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| Image by Networking City/ Cover page of the research paper |
After 6
months efforts, the research paper ‘The Study of Housing Renewal for
Neighbourhood Regeneration in Ansan’ was submitted to Centre for Creating
Livable Village in Ansan, one of famous local NGO in South Korea, by this blog.
The aim of the research is to understand the history of urban development of
Ansan, a satellite city of Seoul, to identify the city’s characteristics by comparison
with other cities in Korea, to investigate the present conditions of four
low-rise housing areas through a field research and provide a planning
guideline of neighbourhood regeneration for the NGO and the city government.
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| Image is taken from Naver/ The collision between high-rise apartments and low-rise housings |
Ansan is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea and a part of the
Seoul Metropolitan Area. Originally, it was a small town on the coast of Yellow
Sea until 1960’s. In 1970’s, Korean national government decided to develop it
for the industrial city that contained small polluted factories. The small town
was rapidly changed its shape as the first modern designed city (it means grid
system) in Korea and lots of people have moved to the city for jobs and economic
benefits since 1980’s.
At one time, Ansan was a symbol of successful economic achievement of
Korea, however, now the city is facing a hard time that the numbers of closed
factory are increasing and inextricable social problems related to the
declining industry such as unstable employment, low income family, high residential
mobility, poor residential environment and weak community networks.
Even though many researchers have been interested in this city, there
was no challenge to clarify the relationship between the urban development process
of Ansan and its impact on the change of residential areas. Also, there is no appropriate
strategy to reorganize old, high dense, low-rise housing areas that the
residents cannot support money for the redevelopment by high-rise apartments
which has been the main development tool in Korea.
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| Image by Networking City/ The area and population of five cities |
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Image by Networking City/ The
population structures of five cities
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Therefore, Centre for Creating Livable Village, an independent organization
for improving environment of residential areas based on local governments’
support, as a leading local NGO, set up a plan with young researchers to foster
practical framework and in-detail analysis rather than grandiloquent words. The
research paper is the first outcome of the plan.
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Image by Networking City/ The
diagram of urban programme in Ansan
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Image by Networking City/ The
diagram of housing development process in Ansan
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The
research is composed of six chapters; Introduction, The characteristics of
urban development and the change of housing areas in Ansan, The comparative analysis
of urban characteristics between Ansan and four neighbour cities, The case
study of four low-rise housing areas in Ansan, The strategy for neighbourhood regeneration
and Conclusion.
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Image by Networking City/ The
diagram of house that people live in basement in Bono-dong (One of low-rise
housing area in Ansan)
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Image by Networking City/ The
street view of Seonbu-dong (One of low-rise housing area in Ansan)
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It will be
used as a policy reference for the NGO and the Ansan city government, and hope
it could be a tangible steppingstone for the future regeneration plan of the
city.
