Opening of Dongdaemun-gu 'Hyeon Jin-geon Memorial Library'

On the 6th, Hyeon Jin-geon Memorial Library and Gamcho Village Senior Center Held Opening Ceremony and Began Full Operation
Equipped with Open Reading Spaces and Children's Reading Room... Expected to Serve as a Community Communication Space

Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul (Mayor Ilpyeong Lee) announced on the morning of the 6th that it held an opening ceremony for the ‘Hyeon Jin-geon Memorial Library’ and the ‘Gamcho Village Senior Center’ located in the ‘Gamcho Village Community Lounge’ in Jegi-dong, and will begin full-scale operation.

The building, with 1 to 5 floors above ground and a total floor area of 999.46㎡, was constructed as part of the Urban Regeneration New Deal Project. The library is located on the 4th and 5th floors of the building; the 4th floor general reading room is an open reading space with a relaxed atmosphere, and the 5th floor children’s reading room is equipped with bean bags and an Indian tent, creating a space where children can enjoy books happily.

The district named the library ‘Jegi-dong Gamcho Village Hyeon Jin-geon Memorial Library’ to commemorate the writer Bingheo Hyeon Jin-geon, famous for novels such as ‘A Lucky Day’ and ‘B Supervisor and Love Letter,’ who spent his final days in Jegi-dong.

At the opening ceremony, attended by about 50 guests including Mayor Ilpyeong Lee of Dongdaemun-gu, reports on the library’s establishment progress and a ribbon-cutting ceremony were held, followed by a tour of the facilities.

In particular, Professor Donggeon Park, Hyeon Jin-geon’s maternal grandson and a professor in the Department of Psychology at Korea University, attended and delivered a congratulatory speech on the library’s opening, sharing anecdotes about Hyeon Jin-geon’s steadfastness as a literary figure, which added special significance to the event.

Meanwhile, the ‘Gamcho Village Senior Center,’ located on the 3rd floor of the same building, also held an opening ceremony and announced the start of its operation. During a preference survey for detailed facilities within the ‘Gamcho Village Community Lounge,’ the senior center was selected as the second most preferred, leading the district to establish the center to meet the demand for senior citizens’ use in the area. The facility was comfortably designed by separating grandfather and grandmother rooms to provide a pleasant space for rest and leisure.

Mayor Ilpyeong Lee of Dongdaemun-gu stated, “We will do our best to operate the ‘Gamcho Village Community Lounge,’ composed of spaces for various age groups, so that it can become a complex cultural space for communication and harmony among residents.”

Professor Park Dong-geon, grandson of Hyun Jin-geon, Department of Psychology, Korea University (left), and Lee Pil-hyung, Mayor of Dongdaemun District Office