Going to Cambridge for Cinematic Urban Geographies Conference





Image1. The poster of Cinematic Urban Geographies Conference.
 
LAST month, Networking City submitted an application for the conference: Cinematic Urban Geographies which is organised by CRASSH, University of Cambridge. The conference tries to understand urban characteristics through cinema. The proposal ‘The Introduction of Architecture: Drawing our route on the map’ was accepted and originally scheduled in a session on ‘cinematic cityscapes within social& cultural practices’. But it was recently relocated in the session of ‘’film as sites as memories’. 

During the presentation, Networking City will be introducing that we can redefine our ordinary life and spatial intimacy by mapping our daily route on the map, and it can imply various social aspects. The abstract is following.  




Image2. The image was captured in the movie of ‘The Introduction of Architecture’


The Introduction of Architecture: Drawing our route on the map

It does not require much effort to rediscover our city in the ordinary, everyday city of others. When we draw our daily route on a map, every space I walk in the city re-emerges with spatial organisations, street scenes, movements and sounds. Through the act of mapping, hidden experiences and activities in the city become a small part of the city and accumulate as a social and cultural layers within it. 

The plot of ‘The Introduction of Architecture’, released in 2012, shows a love story between young university students who meet in a class called ‘Introduction of Architecture’. In the movie, a lecturer asks students to draw their commuting routes – from their homes to the university, which is located in the old centre of Seoul – on a map. When the hero marks his route, he finds his way already underlined by the heroine.

The following are some themes that the movie reveals to us: first of all, through a simple action like drawing a line on the map, we can redefine our ordinary life and spatial intimacy. The line illustrates not only the sense of the same social backgrounds, but also the possibility of collective memory with others. Secondly, the movie hints at the growing regional inequality within Seoul by the admiration of the hero, who lives in the old city centre – which is relatively underdeveloped – contrasting it with the wealth and upper-class lifestyle of the southern part of Seoul that people call Gangnam. 

Continue reading »

Going to Cambridge for Cinematic Urban Geographies Conference





Image1. The poster of Cinematic Urban Geographies Conference.
 
LAST month, Networking City submitted an application for the conference: Cinematic Urban Geographies which is organised by CRASSH, University of Cambridge. The conference tries to understand urban characteristics through cinema. The proposal ‘The Introduction of Architecture: Drawing our route on the map’ was accepted and originally scheduled in a session on ‘cinematic cityscapes within social& cultural practices’. But it was recently relocated in the session of ‘’film as sites as memories’. 

During the presentation, Networking City will be introducing that we can redefine our ordinary life and spatial intimacy by mapping our daily route on the map, and it can imply various social aspects. The abstract is following.  




Image2. The image was captured in the movie of ‘The Introduction of Architecture’


The Introduction of Architecture: Drawing our route on the map

It does not require much effort to rediscover our city in the ordinary, everyday city of others. When we draw our daily route on a map, every space I walk in the city re-emerges with spatial organisations, street scenes, movements and sounds. Through the act of mapping, hidden experiences and activities in the city become a small part of the city and accumulate as a social and cultural layers within it. 

The plot of ‘The Introduction of Architecture’, released in 2012, shows a love story between young university students who meet in a class called ‘Introduction of Architecture’. In the movie, a lecturer asks students to draw their commuting routes – from their homes to the university, which is located in the old centre of Seoul – on a map. When the hero marks his route, he finds his way already underlined by the heroine.

The following are some themes that the movie reveals to us: first of all, through a simple action like drawing a line on the map, we can redefine our ordinary life and spatial intimacy. The line illustrates not only the sense of the same social backgrounds, but also the possibility of collective memory with others. Secondly, the movie hints at the growing regional inequality within Seoul by the admiration of the hero, who lives in the old city centre – which is relatively underdeveloped – contrasting it with the wealth and upper-class lifestyle of the southern part of Seoul that people call Gangnam. 

Continue reading »

Research – The Study of Housing Renewal for Neighbourhood Regeneration in Ansan

Image by Networking City/ Cover page of the research paper

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After 6 months efforts, the research paper ‘The Study of Housing Renewal for Neighbourhood Regeneration in Ansan’ was submitted to Centre for Creating Livable Village in Ansan, one of famous local NGO in South Korea, by this blog. The aim of the research is to understand the history of urban development of Ansan, a satellite city of Seoul, to identify the city’s characteristics by comparison with other cities in Korea, to investigate the present conditions of four low-rise housing areas through a field research and provide a planning guideline of neighbourhood regeneration for the NGO and the city government.
Image is taken from Naver/ The collision between high-rise apartments and low-rise housings

 


Ansan is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea and a part of the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Originally, it was a small town on the coast of Yellow Sea until 1960’s. In 1970’s, Korean national government decided to develop it for the industrial city that contained small polluted factories. The small town was rapidly changed its shape as the first modern designed city (it means grid system) in Korea and lots of people have moved to the city for jobs and economic benefits since 1980’s.


At one time, Ansan was a symbol of successful economic achievement of Korea, however, now the city is facing a hard time that the numbers of closed factory are increasing and inextricable social problems related to the declining industry such as unstable employment, low income family, high residential mobility, poor residential environment and weak community networks.

Even though many researchers have been interested in this city, there was no challenge to clarify the relationship between the urban development process of Ansan and its impact on the change of residential areas. Also, there is no appropriate strategy to reorganize old, high dense, low-rise housing areas that the residents cannot support money for the redevelopment by high-rise apartments which has been the main development tool in Korea.
 
 
Image by Networking City/ The area and population of five cities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Image by Networking City/ The population structures of five cities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Therefore, Centre for Creating Livable Village, an independent organization for improving environment of residential areas based on local governments’ support, as a leading local NGO, set up a plan with young researchers to foster practical framework and in-detail analysis rather than grandiloquent words. The research paper is the first outcome of the plan.

 

Image by Networking City/ The diagram of urban programme in Ansan















Image by Networking City/ The diagram of housing development process in Ansan





















The research is composed of six chapters; Introduction, The characteristics of urban development and the change of housing areas in Ansan, The comparative analysis of urban characteristics between Ansan and four neighbour cities, The case study of four low-rise housing areas in Ansan, The strategy for neighbourhood regeneration and Conclusion.

Image by Networking City/ The diagram of house that people live in basement in Bono-dong (One of low-rise housing area in Ansan)

 

Image by Networking City/ The street view of Seonbu-dong (One of low-rise housing area in Ansan)

 
It will be used as a policy reference for the NGO and the Ansan city government, and hope it could be a tangible steppingstone for the future regeneration plan of the city.
 

 

Continue reading »

Research – The Study of Housing Renewal for Neighbourhood Regeneration in Ansan

Image by Networking City/ Cover page of the research paper

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After 6 months efforts, the research paper ‘The Study of Housing Renewal for Neighbourhood Regeneration in Ansan’ was submitted to Centre for Creating Livable Village in Ansan, one of famous local NGO in South Korea, by this blog. The aim of the research is to understand the history of urban development of Ansan, a satellite city of Seoul, to identify the city’s characteristics by comparison with other cities in Korea, to investigate the present conditions of four low-rise housing areas through a field research and provide a planning guideline of neighbourhood regeneration for the NGO and the city government.
Image is taken from Naver/ The collision between high-rise apartments and low-rise housings

 


Ansan is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea and a part of the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Originally, it was a small town on the coast of Yellow Sea until 1960’s. In 1970’s, Korean national government decided to develop it for the industrial city that contained small polluted factories. The small town was rapidly changed its shape as the first modern designed city (it means grid system) in Korea and lots of people have moved to the city for jobs and economic benefits since 1980’s.


At one time, Ansan was a symbol of successful economic achievement of Korea, however, now the city is facing a hard time that the numbers of closed factory are increasing and inextricable social problems related to the declining industry such as unstable employment, low income family, high residential mobility, poor residential environment and weak community networks.

Even though many researchers have been interested in this city, there was no challenge to clarify the relationship between the urban development process of Ansan and its impact on the change of residential areas. Also, there is no appropriate strategy to reorganize old, high dense, low-rise housing areas that the residents cannot support money for the redevelopment by high-rise apartments which has been the main development tool in Korea.
 
 
Image by Networking City/ The area and population of five cities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Image by Networking City/ The population structures of five cities

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Therefore, Centre for Creating Livable Village, an independent organization for improving environment of residential areas based on local governments’ support, as a leading local NGO, set up a plan with young researchers to foster practical framework and in-detail analysis rather than grandiloquent words. The research paper is the first outcome of the plan.

 

Image by Networking City/ The diagram of urban programme in Ansan















Image by Networking City/ The diagram of housing development process in Ansan





















The research is composed of six chapters; Introduction, The characteristics of urban development and the change of housing areas in Ansan, The comparative analysis of urban characteristics between Ansan and four neighbour cities, The case study of four low-rise housing areas in Ansan, The strategy for neighbourhood regeneration and Conclusion.

Image by Networking City/ The diagram of house that people live in basement in Bono-dong (One of low-rise housing area in Ansan)

 

Image by Networking City/ The street view of Seonbu-dong (One of low-rise housing area in Ansan)

 
It will be used as a policy reference for the NGO and the Ansan city government, and hope it could be a tangible steppingstone for the future regeneration plan of the city.
 

 

Continue reading »