Gated community interview

I've had 3 interviews for my gated community research as of yesterday. Interview is stressful to arrange, conduct and record but gives me much satisfaction in knowing more people and discover live knowledge. There were two things to note for yesterday's interviews.

1. Use of new technology

I bought a tablet computer before the interview after much hesitation. I was worried that the expensive device would be only used as a gadget to play with. However, yesterday's interview well proved its utility.

First, I didn't need to print out all the reading materials to read during my way to the interview place. I could read them with the tablet without having to carry heavy printouts. Second, I didn't need to print out plans for the interviewee to explain for me. The interviewee could explain his plan seeing the tablet screen and draw on it using stylus pen. The drawing was instantly saved in the tablet. The only shortcoming was the relatively small size of the screen (8").

2. Impact of the interview

My two previous interviews didn't affect the interviewees a lot because the subject of the interview was either a past event or general strategy. It was different this time. The subject of yesterday was about the reconstruction plan of an apartment complex. I pointed out the possibility of post-construction gating by residents and this had evidently not been considered by any participant of the project. I was worried and excited at the same time by the possibility of the impact of my interview for the course of the project although the chance of impact seemed to be slim. With this reason, interviews with the homeowners shouldn't be conducted because they may react a lot stronger for the possibility of gating.
   

Mathmatical analysis on Haussmannisation of Paris

How could one imagine Haussmannisation of Paris to be analyzed mathmatically?

Can One Man Change the Shape of an Entire City? - Emily Badger - The Atlantic Cities:

'via Blog this'

Rise of Parisian skyline

Interesting article about the change of old Parisian skyline. Personally I don't want to see Paris becomes London: an architctural mayhem.

Could the City of Light Become the City of Height? - Feargus O'Sullivan - The Atlantic Cities:

'via Blog this'

The Threat of Gated Communities

The Retreat at Twin Lakes, where Martin died, is the kind of place where people choose to live when they want to be safe – from crime, from outsiders, from economic uncertainty. Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. By fostering suspicion and societal divisions, the argument goes, gated communities can paradoxically compromise safety rather than increasing it. And because they cut residents off from the larger community, writes Edward Blakely, author ofFortress America, they can “shrink the notion of civic engagement and allow residents to retreat from civic responsibility.”

The Threat of Gated Communities - Sarah Goodyear - The Atlantic Cities:

• JUL 15, 2013

La Défense, Canary Wharf and Zuidas

I visited La Défense in Paris, Canary Wharf in UK and Zuidas in Amsterdam in June and July 2013. All the three districts are new CBDs of European metropolises. A comparative analysis was made out of the trip.

Download the report here.

Germany's lack of a dominating city

I've considered Germany's lack of a dominating city as a weakness in global city scene in which no German city can quite compete with London or Paris. In this morning, I found an interesting view of seeing things in a different angle.

...Germany’s economic resilience owes a lot to the diffusion of its strength across a strikingly diverse range of big cities. This is uncommon in the rest of Europe. In addition to well-known economic hubs such as Munich, Stuttgart and many others, Germany has cities like Hamburg -- once written off in the same way many northern English cities have been, it is now a booming economic center, thanks to Germany’s success as an exporter to the big emerging-market economies, China in particular.

Yes, we need to look both sides of a fact.

At Last, Germany Secures Total Dominance of Europe
By Jim O’Neill May 24, 2013

Result of internet forum investigation and a thought

It took 4 days for me to scour internet forums dedicated to the gated apartment complex  and to store opinions related to gating. Originally I thought it would be finished within a day but I turned out to be very wrong. There was a surprising amount of exchange on gating in the forum. It would have taken more if I had had access to restricted area of the forum.
The result is a 143 page long word document including images as well as text. There has been extensive talks in the forum on vandalism, measures to protect the apartment complex, execution methods of gating and evaluation of gating.
The main idea that I've got from this extensive information is that Korean planning system of apartment complexes have  problems in harmonizing private and public interests. The apartment complex in question has a central road which can be used as a shortcut for outside residents to use subway and commercial area. Although the public interest of this road could be expected from the design stage, this road was left in the very center of private territory. Unfortunately, the residents couldn't tolerate extra maintenance caused by vandalism of outsiders and increased transit traffic. The result was the first case of gating of a large apartment complex in Korea.
The main culprit of gating in this case seems to be the planning practice of annihilating public roads and to create a super sized private block. No one wants to make detours especially in on foot while the occupiers of super blocks don't want presence of outsiders in their private domain. Allowing super sized private islands can't help creating conflict between the public and private interests.    

Digging deep into internet for research

Today internet is a well recognized research tool. It provides us formal information such as news and journal articles in an instant. What I have overlooked until today was its role as a provider of informal information.

For example, my case study of a gated apartment complex near Seoul was greatly facilitated by the internet. It provided me answers to the initial questions following to my field trip which were not covered by existing formal information. Residents of the gated apartment complex have exchanged voices on gating in internet forums. The forums effectively store remarks of verbal nature by residents and their leaders which would have been soon forgotten in the pre-internet era. The main answers I extracted from the forums are as follows.

Arrival of architecture in Korean cities

South Korea has long been a desert of modern architecture. Most of the buildings have been constructed to maximize space and profit with no regard to aesthetics whatsoever. It was especially true for small scale buildings whose owners have less capital than large building owners.

Things begin to change recently. I start to see more buildings not by a 'house seller' but by an architect on the small streets of Seoul. It will be interesting to know why some landlords finally recognized the need to beautify paying more for construction and sacrificing profitable space to rent.


'트랜스포머' 상가주택 … 동네명물 됐네 (A "Transformer" Building Becomes a Neighborhood Landmark.)
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=103&oid=025&aid=0002261434

Municipal reaction to the gated apartment complex

Private ownership has been inviolable in Korean planning tradition and Korean land owners have enjoyed more freedom in altering land than in any other developed country. Thus, the Korean government, municipality and court have maintained laissez-faire attitude regarding to gating of private properties. As long as a property belonged to private entities, the public authority didn't do almost anything against gating.

However, complete gating of an apartment complex did alarm the municipality. A local newspaper reported that the city council had decided to cut financial subsidy to gated apartment complexes. Gating of apartment complexes is in infancy in Korea but growing. Will nationwide gating phenomenon provoke similar reactions from the central government?

그들만의 세상, 조례로 막자. (Sanctioning "Their Own World" with City Ordinance)
http://www.kmtimes.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=13372

Observation of a gated apartment complex near Seoul

Date: 2-5 pm, Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Most of the Korean apartment complexes ban non-authorized vehicle access but foot access is usually permitted. However, even the foot access is banned in some apartment complexes, especially smaller ones with less than 5 apartment buildings such as Samseong I-Park in Gangnam District in Seoul.
I went to field trip to observe one of these apartment complexes. The gated apartment complex that I visited is highly unusual because it's quite a big apartment complex having more than 1,000 housing units. Due to its large scale gating, it earned some notoriety from media a couple of years ago. I thought the gating could have been lifted by now but both vehicular and foot accesses are controlled there.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

I loved the amazing collection of old city maps by Mr. Rumsey. These maps will be useful for many people. I thank him for collecting and organizing the maps.

Homepage
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

Google Maps
http://rumsey.geogarage.com/

Hanok cafe

Curious mixture of two traditions
(Insadong, seoul)

As Fewer Buy Homes, Apartment Construction Surges - ABC News

"People who can't afford to buy a home, rent," Champion said. "That's why the apartment market has stayed healthy."

As Fewer Buy Homes, Apartment Construction Surges - ABC News

Ubiquitous City or Ubiquitous Phone?

In a urban planning class that I took last semester, the professor wanted to hear the opinions of the students on the Ubiquitous City. In the discussion, some of the students doubted viability of the U-City Model in today's smart phone era.

According to the Korean Ubiquitous City Association, the u-City is a future high-tech city where IT infrastructure, technology and service are integrated into housing, economy, traffic and other facilities. The services offered by the U-City include u-Traffic, u-Home(convenient city), u-Security, u-Facility Management(safe city), u-Environment (clean city), and u-Health Care(healthy city).

These services can be grouped into two. The first group is consumer level services which are directly used by inhabitants such as u-Traffic, Home and Health Care. The other services are useful for city managers; they include u-Security, Facility Management and Environment.

Image: Korean Ubiquitous City Association

Disappearing stores in our cities

The internet revolution dramatically changes our lives and even cities. We see ever increasing delivery trucks and delivery men on the streets and also witness disappearing stores. In Korea, bookstores seem to be the weakest link. Neighborhood bookstores are almost dead and only large bookstores remain in commercial areas.

An Amazon distribution center in Wales (Source: Daily Mail)

Unlike the situation in Britain depicted in the Daily Mail article, Korean cities still retain vibrant stores in every corner regardless of burgeoning e-trades. However, many stores owned by individuals are replaced by franchise stores. Bakeries were conquered by franchises long before and there are ongoing battles between chain super markets (SSM in Korean English) and super markets owned by individuals.

These phenomena are economic changes affecting urban planning. We can expect decrease of commercial use in city centers but increase of logistic use in suburbs due to the e-trade. Disappearance of small stores where social interactions take place will weaken community based on neighborhood.

As household-name stores fall prey to online shopping boom, we ask: Will the internet monster eat the High Street?
대형마트 하나둘 개점 사라지는 동네사장님
70년대이후 최대 쇠락산업 ‘자영업’