Jungnang-gu's Junghwa 2-dong in Seoul, once in the spotlight as the first model combining urban regeneration with small-scale maintenance projects, has shifted its focus to maintenance-led redevelopment.
The Seoul city government said on the 16th that it held the Urban Planning Committee's regeneration subcommittee meeting on the 15th and approved with amendments the "Junghwa 2-dong Urban Regeneration Activation Plan change proposal." With this change, four of the original 13 priming projects are completed and nine are abolished, wrapping up the program. Nine projects, including the Silver Social Care Center, Bodam Culture Power Plant, and Urban Regeneration University, are abolished, while four projects, including the Bodam Eoulrim Creative Zone and the Coexistence Village Management Office, remain.
The Seoul city government said that through this adjustment, although the priming projects within the Moa Town initiative target area are abolished, living infrastructure such as children's parks and public parking lots will be maintained, and facilities located outside the Moa Town initiative will also be retained.
Junghwa 2-dong is the first project site where Seoul applied its "urban regeneration restructuring" strategy in 2021. It was designed as a model that advances beyond preservation and management to push small-scale maintenance projects together, such as the self-governing housing maintenance project and the street housing maintenance project. It was the first experiment to pursue urban regeneration and development at the same time.
However, five years on, the project is proceeding with a focus on maintenance. As 99,971 square meters—two-thirds of the total 144,426 square meters—were designated for the Moa Town initiative, the need grew to eliminate overlap with the existing urban regeneration program. In November last year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, during a special committee review, called for a restructuring of the priming projects, and as a result, nine projects were slated for consolidation.