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ABSTRACT
More than half of the population of Seoul lives today in mass housing estates due to the housing policies initiated by the South Korean developmental regime. This paper aims to assert the degree of typomorphological innovation introduced by the large-scale construction of mass housing in the capital during the second half of the twentieth century to situate their contribution to modern housing. Twelve case studies have been redrawn according to eight morphological categories and compared through a timeline. The study period is structured in four phases to contextualize the cases with the socio-political background and broader housing architecture and planning developments. Stephen V. Ward’s typology of diffusion of modern planning concepts has been adopted as a conceptual framework to evaluate the degree of innovation. The research shows how site planning strategies based on parallel rows of housing blocks were consolidated as the most common morphology in the 1970s under the leadership of the public housing authority. A brief but intense period of innovation followed during the 1980s featuring clusters catering to community-building agendas. Nonetheless, the shift towards the private sector at the end of the decade curtailed housing innovation, and original solutions developed earlier were standardized by the market.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Kim et al., The Far Game, 41.
2 Gelezéau, Séoul, Ville Géante, 171.
3 Seoul Development Institute, “Housing and Construction,” 3; and Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs for 2001–2010.
4 Seoul Center for Housing Policy Development.
5 Martin, Art of Inequality, 10.
6 Korean Housing Corporation, [KNHC Housing Complex Summary] 1954–1970, 1971–1977, 1978–1980, 1981–1982; Land and Housing Corporation, [2010 Year Book]; [Research on Urban Development].
7 Korean Housing Corporation, “주택 House & Home.”
8 Cheong, [Sociology]; [Micro-History]; [History of Space].
9 Kang, “Republic of Apartments.”
10 Kim, [Seoul's Citizens Apartments].
11 Lim, [50 Years of Housing Planning].
12 Jang and Park, [Beginnings of Apartments].
13 Park, [Cultural History of Apartments]; [Gene of Housing in Korea 1 & 2].
14 Kim, [Seoul Solutions].
15 Park, [Apartment in Korean Society]; [Apartment: A Society].
16 Kim, “High Density Dilemmas,” 3.
17 Sohn, “Changes in Residential Features.”; Jung, Architecture and Urbanism.
18 Seoul Solution, “Housing.”; Kim, “Comparing Housing Policies”.
19 Ha, “Endogenous Dynamics.”; Kyung, “State-Facilitated Gentrification”; Kim, “Inner City Growth.”
20 Ham and Lee, “Topological Transitions.”
21 Kim, “Changes in Urban Planning Policies.”; “High Density Dilemmas.”; “Housing Site Development.”; Jung, “The South Seoul Plan.”
22 Kim, “Property-Based Interests.”
23 Gelezéau, Séoul, Ville Géante.
24 Lett, Pursuit of Status.
25 Moudon, “Role of Typomorphological Studies.”
26 Kang et al., [History of Collective Housing in Korea].
27 Hwang, “Morphological Consequences.”
28 Aymonino et al., Città di Padova.
29 Conzen, “Alnwick, Northumberland.”
30 Muratori, Storia Urbana di Venezia; Storia Urbana di Roma.
31 Moudon, “Urban Morphology.”
32 SDI, “Housing and Construction,” 3.
33 Bae, “Family Structure Changes Fast.”
34 Noh, “S. Korea's Population Decline”.
35 Kim et al., The Far Game, 24.
36 Ward, “International Diffusion,” 40. Ibid., 43.
37 Ibid., 42.
38 Ibid., 43.
39 Moudon, “Urban Morphology.”
40 Seoul Development Institute, “Housing and Construction.”
41 Sohn, “Changes in Residential Features,” 256.
42 Ibid, p. 257.
43 Kim, “Land Readjustment Program”.
44 Ward, “International Diffusion,” 44.
45 Ibid., 47.
46 Ferretto, “Fragmentary Thoughts.”
47 Aymonino, L'abitazione Razionale.
48 Sohn, “Changes in Residential Features,” 268.
49 Gelezéau, “Changing Socio-Economic Environments,” 320.
50 Sohn, “Changes in Residential Features,” 268.
51 Ibid., 272.
52 Bodiansky, “Charter of Habitat.”
53 Ward, “International Diffusion,” 46.
54 Seoul Development Institute, “Housing and Construction.”
55 Sohn, “Residential Features,” 277.
56 Ibid., 278–79.
57 Ward, “International Diffusion,” 47.
58 Sohn, “Changes in Residential Features,” 278–79.
59 Yu, “New Town Developments,” 8.
60 Kim, “Unsold Apartments.”
61 Smithson and Smithson, Urban Structuring.
62 Madden and Marcuse, In Defense of Housing.
63 Nasr and Volait, Urbanism; Cherry, Shaping an Urban World; Healey and Upton, Crossing Borders.
64 Said, “The World.”
65 Lu, “Travelling Urban Form,” 370.
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Marc Brossa
Marc Brossa is an architect and urbanist trained in Barcelona and New York. Through practice, pedagogy and research, he is invested in addressing the challenges and opportunities of urbanization and exploring scenarios for new relationships between social practices and the physical context. His PhD thesis explores the typology of mass housing estates in Seoul as a tool for city-making specific to the period of extreme economic growth known as the 'Miracle of the Han River'. By delineating the processes that rendered this phenomenon possible, the research addresses fundamental questions about the reinterpretation of urban and architectural paradigms from the Modern Movement in the nation-state building efforts of the second part of the XXth century, the construction of Korean modernity and agency in contemporary city-making. The research was included in the Korean Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, awarded the Golden Lion of the Biennale. He currently serves as an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Seoul (UOS), South Korea. He has extensive experience in urban interventions with firms at the forefront of the landscape and urbanism disciplines, such as Jornet-Llop-Pastor in Barcelona, StoSS LU in Boston or Field Operations in NYC.