A downtown development project to improve the residential environment of the Human Town areas in Guro-gu and Jongno-gu, Seoul, and to expand cultural parks and everyday infrastructure will move forward in earnest. Around Gaebong Station, youth housing that includes about 300 units of public rentals is planned.
On the 10th, the Seoul city government said it approved all three items at the 17th Architecture Committee meeting held the previous day: the Guro-gu Human Town 2.0 pilot project, the Gaebong Station station-area revitalization project, and the Songhyeon cultural park and parking lot development project.
The area around 84 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, was selected in Dec. 2023 as a pilot site for Seoul's Human Town 2.0 and simultaneously designated as a special architectural zone and a remodeling activation zone. Human Town 2.0 is a program that supports individual construction such as new builds and remodeling in low-rise residential areas where redevelopment is difficult. It helps improve the residential environment through eased building standards and financial support.
Residents can choose new construction or remodeling depending on lot size and building condition. In the special architectural zone, the floor area ratio is eased up to 1.2 times the local government ordinance standard. If a commercial space is created on the first floor, it is also possible to raise the building coverage ratio by 10 percentage points, from 60% to 70%. The setback on site (the distance between the site boundary and the building) is reduced from 1 m to 0.5 m. In the remodeling activation zone, extensions are allowed up to 30% of the existing total floor area. The building coverage ratio is eased to within 30% of the local government ordinance standard, and benefits include recognizing landscaping with only half of the statutory required area.
Around 170-33 Gaebong-dong, a station-area revitalization project will be promoted with five underground floors to 22 aboveground floors. A total of 299 units of public rental housing with an exclusive area of 29㎡ will be supplied. A public postnatal care center and neighborhood living facilities will be built together to supplement the functions of everyday infrastructure lacking in the area.
The "Open Songhyeon Green Square," temporarily open around 48-9 Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, will be transformed into a "cultural park" that combines history, culture, and green space. Underground, a parking lot will accommodate 270 passenger cars and 90 tour buses. There is an outlook that, in connection with the Lee Kun-hee donation museum (tentative name) in the future, it will become a hub for urban culture and tourism.