Haebang-ro: Relationship between Haebang-chon and Yongsan Park

Yongsan area acts as the center of Seoul. It was the place where the logistics of Chungcheong, Gyeongsang, and Jeolla provices gathered, and it served as the hub of the Korean railway during the Japanese invasion, serving as a base for the invasion of the continent. After the Korean War, Yonsan-dong, which was a Japanese base, became a U.S. military base, and both roads and subways could not be constructed in the area because it was an area the government or the Seoul Metropolitan Government could not influence. Haebangchon is the only space, where people can reside among six legal dongs in Yongsan area, is the only place Koreans who came from North Korea were forced out, and is a space where Koreans who migrated from rural to the urban area were forced out since the industrialization of 1960s to 1970s.

After an announcement, in 2009, of a plan to relocate the U.S. military base, there was a movement to transform the U.S. military base area into Yongsan Park. In 2012, WEST8 and IROJE’s proposal was accepted and plans were made to change Yongsan Park in the long run. Changes in this huge area will bring about significant changes in the Haebangchon, which is right next to them.

I suggest building a long road connecting Namsan Mountain and Yongsan Park over the buildings of Haebanchon. For the past few years, residents of this area have fiercely opposed the city’s large-scale plans, such as the construction of the “Namsan Greenway”, because their buildings had to be torn down. The road between Yongsan Park and Namsan while maintaining existing buildings can be a compromise between the residents of Haebangchon and the city’s existing plans. Next, we need to consider how to build the relationship between the road and the buildings when we make this long road. Furthermore, it is the most important issue in urban regeneration ot decide where to renovate and where to preserve. I propose renovating four of the most symbolic places in Haebanchon: Haebang Church, Shinheung Market, Haebang Ogeori, and the public parking lot.

This project focuses on Shinheung Market where renovation is the most urgent. This market is now underdeveloped. Buildings in the market cannot be extended more than four stories above the Namsan Mountain due to construction regulations, and the building owners cannot receive subsidies for renovation from the government, because of their private ownership. To cover the existing monthly rent, they gradually change the market into residential space, and young entrepreneurs try to do business at the building; however, it does not seem easy. The meaning of Shinheung Market, “emerging market”, is tarnishing in the capital and bureaucratic society.