Social relations of urban design in the development process : an institutionalist account of the urban design process in a Korean residential development process

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study is concerned with understanding urban design decision-making processes in the context of a residential development process. It aims to explore how the urban design process works within the development process to shape a particular urban form employing an institutionalist approach and to explain why the urban form in a residential area is as it is.
It argues that urban design is a social process in which various actors interact with each other to make urban design decisions. In addition, it argues that urban design is an integral part of the development process because urban design decisions are intertwined with decisions made by a range of actors involved in the development process.
It proposes an institutionalist approach to an understanding of the urban design process, which combines an institutionalist approach to the analysis of social processes and an institutional model of the land and property development process. The approach highlights urban design as an interactive process between many participants. It puts emphasis on the embedding of the urban design process in a wider social context and at the same time on the active processes by which individuals involved in the process construct their ways of designing urban spaces. Accordingly the institutionalist approach emphasises an understanding of agency and structure in the urban design process, focusing on the resources, rules and ideas which the actors acknowledge, as a way forward to a richer understanding of the process. It also emphasises an understanding of power relations between actors involved in the process to see whose interests the urban design process serves and privileges over others.
Drawing on the institutionalist approach, this study carried out a case study on the urban design process of a Korean residential area, the urban form of which is characterised by high-density and high-rise apartment blocks, by lack of variety and interest in building forms, and by unpleasant open spaces. The result of this study shows that there was an imbalance of power between participants in the urban design decision-making process and that the central government, the private housebuilder and the urban designer were key actors in shaping the urban form. Users or consumers of the built environment were completely excluded from the urban design decision-making arenas. As a result, the urban design process was driven by producers rather than by users or consumers of the built environment so that the urban form might privilege the interests and strategies of the former over those of the latter.
The detailed analysis of key actors' interests and strategies with respect to urban design and of the power relations between them discloses that they are embedded in the particular social context within which design decision-making took place. It reveals that the ways in which individual actors perceive their interests and develop their strategies and the ways in which the power relations between them evolve are structured by six significant driving forces within the broader political, economic and historical context. On the basis of this observation, this study argues that the social driving forces structure the urban design process and produce the distinctive urban form. At the same time, it argues that the powerful structuring forces are actively made by individual actors as they acknowledge them in developing and pursuing their interests and strategies in the urban design process. Therefore, if individual actors are sufficiently aware of the structuring constraints bearing on them, they can attempt to improve the urban design process by changing the flow of resources, changing the rules, and by changing the conceptions of the quality of the built environment.
This study seeks to increase the understanding of the actual urban design process within the residential development process and provide insights into details of the social relations of urban design while linking them to broader issues at the level of macro economic and political organisation. It will provide a robust knowledge basis for debate on urban design policy evaluation and the practice of urban design. Sufficient knowledge of the urban design decision-making process will enable the development of urban design strategies to influence effectively public and private decisions in the development process in order to realise a better quality of our built environment.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Contents = v
• Part 1 URBAN DESIGN AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS = 1
• Chapter 1. Introduction = 2
• 1. What is this study about? = 2
• 2. Existing studies on procedural aspects of urban design and their limits = 3
• 3. Research aims = 5
• 4. What benefits can be expected from the study? = 6
• 5. Outline of the thesis = 7
• Chapter 2. An Institutionalist Approach to Urban Design = 10
• 1. Introduction = 10
• 2. Urban design as a social process = 10
• 3. An institutionalist approach to the social process = 16
• A. New institutionalism = 16
• B. Individuals as relational beings = 17
• C. Interrelationship between structure and agency = 19
• D. Social constructivistic view of the social process = 21
• 4. Power relations in urban design = 22
• 5. Urban design as an integral part of the development process = 27
• 6. Conclusion: An instituionalist account of the urban design process = 28
• Chapter 3. Urban Design and the Development Process Models = 32
• 1. Introduction = 32
• 2. The models suitable for exploring the urban design process = 32
• 3. Assessment of the development process models = 33
• A. Equilibrium models = 35
• B. Event-sequence models = 36
• C. Agency models = 37
• D. Structure models = 39
• E. Structure and agency models and structure of provision models = 41
• F. Summary = 43
• 4. An institutional model of the development process = 45
• A. Approaches combined into the institutional model = 45
• B. The proposed model = 46
• C. Utility of the model for exploring the urban design process = 50
• D. Critiques of the model = 54
• 5. Conclusion = 58
• Chapter 4 Analytical Framework for the Urban Design Process = 60
• 1. Introduction = 60
• 2. Description of the development process = 61
• 3. Assessment of the urban design product = 62
• 4. Analysis of the urban design decisions = 66
• 5. Analysis of agencies = 68
• 6. Assessment of the interests and strategies of actors = 70
• 7. Driving forces that govern the urban design process = 72
• 8. Conclusion = 74
• Chapter 5. Research Design and Methods = 76
• 1. Introduction = 76
• 2. Qualitative research = 76
• 3. Case study = 78
• A. Why a case study? = 78
• B. Design of the case study: a holistic single-case study = 79
• C. Unit of analysis = 80
• 4. Data collection; research methods = 82
• A. Documents (Dt) = 82
• B. Interview (I) = 82
• D. Participant observation (Po) = 83
• E. Drawings (Dw) = 84
• F. Archival records (Ar) = 84
• G. Direct observation (Do) = 84
• H. Physical artefacts (Pa) = 85
• 5. Conclusion = 85
• Part 2 A CASE STUDY
• Chapter 6. Development Context = 88
• 1. Introduction = 88
• 2. Regional context = 89
• 3. Context of the residential development = 91
• A. Housing Problems = 91
• B. Government Responses and their effects = 95
• C. Two million housing unit construction plan for 1988-1992 = 98
• D. Pungchon new town development = 101
• 4. Conclusion = 101
• Chapter 7. Urban Form as an Urban Design Product = 103
• 1. Introduction = 103
• 2. Pungchon before and after the development = 103
• A. Pungchon in 1988 = 103
• B. Pungchon New Town = 105
• 3. Urban form of the 13-3 site housing complex = 112
• A. Facts and figures = 112
• B. Urban form and its qualities = 113
• 4. Conclusion = 127
• Chapter 8. The Residential Development Process = 128
• 1. Introduction = 128
• 2. Chronological overview of the residential development = 129
• 3. The residential land development (RLD) process = 131
• A. Events in the RLD process = 131
• B. Main agents in the RLD process = 154
• 4. Housing development (HD) process = 162
• A. Events in the housing development process = 162
• B. Main agents in the housing development process = 170
• 5. Findings and conclusion = 174
• Chapter 9. Urban Design Decisions in the Development Process = 177
• 1. Introduction = 177
• 2. Features of urban design decisions in key events = 177
• 3. Urban design decisions and key events = 182
• A. Land use = 182
• B. Building form and massing = 189
• C. Circulation and parking = 195
• D. Pedestrian ways = 198
• E. Open spaces = 199
• F. Signage = 204
• 4. Findings and conclusion = 206
• Chapter 10. Key Actors, Roles and Power Relations = 211
• 1. Introduction = 211
• 2. Central government = 212
• A. Roles in the development process = 212
• B. Power relations with other key actors in the urban design decisions = 214
• 3. HHIDC = 218
• A. Roles in the development process = 218
• B. Power relations with other key actors = 218
• 4. KRIHS = 221
• A. Roles in the development process = 221
• B. Power relations with other key actors = 221
• 5. Anyang = 222
• A. Roles in the development process = 222
• B. Power relations with other key actors = 223
• 6. KLDC = 225
• A. Roles in the development process = 225
• B. Power relations with other key actors = 225
• 7. Conclusion = 227
• Chapter 11. Interests and Strategies in Urban Design = 231
• 1. Introduction = 231
• 2. The central government = 232
• 3. HHIDC = 235
• A. Maximisation of revenue = 235
• B. Development cost minimisation = 237
• C. Concern with user's preference and competition with other housebuilders = 242
• 4. KRIHS; Urban Design Team = 244
• A. Low FAR = 245
• B. Building form = 246
• C. Circulation and parking = 248
• D. Commercial and other facilities = 248
• E. Building layout = 250
• F. Open spaces and landscaping = 250
• G. Building colour and signage = 251
• 5. Anyang = 251
• 6. KLDC = 253
• 7. Conclusion = 254
• Chapter 12. Resources, Rules and Ideas = 258
• 1. Introduction = 258
• 2. Resources = 260
• A. Housing stock = 260
• B. Increased household income = 260
• C. Residential land = 261
• D. Profit = 262
• E. Expertise = 263
• F. Time = 263
• G. Public facilities = 264
• H. RLD finance and housing finance = 265
• I. Summary = 266
• 3. Rules = 267
• A. Two Million Housing unit Construction Plan 1988 -1992 (TMHCP) = 267
• B. RLD planning standards = 267
• C. Price regulations = 270
• D. Urban design control = 271
• E. Housing design standards = 274
• F. Pre-sale of land = 276
• G. Pungchon RLD policy = 276
• H. Summary = 277
• 4. Ideas and Values = 278
• A. Affordability = 278
• B. Political survival = 279
• C. Emphasis on efficiency = 280
• D. Emphasis on private indoor space = 281
• E. Conception of housebuilders as producers of commodities for profit = 283
• F. Conception of urban design and urban design control = 283
• G. Rising localism = 286
• H. Development gain for public use = 287
• I. Summary = 287
• 5. Conclusion = 289
• Chapter 13. Driving Forces in the Urban Design Process = 292
• 1. Introduction = 292
• 2. Driving forces = 294
• A. Industrialisation and urbanisation = 294
• B. Speculation in land and property and housing price inflation = 298
• C. Social, political and ideological crisis = 302
• D. Uneven regional development and capital region growth containment = 308
• E. Commodification of urban spaces and predominance of large housebuilders = 311
• F. Growing concern with quality of urban environment = 313
• 3. Conclusion = 315
• Part 3 CONCLUSION
• Chapter 14. Conclusion = 320
• 1. The features of the urban design process = 321
• A. Urban design is an integral part of the development process = 321
• B. Urban design is a social process = 322
• C. Imbalance of power relations between key actors = 322
• D. Key actors' interests and strategies manifested in the urban form = 325
• E. Embedded in a particular social context = 326
• 2. Why the urban form in the 13-3 housing site is as it is = 328
• 3. Implications of the study = 331
• A. Theoretical implications = 331
• B. Practical implications and recommendations = 334
• 4. Limitations of the work = 338
• 5. Suggestions for further research = 340
• Appendices = 342
• Bibliography = 350