SOFT YONGSANA CITY FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL

VERTICAL CITIES ASIA 2012 : “EVERYONE AGES”

by HENG JUIT LIAN YEO WEI LING DIANE PEH LI LIN STACYN A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y O F S I N G A P O R E T E A M O N E

Soft Yongsan, a city for every individual. It allows one to plot a course through the urban fabric where each individual makes Yongsan his or her own place of living daily. There is a reachable space for every intention with an organic chaos that at-tributes to the vibrancy and informal spaces existent in its urban fabric. A city where both young and old live, work and play in adjacent.

We envision a SOFT city where it contrasts with existing rapid and hard developments evident in Metropolitan Seoul. This is a lively city where dwellers are able to lead PRODUCTIVE and HEALTHY lifestyles throughout their lives.

Our actors on-site are integral in attributing to the Softness of the city. They include the elderly, white-collared adults, blue-collared adults, youth and children. This profiling guides our strategy to create a unanimous sense of belonging where the actors could commune, reside and most of all age gracefully.

“Cities have the capability to provide something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”~ Jane Jacobs

We have adopted three main strategies to achieve a Soft and vibrant Yongsan, which inherently facilitates productive and healthy living spaces for our dwellers. Foremost, a MIX OF FUNCTIONS and use is encouraged within a high-density urban environ-ment to maximise spatial usage and foster social integration. Secondly, OPEN SPACES at the ground level as well as above ground were activated. Lastly, a well-connected and ACCESSIBLE STREET and TRANSPORT NETWORK promotes walkability and better-integrated mobility for all.

A soft city matters in a highly populated ageing society where needs are ever changing along with time. Often, upgrading and renewal projects in the form of hard developments are temporally effective, expensive and not sustainable because the built environment and people have been considered separately. Thus, it requires a more humane and sensitive approach with the built environment.

ABSTRACTfor a SOFT YONGSAN

Ageing is a natural process. However, this has been projected to lead cities to decline in the economy, social stability and physical environment. This project is not geared towards being a “Silver Town” but to host an inclusive society that consists of people from all ages and walks of life.

In the context of Seoul, there is a low population replacement rate, a higher life expectancy and increase in total popula-tion of 16.7 million in 2020. A higher land area is required of 11, 410km2 to host the projected population. To address the issue at hand, instead of demolishing the old urban fabric and replacing with new tower-skyscrapers with pigeonhole living conditions to hastily house the growing population, we should integrate both city dwellers and their living spaces with the environment.

The existing urban developments are fixed in carrying capacity and have small thresholds for accommodating excess inhab-itants. As such, future redevelopments and upgrading often requires revitalisation and upgrading, which yields hard edges. Thus, Soft Yongsan is designed to support the Seoul community to age gracefully, yet remains to be relevant to the changing needs of its people and society.

Progressively, compact and dense cities develop multifunctional urban complexes to profit from the economies of scale, convenience, safety and ease in mobility in urban living. This could be in the form of very high-rised tower or slab blocks sitting on podiums, possessing residential, commercial, recreational and underground transport facilities. No doubt they require maintenance and sustain through in-built upgrading systems, the opportunities offered from high rise architecture does give our buildings the flexibility to remain relevant to numerous uses to everyone in the aforementioned society.

Henceforth, our proposed flexible living spaces, small-scale business amidst mixed-use housing developments, activated open spaces on ground level and the vertical integration with high-rise developments for healthy physical and social activi-ties, easily accessible spaces and are outdoor activities friendly. These are encompassed within the scope of a healthy and productive lifestyle.

AGEING IN PLACE

METROPOLITAN MAP

TOWARDS A SOFT YONGSANOur design strategy for a Soft Yongsan was in reaction to our observations of a gradual obliteration of the old by the new in Seoul. The new in Seoul is a typical urban monster, often defined by the higher-rise developments that appears evidently new and tends to be universal in appearance The genius loci of numerous small-scale places in Seoul are replaced by large establishments, which tend to be in a physical scale too large for the Seoul inhabitants to relate to. This is for an instance, the open plaza before Yongsan Station, whereby there are regulated and limited activities. Thus, a controlled, universal-looking and unfamiliar scale of the living environment yields numerous hard edges; often deficit of green is what we perceive to be Hardness in Seoul.

In addition, being more bottom-up, the interactions observed in remaining old urban fabric are positively inclusive and as actively used in younger areas of Seoul Metropolitan. Interestingly, there is a “young at heart” vibe existent in these mature areas where the more mature members of society gather and be less home-based sedentary. This is essential for ageing gracefully whereby there is a greater dependence in social needs.

Here, with people as our imperative drivers, Soft Yongsan shall actively promote a productive and healthy living. our three main urban strategies adopted are: 1) a Mixed use Typology, 2) Activated Public Open Space as well as 3) Seamless Accessibility and Connectivity.

LAND USE IS MAXIMISED HORIZONTALLY & VERTICALLYDIVERSIFYING BUSINESSESENHANCED ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITYFLEXIBLE USAGE OF SPACE

BREATHING SPACES AMONGST URBANDENSITY THAT FOSTER HEALTHY LIVINGINTEGRATING THE YOUNG & OLDENCOURAGES EXERCISE & PLAY

EASE OF MOVEMENT ENCOURAGES YOUNG & OLDTO VENTURE BEYOND THEIR HOMES. FOSTERING HEALTHY LIVING.AIDS ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITYELDERLY FRIENDLY TRANSPORTATION & CONVENIENT LIVING

CONNECTIVITY

EXISTING BUILDING FOOTPRINT EXISTING ROAD NETWORK

EXISTING LAND USE AT DISTRICT LEVEL

PROPOSED BUILDING FOOTPRINT PROPOSED ROAD NETWORK

PROPOSED LAND USE AT DISTRICT LEVEL

0 25 50 75 100 metres

SCALE: 1: 2500

1 to 3

0 25 50 75 100 metres

SCALE: 1: 2500

5 to 73 to 5 7 to 9 9 to 12 12 to 15 15 to 20 20 to 30 30 to 40

SITE ANALYSIS

GFA OF 1 SQ KM

Our site is located in Metropolitan Seoul, which currently has a population 4.1 million and is expected to reach a population of 6 million. Within Yongsan, the existing population is 60 659 . For the 1-km2 area chosen, we are hereby challenged to house a population of 100,000 with ensured liveable spaces. For the 1 km2 selected from Yongsan, we intend to demon-strate both the transformation of a large space left behind by the rail yard, west of the Yongsan Station and to the east of it; the treatment of an existing mature fine-grained urban fabric. In our analysis of Yongsan, we observed low-density housing, homogeneity of functions, absence of links to the riverfront and Yongsan park as site potentals as well as a distinct lack of greenery and open spaces within the urban fabric.

Thus our approach is to keep the fine-grained housing flanking the riverfront and Yongsan Park to have visual connectivity and less formidable experience, whereby the buildings are lower in height. Also, the building heights are increased in the central area surrounding Yongsan Station where it has predominantly commercial activities. This is where the highrise com-mercial and podium block typologies are.

The existing street road networks are numerous and finely gridded and not pedestrian-friendly, thus encouraging home-based sedentary lifestyles, often socially detached. We propose to decrease the road footprint and increase ground level spaces to encourage walkability, community interaction as well as reduced urban heat island effect.

The existing land use are generally homogenous in function, giving rise to distinctiveness of the area, such as the Electronics area. This requires travelling further, encourages the use of private vehicular transport as well as be exclusive to people interested in a specific use, which is not a place for everyone. We propose to have a more heterogeneous mix of functions and activities both at the ground level, where it experiences the highest movement of the population and harnessing vertical mixed use by having more relevant commercial activities such as retail and food. Most of the residential living will take place in high-rise.

Source: Seoul Metro website

Our main urban strategies are:- MIXED USE TYPOLOGIES-CONNECTIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY-ACTIVATED OPEN SPACES

Our strategies mainly counteract the top-down-driven rapid and hard developments and lat-eral considerations were made, which are more bottom-up in terms of being sensitive to the real needs of the society. There were no isolated considerations made for they are imperative to support our very vision of creating a soft city. These strategies aim to support a healthy and productive living environment whilst generating a soft and vibrant urban fabric.

STRATEGIES

COMMUNITY CENTRE

HIGH-RISE HOUSING

PODIUM COMMERCIAL + HOUSING

LOW-RISE COMMERCIAL HIGH-RISE COMMERCIAL

LOW-RISE HOUSING

Mixed usage in low-density establishments attributes to Seoul’s vibrant street character where there is an intense and organic growth of activities. Its intense organic nature exudes the familiarity of the Old Seoul. While on the other hand, the rapid high-density developments yield homogeneity and lack vibrancy in the urban fabric.

Having a mixed use typology strategy limits inflexibility reduces exclusivity and the need to travel far to meet needs.

Although mixed usage is our main driver in our urban strategy, we recognise that there is a varied mix of functions in the different parts of Yongsan. This is for example, in the predominantly commercial area, there will be a predomi-nance of offices and supporting facilities such as the food and beverages, entertainment and retail.

While on the predominantly residential area, there will be predominance of living spaces supported by functions such as more intimate community spaces, small-scale commercial which is inclusive of local family businesses, often operated by elderly who step out of retirement. As such, this offers opportunities for the community to develop a sense of purpose and belonging, and being role models of productive and active ageing. With this healthy mix of actor-profiles in these typologies, softness exudes.

MIXED USE TYPOLOGIES

The street network seeks to promote greater walkability and safety for all to move about in Yongsan and thus en-couraging the organic spillover of activities along the streets, which attributes to vibrancy.

The proposed network shall work hand in hand with existing major transport nodes such as Yongsan Station and the metro stations of Samgakji, Sinyongsan and Ichon. As indicated by the grey lines, these are integral connections at the metropolitan scale that runs along arterial roads and weaves into the predominant commercial areas, sup-porting a predominant pedestrian transient movement to work and school.

-The light blue areas are designated as safe and walkable zones where flexible pedestrian movement in the pre-dominant residential areas are supported by open spaces and local roads. -The brown lines connect at the metropolitan and district scales to the riverfront, Yongsan Park and district parks along the railway, as well as the metro stations. They run along collector roads and along the railway, feeding in pedestrian movement from areas of varying predominance like the residential and commercial, yet offer a more pleasant walking experience away from the noisy vehicular traffic. Also, this supports predominantly leisure and recreational pedestrian movement.- The blue bus line connects at a metropolitan scale by going along arterial roads in a North-South direction. This supports the movement of the transient population of Yongsan. - The green bus line predominantly feeds in the neighbourhoods and districts. - The red bus line connects at a regional scale, such as with the satellite cities.

The street network has been established in the following scales: Parcel, Precinct and District.

In the scale of the parcel, the local roads flank the parcel. Road footprint is reduced within a parcel with increased street level open spaces. This facilitates safe and unobstructed spills of activities from the interanl living spaces and small commercial shops. With these open spaces, car parking is made secondary and thus located underground within each parcel, which also creates opportunities for social interaction.

In the scale of the precinct, the collector roads feed nodal community spaces and pedestrian movements are encouraged.

In the scale of the district, the main roads connect Yongsan to adjacent dis-tricts and are flanked by major arterial roads as well as key site elements such as the Yongsan Station.

In all scales, the street network supports the ease of movement to nodal spaces in the site. Therefore, in the predominant residential areas, more open spaces support community interaction.

CONNECTIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY

STREET NETWORK

PROPOSED STREET NETWORK 18%EXISTING STREET NETWORK 24%

METROPOLITAN OPEN SPACE : HAN RIVER

NON-COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL YARD

DISTRICT OPEN PARK

COMMERCIAL PLAZA

COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL YARD

Metropolitan Seoul has a 4.58m2/ person existing capita green space (Seoul Development Institute, 2011). This is contributed by predominantly mountainous parks and nature reserves. However, in the immediate urban envi-ronment, there is very limited green space, which is evidently attributed by the hard developments. To attain the recommended World Health Organisation 2003 standard of a green space provision of 9 m2/ person, numerous ground level pockets of inactivated spaces as well as skyrise open spaces are proposed to be the attractive out-doors at-your-doorstep to encourage a more active and less sedentary lifestyle. Currently, there is a dominance of 59% of leisure activities preference which are passive and sedentary in nature like TV watching and internet surfing.

Likewise in reference to the proposed predominance typologies composed within an area melds into a diverse mix of functions and activities in different proportions with various degrees of benefits. Edge treatments to soften the distinct divide between the built and nature reserves through the form of woodland extension to the metropolitan parks would bring Nature within closer reach.

As such, this would provide a variety of spaces so that are reachable to every individual. This is for example; the riverfront, Yongsan Park as well as the district park along the rails would serve at a metropolitan scale, which also serves the transient population of Yongsan.

While on the predominant residential area, intimate open spaces for the community to use encourages spill overs of the residents’ domestic lives and enlarges the perceived spatial boundaries of home, which strengthens a sense of belonging. This can be in a small scale coexistence of mixed use in the open spaces such as gardens with com-munal exercise facilities.

ACTIVATED OPEN SPACES

GENERAL GROUND LEVEL COVERAGE IN A PARCEL

SINGLE BLOCK CIRCULATION

A precinct embodies mixed usage in various scales, which consists of low and high-rise predominant residential typologies as well as commercial open and breathing spaces.

The variety of mixed usage of mixed usage in the precinct is of varying predominance all over Yongsan, for we recognise the provision of a wide variety of spaces and functions reachable to every individual in Yongsan. This will eradicate dullness of existing homogeneity of functions, as observed in most products of the top-down rapid and hard developments in Seoul. A strategy would be to create porosity of buildings by void decks, which offer better connectivity of the open spaces and supports the spill over of activities from the buildings and community interactions, thus enhancing vibrancy in especially existing duller areas such as the residential areas in Yongsan.

Given that this is a high-density development, the overall ground level coverage is 40% for each precinct. This consists of 60% open spaces considerate of building and road setbacks. There will be a distribution of 28% and 12% for both the low-rise (10 and below storeys) and high-rise (above 10 storeys).

PRECINCT LIVING

The low-rise predominant residential typologies are on the periphery of the precinct to lessen the formidability of the pedestrian street experience. They are encouraged to have dual frontages to maximise spatial usage and eco-nomic productivity. The flanking roads support the mixed usage at the street level, facilitating spill over of activities to adjacent precincts and functional needs like drop-offs of goods and people.

The high-rise predominant residential typologies are situated within the pre-cinct surrounded by the low-rise predominant residential typologies, which are intense and vibrant by its mixed use. Here, mixed usage has not been just considered at street level but as well as above street level. The voids in the high-rise buildings serve as breathing spaces being brought closer from ground, offering respite and social interaction.

Links are established between both high and low-rise residential develop-ments to provide connected accessibility. This shall happen as long it is 18m and below, between the buildings with a minimum of 2 storey clearance be-low of the link.

With such arrangements of the building typologies within the precinct, a vari-ety of open spaces result. The Residential Commercial Yard are between the low-rise and high-rise predominant residential typologies where there is a spill-over of a myriad of predominantly commercial activities, such as alfresco dining and informal street hawkers. Thus, this also facilitates an extension of the informal activities existent along the streets.

The Residential Community Yard situated between the high-rise residential typologies are non-commercial and larger. Thus, this activates community in-teraction in a safe, recreational and leisure setting. Outdoor activities such as playgrounds and sports amenities promote active lifestyles.

PRECINCT LIVING

Flexible living is crucial to be understood as having the tenacity to accommodate and remain relevant to ever changing needs of the society with time.

At a macro scale, having a mixed use typology strategy limits inflexibility by reducing exclusivity and the need to travel out of Yongsan to meet fundamental daily needs. This would provide the incentive of coming outdoors.

At a micro scale of a residence, as our actors experience milestones in life with varying numbers of cohabitants under one roof, likewise, there would be varying fundamental needs at different points of their lives to be met. As such, we propose a modular living unit system that is modifiable with time. In a form of a grid, it allows greater flex-ibility in creating necessary interior spaces according to the number of living occupants.

With this modular living system, precast concrete technology and prefabricated compartments could be incorpo-rated. This facilitates a more economical and leaner construction process. Also, modifications could be achieved in future without having to resort to costlier and major amendments such as demolition.

FLEXIBLE LIVING

SECTION

Seoul Metropolitan being densely populated, the existing individual’s perceived personal space is small due to definite demarcations by excess built up space. As such, with mixed usage and provision of open spaces, the perceived personal space is inclusive and the sense of belonging fostered by vibrancy reminiscent of the Seoul prior to the rapid and hard developments. The establishment of an integrated accessibility net-work makes a wider variety of destinations reachable. This encourages active mobility and healthy community interaction for all.

As the Seoul Metropolitan is densely populated, an individual’s perceived personal space is small due to definite demarcations by excess built up space. With mixed usage and provision of open spaces, the perceived personal space becomes inclusive. This fosters a sense of belonging and vibrancy reminiscent of the Seoul before the rapid and hard high-rise establishments arrived. Having a well-connected integrated acces-sibility network offers a wider variety of destinations reachable and encourages active mobility.

All in all, the built environment and its people are integral in making a Soft Yongsan feasible. Thus, a two-pronged approach will be more em-pathetic and humane to encourage flexible, productive and healthy living through all seasons of life.

Soft Yongsan, a city for every individual.

CONCLUSION

We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to

Asst Prof Hwang Yun Hye

Assoc Prof. Ng Waikeen

Mr Low Boon Liang

Prof Jurgen Rossmann

Dr Jörg Rekittke

Our beloved family and friends for their profusely generous and kind care

and assistance showered. :)