Today’s residential areas in Seoul experienced numerous changes in its appearance. The previous residential areas showed aspects of being developed into large scale apartments or commercialized due to unbearable pressure for development during the u...
Today’s residential areas in Seoul experienced numerous changes in its appearance. The previous residential areas showed aspects of being developed into large scale apartments or commercialized due to unbearable pressure for development during the urban expansion process represented in the period of liberalization, the Korean War, and urbanization and industrialization in the 60s. However, the natural urban growth process generally accepts the changes and finds its point of revolution from the microscopic difference.
This study observed and analyzed the microscopic changes, architectural aspects, and the process of formation of Haebangchon in Yongsan-dong 2ga in Seoul which remained as low-rise single-family housing due to physical and economic conditions such as Namsan Mountain, US Army Base in Yong san and 3rd Namsan Tunnel while numerous other squatter areas in Seoul were developed into apartments.
The residential areas in Haebangchon had autogenous characteristics from the beginning of its formation. Its architecture and the residential areas have experienced changes from late 70s to early 90s due to Yongsan First Self-Help Redevelopment. Also the physical characteristics of Haebangchon as hillside are the frame determining the form of residential areas and architecture. Therefore this study aimed to identify the typologies and architectural aspects from the relationship of physical structures.
The research scope was 23 individual buildings from the southeastern side of Haebangchon which is house numbers of 11~44. The site was observed microscopically and the typologies and architectural aspects were analyzed. Based on this, the results of this study can be summarized as follow.
First is the size of the site. The average land parcel area of the small blocks belong to the 23 selected buildings are abut 137.7㎡ whereas the average area for single family housing was 133.2㎡ which is larger than the minimum land parcel area, 76.03㎡ applied to the Self-Help Redevelopment. Assuming that the streets and land parcels of the research subject sites remained unchanged in terms of urban fabric, the redevelopment was conducted larger than 76.03㎡. This size was about 33.06㎡ smaller than the minimum land parcel area of the Young dong district in Gangnam, 165㎡, which was built through Land Readjustment Project.
Second is the horizontal and vertical plan size. The 23 selected subject buildings had average of 76.03㎡ of basement space which was split into small household such as single-family housing for residential purpose. The average household area of the first floor was 61.49㎡ for single-family and multi-family which was larger than multiplex housing(about 39.67㎡). Also, the single-family and multi-family had entry and arrangement based on the 1st floor with minor changes in the plan structure of different floors but multiplex housing had same horizontal and vertical plan structure.
Third, each building had different the location of arrangement, entry, and front gates depending on the different street slopes and types of site frontage. Majority of the buildings had the front door near the entrance by using the street level responding to the street and direction.
Fourth, the research sites experienced general transformation of the residential area which was the transformation from single floor housing to 2~3rd floor housing with basements. The development took place gradually over long period(15 years). Therefore it was possible to compare the changes before and after emergence of multi-family housing. Such comparison was possible because of the existing apparent differences of plan structure between multi-family housing and single-family housing, which still remains. The integrated transformation could be explained through the changes of stair(street). The changes in stair(street) was that exterior independent stairs connecting the housing were gradually integrated into internal stair in the order of single-family housing>multi-family housing>mixed-use housing>multi-family housing. The single-family housing showed different aspects for the transformation of stair(street) with installation of exterior stair later due to interfacial separation. Also, the different conditions of each site showed different aspects depending on the internal factors.
The above 4 results of this study can be summarized into the scale of urban fabric, the inherent architecture, and microscopic architectural changes. The Haebangchon remained as foreign area in the midst of the centers of change having the importance as the case of residential area in Seoul.