district, where physical environment is troublesome. The existing urban fabric with high-density small housings and old narrow street was unsuitable for a modern lifestyle with vehicles resulting in poor walkability. Moreover, it complicated building reconstruction due to the incompatibility with the contemporary architecture law. Besides the hardware issue, there are software issues surrounding the atmosphere such as losing its cultural identity as sewing factory district, old red-light district turning into low-grade accommodation facilities, and lack of link between this new industry and the local economy. Hoehyeon is in need of a development that leads to both hardware(physical and environmental) change and software improvement.

Technical information

Strategy | Typology and Catalogue
An architecture catalogue with a new district plan is designed as a solution for the problems of the site. Especially tackling the hardware problem of poor walkability and the impossibility of individual building reconstruction, the catalogue is built in order to generate new paths throughout small development, which specifically is defined as ‘one or more lots going through reconstruction.’ The layers of catalogues define the process of new paths being created, the program and form of the architecture, and architectural elements that could be added like a widget. Each catalogue provides various typologies to choose from.

Scenario
The scenario of four cases of small-development shows how the bottom-up approach is possible. The architecture catalogue is accessible through an online platform in the local municipal website. When neighboring landlords wish to merge their lots and intend to renovate their buildings, they go online and click on ‘development consultation.’ Then, they meet up with the urban coordinator and decide how to replot and distribute the property and how to create a new alley. The Floor-Area Ratio(FAR), Building-Coverage Ratio(BCR), form, level, and building use is determined within the ‘new district plan.’ Next, the landlords, as a client, meet the architecture coordinator and start designing the building simply by going through the architecture catalogue. The role of the specialists is limited to coordination to promote autonomy in governance. This whole service is supported and directed by the municipal.

Vision: City with Allies
After 30 years, Hoehyeon will gradually transform into an urban context that is rich with allies. The new allies are like small veins clearing up the previous clogged urban tissue. In sum, the building coverage decreases but the gross floor area increases which meet the demand of the real estate profit. It is a sustainable way of urban development that can upgrade poor urban conditions and maintain the local identity, through simultaneously dealing software and hardware problems.