If asked what type of housing they hope to live in, many people might struggle to answer, especially if they have limited experience with different housing options.
The Korea Herald’s “Architecture Talk: More Than APT,” held in Seoul on Wednesday, provided an opportunity to reflect on various forms of housing and the lifestyles they enable.
Ten leading architects and experts explored why apartments make up more than 63 percent of all housing in Korea and introduced alternative housing options centered on “interaction” and “community-building.” The event featured two roundtable sessions followed by a Q&A session.
According to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the average price of apartments sold in Seoul in June reached 1.24 billion won ($889,000) -- the highest so far this year.
"I have lived in an apartment my whole life and the talk got me to pay more attention to the environment I am living in. The cases of housing formats shown during the talk was quite interesting, and I was impressed that there are many architects in Korea who are striving to make the city better," said Park Yu-lee, 38-year-old Seoul resident.
Another attendee surnamed Kim said the talk challenged her perceptions of shared living. Two examples of shared housing in Seoul, Third Place 6 and Collective Mine, which foster social connections among residents, were highlighted during the event.
“Creating a private area within a public space on a small piece of land in downtown Seoul to offer diverse residential experiences was fascinating to me,” Kim said on condition of anonymity. “It made me reflect on how uniform the private spaces I’ve sought out until now have been. It broke down my prejudice that ‘sharing is inconvenient.’”
Cho Eun-man, a resident of Malli-dong Public Housing near Seoul Station, Seoul, expressed hope for more discussions about alternative forms of housing. Malli-dong Public Housing, designed in a collaboration between the architect and its artist residents, was among the examples shared at the event.
“I think we need to discuss our living spaces in terms of life quality rather than focusing solely on material aspects,” Cho said. “People may ask if we are a ‘special case’ for choosing to live in Malli-dong Public Housing. But I would say we were just ordinary people who became special through the interactions with our fellow artist residents.”
The architecture talk was the culmination of The Korea Herald’s five-part series, “More than APT,” published in November. The series included the following articles: “Why apartment complexes flourish in Korea,” “Residents, architects together design homes,” “On our own, but together: Shared housing points to new possibilities,” “Home as personal manifesto in a sea of apartments” and “Changing the value of ‘home.’”
The 10 panelists were: Park In-seok, professor of architecture at Myongji University; Kim Sung-hong, professor of architecture at University of Seoul; Yoon Seung-hyun, professor of architecture at Chung-Ang University and CEO of Interkerd Architects; Seong Eun-young, research fellow at Architecture & Urban Research Institute; Lee Eun-kyung, principal at EMA Architects & Associates; Kim Hana, director at Seoul Social Standard; Park Chang-hyun, CEO of A Round architects; Cho Kyung-bin, CEO of Pildong2ga Architects; Lee So-jung, principal at OBBA and Kim Yong-jin, manager of the Housing and Building Architecture Team at Daewoo Engineering and Construction.
