[Initial Insight] Apartment Names Unknown Even to Construction Company Employees

In our country, known as the Republic of Apartments, the first branded apartment appeared 25 years ago. In 1999, Lotte Construction attached the brand name ‘Castle’ for the first time to Seocho Lotte Castle 84. The number 84 represented the 84 units. It was meant to give the impression of a home for a select wealthy class. Satisfaction with the name was reflected in the result of a ‘complete sell-out.’ On the day of move-in, Lotte Construction hung a banner at the grand European-style main gate that matched the ‘Castle’ brand: ‘Congratulations on entering the castle.’

Raemian, Prugio, Xi, iPark. Around the early 2000s, when these brands flooded the market, a joke question became popular: “Why are apartment names turning into English?” The answer, “So that rural parents-in-law can’t find them,” drew people’s disapproval. Nowadays, apartment names are difficult not only for parents but even for residents themselves to pronounce correctly after a drink and a taxi ride. Names vary widely, such as ‘The H Edellui,’ ‘Prugio Clavenue,’ ‘Hillstate Blanc Luce,’ ‘Xi Brier,’ and ‘The Sharp El Terrace.’ When asked about the meanings of these apartment names, a construction company employee replied, “I don’t know either.”

If the apartment is next to a park, it’s called ‘Foret’; if near a river, ‘River’; if close to a subway, ‘Metro.’ These formulas are now outdated. The latest trend is to combine English, French, and Italian to create compound names. As a result, strange names that even Americans, French, and Italians have never heard or seen are emerging. How did the names of apartments, where more than half of our country’s population lives, come to this state?

The biggest reason cited is the perception that ‘where I live shows my status.’ Construction companies competing for reconstruction leadership in the three Gangnam districts actively respond to this. Take Banpo Raemian One Bailey as an example. ‘One’ means ‘single,’ and ‘Bailey’ means ‘courtyard within a fortress.’ This name was first proposed by Samsung C&T Corporation. Residents nodded in agreement with the explanation that they are privileged people living inside the fortress. Recently, a craft beer named after One Bailey was even released. The can features an image of the apartment complex and sells for 4,500 won per can at the One Bailey shopping center.

Sometimes, the residents’ association members themselves decide the name. A construction company employee I recently met said, “If the name proposed by the construction company is unsatisfactory, the residents’ association members have gone to naming agencies and paid tens of millions of won to get a name.” When the residents’ association holds the upper hand, construction companies have no choice but to follow. Unable to bear this behavior, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is working with construction companies to create guidelines to prevent overly complicated apartment names. Construction companies doubt how effective this will be. In reality, residents’ associations have more influence over apartment names than construction companies. No matter how much they suggest using short and simple names, it is difficult to assert this against complaints like, ‘How can you not let me name the home I live in as I please?’

Architect Yoo Hyun-jun wrote in his book What Do Cities Live On? that ‘apartments replaced alleys with corridors, and as a result, the sky disappeared.’ When city dwellers look up, the first thing they see is not the sky but high-rise apartments and brands engraved on walls in all directions. The thought process of ‘My apartment must be luxurious → The standard of luxury is uniqueness → To be unique, it must be original’ has created alien-like words. Asking to name apartments simply is as difficult as asking to reduce the number of floors in reconstruction projects.