ArquiMagazine

The Metropolitan Government of Seoul has recently shifted its direction for urban growth toward a more socially sustainable model of urban regeneration, encouraging the residents and community groups to initiate change from the bottom up. The competition expects to generate thoughtful and provocative ideas for Haebangchon, which is a village on Namsan and one of the most important regeneration sites in Seoul.

Title

Post-human Urbanity: A Biosynthetic Future on Namsan

Theme

A challenge for the competition is to formulate an updated vision of a more organic city, in which humans are but one among many participants in the intricately intertwined spectrum of life. For non-human animals to occupy a more visible place in our cities, we need to reprioritize our urban infrastructures. The modern city’s obsession with hygiene and sterility will be challenged by adapting a new filter of animality for assessing the biosynthetic sustainability of a new habitat conceived as a demonstration of posthuman urbanity.

Through a broader survey of the urban community of Haebangchon on Namsan—both real and imagined, and through architectural reincarnation in various forms of hidden public spaces, the ideal proposals shall address and challenge key concepts regarding post-human community, biosynthetic diversity, social sustainability, and urban regeneration.