[Yongsan's Future] Director Lee Young-beom "A Great Transformation... Must Approach with Mosaic Planning Method"

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Lee Young-beom, Director of the Architectural Space Research Institute, believes that a better life for the people begins with a 'value transformation of urban space.' His logic is that cities should not be approached as physical and fragmented concepts but as a whole composed of the everyday lives of people living there. This is why the Architectural Space Research Institute, Korea's first government-funded research institute in the architecture and urban fields and the only national research institute specializing in urban space, contemplates the demands of a changing society and the challenges it faces through the lens of 'urban space.'

After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from Seoul National University, he obtained his Ph.D. in housing and urban studies from the UK’s AA School (Architectural Association School of Architecture), which boasts one of the most robust architecture curricula in Europe. He has solidified his theories by authoring books on urban space such as Beyond Creative Cities and Reading Architecture and Cities through Publicness. He emphasizes that the future of Yongsan must also be approached from the concept of 'urban space.' He readily accepted the proposal to discuss concrete directions for spatial recreation for Yongsan’s growth as a global city.

Lee Young-beom, Director of the Architectural Space Research Institute.

Meeting Director Lee at the Chungmuro office of this publication, he proposed 'mosaic planning' as a way to design Yongsan’s future. Although divided into small pixels, these eventually complete a single picture. This development method was also used in the process of London’s growth into a global city.

Director Lee explained, "It is crucial to prepare a master plan with a long-term perspective rather than viewing parts separately," adding, "Preservation and regeneration must be carried out accordingly." Since Yongsan is simultaneously undergoing various large and small projects such as the Yongsan International Business District, opening of Yongsan Park, railroad undergrounding, and redevelopment of aging residential areas, each plan should be structured step-by-step and gradually linked organically.

This judgment is based on Yongsan’s historical significance and geographical advantages. Director Lee described Yongsan as "a place recorded as foreign territory" but predicted that "Yongsan will be developed as a new national symbolic space." He said, "During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Japanese military established railway-related facilities and a military logistics command post, developing Yongsan as a military base. After liberation, the U.S. Forces Korea occupied it for a long time, giving Yongsan historical significance as a memory space of modern and contemporary history. It also holds locational value as an important green democratic space in Seoul, forming an ecological environmental axis from Namsan to the Han River."

Lee Young-beom, Director of the Architectural Space Research Institute.

Director Lee particularly focused on the role of Yongsan Park. He explained, "Once Yongsan National Park is completed, it will serve as a plaza open to citizens alongside major national public institutions. If various cultural facilities utilizing former U.S. military base facilities within Yongsan Park are established alongside existing national museums, it could be developed into a future-oriented new national symbolic space where public institutions, parks, and cultural facilities coexist, similar to the National Mall in Washington, DC."

So how should the blueprint of Yongsan’s 'mosaic planning' proposed by Director Lee unfold?

He pointed to the starting point as a 'sustainable pedestrian city network.' Even if development occurs sporadically, the city must be planned so that citizens can easily and quickly share the diverse functions and facilities created by development. He added, "We should not be solely focused on establishing a cutting-edge business environment through high-rise, high-density mixed-use development but also implement a spatial system as a pedestrian city."

Another notable axis he mentioned is the 'change in mobility.' This suggests that transportation will also lead changes in urban space following Yongsan’s development revolution.

Lee Young-beom, Director of the Architectural Space Research Institute.

Director Lee emphasized, "With smart transportation innovation, future transportation will evolve into a three-dimensional integrated system including underground, aerial, and autonomous driving. It is absolutely necessary to equip Yongsan’s development with a smart city’s advanced environment." He further explained, "Compact cities that combine functions such as business, residence, culture, medical care, education, public facilities, and green spaces into one megacity will reduce urban mobility, realize carbon neutrality, and create new residential communities through three-dimensional urban functions. This will ultimately also support flexible and resilient land use."

Director Lee’s argument that Yongsan’s recreation process can also address social issues such as aging and low birth rates is a point that governments and local authorities planning large and small urban redevelopment projects should pay attention to.

The theory he proposed is called 'spatial welfare,' which reconstructs urban space while considering various welfare elements. Director Lee suggested, "Rediscovering the unique locational value or charm of a region and having local creators recreate it with local content to increase relational populations through exchanges with metropolitan residents can be a universal solution to issues like low birth rates and aging."

Spatial welfare is also identified as a mid- to long-term core research task at the Architectural Space Research Institute. As a national research institute, Director Lee’s goal is to approach inconvenient aspects of citizens’ lives through space, resolve them, and reflect them in setting national policy agendas. Below is a Q&A with Director Lee about the institute’s research areas.

- Unlike general urban planning or housing policies, your approach focuses on economic and social issues through 'urban space.' This is a novel approach. You are also researching social issues such as vacant houses, young people migrating to rural areas, and population decline. What differentiates your research from existing studies?

▲ Spatial welfare is an unfamiliar concept but differs from the top-down welfare of the current era. For example, the basic living allowance given to recipients is minimal welfare, but their living environments are often poor. Beyond physical problems, they are exposed to vulnerabilities such as illness and health issues. The idea is to create spatial environments that allow them to live healthily. Ultimately, this structure reduces the medical expenses borne by the state.

- So, can facilities themselves be considered spatial welfare?

▲ Yes. Depending on the economic environment in which people live, there are tailored spatial responses that are beneficial. If these aspects are not handled delicately, people’s lives become more impoverished, exposing them to diseases and disabilities, which increases the costs the state must bear later. Changing spaces tailored to age groups and living conditions is also part of the concept of spatial welfare.

- Spatial welfare is known to be one of the institute’s major research areas this year. Could you briefly introduce it?

▲ Currently, the institute is considering how to utilize idle spaces in fishing and farming villages where there are many vacant houses and elderly residents. The goal is to allow these people to spend their final days in their familiar residential environments and to use these spaces to revitalize the villages. Plans to restructure clusters of vacant houses are being discussed.

- Regarding urban space and spatial welfare from a convergence perspective, cost issues cannot be ignored. How should these problems be approached?

▲ It is a difficult issue. Taking Yongsan as an example, if Yongsan Park is created and a metropolitan transportation network established, the land will become a land of opportunity, raising land and housing prices. However, rather than imposing regulations, loosening development activities while expanding the scope of development profit recovery and public contributions that can be returned to society is one method. The development of 'The Shard' in London is a case where various public contributions were made. The city permitted necessary development activities but demanded values that all London citizens could share. This included connections with the nearby Borough area, opening all lower floors to the public, and improving road networks. An approach where private capital’s development profits and the social benefits of the local community coexist is necessary.