Traditional Fabric of the Seoul

These dense low rise areas once stretched across most of the city and formed a cityscape that was homogeneous as all the buildings use ornamented bricks. The houses pile up the hillsides and respond positively with the city's topography, offering views out across the city. These areas have the character of a  'conglomerate matrix' and they resemble south american shanty towns when seen from afar. The adhoc construction methods and lack of planning regulations means that new enclosures and additions create a rich fabric that is stitched together by a complex networks of alleyways and roads.

The drawing below shows the variety of form and brick constructions that create the rich fabric of the traditional housing areas. My concern is the intricate and spatially interesting areas are being demolished and replaced with identical impersonal apartment blocks. This profit driven situation is causing social and physical dislocations. Firstly the apartment blocks are not places where people want to stay for long periods of time, which restricts the formation of strong communities. Secondly the complexes of Apatu's form urban mountain ranges, which interrupt views and an understanding of the city's topography.