Seoul Urban Planning Grand Review
From the struggle of 1966 to Seoul in 2026

Exhibition marking 60 years of the Seoul Urban Master Plan
Seoul Urban Planning Grand Review
1966: The Making of Seoul's Urban Future
1966
From the struggle of 1966
2026
to Seoul in 2026
2026.08.14.(FRI) — 11.08.(SUN)

Safeguarding the Capital Together with the People
[Pixel type on the left wall] Safeguarding the capital together
2026
14 Jul (Tue) – 25 Oct (Sat)

Welcome / OPENING THE EXHIBITION

Opening the exhibition / OPENING THE EXHIBITION

All great things begin in rough form. Here is the «1966 Seoul Urban Master Plan», the first record and the very beginning of Seoul's citywide master planning. It was made at a time with no proper reference material and no precedent to rely on. To our eyes today the drawings may look crude and the contents woefully thin. Yet they are the fierce striving of the administrators and planners of that era, who worked day and night to raise the framework of a city on barren ground.

The history of urban planning is not merely a fragment of urban history; it is nothing less than the “DNA of the city” on which we stand. The efforts and outcomes of that time responded to the reality and context of their own era, and so they will differ greatly from the tasks and solutions that the present and the future must work out.

This exhibition sets out, plainly, the mechanisms by which those reckless first plans became our everyday life, and the chronicle through which the vast organism called Seoul has grown over the past several decades.

«Seoul Urban Planning Grand Review» begins by revisiting that first, tentative starting point, and invites the visitor to put the question to themselves and to look for a direction for the city of Seoul.

What kind of future Seoul should we dream of in 2026?

All great things begin in rough form.
Here is the 1966 Seoul Urban Master Plan, the first record and starting point of Seoul's citywide master planning. It was created at a time when there were few reliable references and almost no precedents to follow. To our eyes today, its drawings may seem crude and its contents strikingly incomplete. Yet they reveal the intense efforts of administrators and planners who worked day and night to establish the framework of a city on barren ground.
The history of urban planning is not merely a fragment of urban history. It is, in many ways, the DNA of the city beneath our feet. Of course, the efforts and outcomes of that period responded to the conditions of their own time and therefore differ greatly from the challenges and solutions of the present and future.
This exhibition traces how those first bold, imperfect plans became part of our everyday life, and how the vast organism called Seoul has grown over the past several decades.
<1966: The Making of Seoul's Urban Future> begins by revisiting that tentative starting point and invites visitors to ask themselves a question about the future direction of Seoul:
"What kind of future should we envision for Seoul in 2026?"

2026.08.14.(FRI) — 11.08.(SUN)
to Seoul in 2026

Seoul Museum of History / KOREA PLANNING ASSOCIATION / The Seoul Institute
SMF Seoul AI Foundation / SCL senseable city lab.

01

Urban planning that shapes our everyday life / URBAN PLANNING THAT SHAPES OUR EVERYDAY LIFE

Much of our life is private. There is myself, my family, what is mine; there are my clothes and my home. But my clothes and my home are not made by me. What someone else has shaped is what I enjoy, and each of us enjoys a great deal that others provide. That countless people help one another beyond the individual is the source of the prosperity and happiness we enjoy today.

Yet for many people to live close together, citizens must understand and practise a public life that goes beyond the individual. If I want to rest quietly at home and someone builds a factory next door that makes noise all day, it leads to conflict between citizens and to the misunderstanding that we exist only to harm one another. That is why roads, parks, water supply and sewerage and other things citizens use together are designated as shared assets available to all.

For many people to live well together on one ground, we need urban planning that establishes a “public order of land use” and the “shared assets of civil society” through the will and contribution of citizens themselves. Our lives today are private, but they are public at the same time. Urban planning, in other words, is a story about our public life.

Myung-gu Kang, Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, University of Seoul

Much of our life seems private: ourselves, our families, our work, our clothes, and our homes. Yet the clothes we wear and the homes we live in are not made by us alone. They are the result of someone else's labor. In the same way, each of us offers something to others and receives something in return. This mutual support among countless people is the source of the prosperity and well-being we enjoy today.
However, when many people live closely together, private life alone is not enough. Citizens must also understand and participate in public life. If a factory is built next to my home and makes noise all day, conflict soon arises, creating the impression that citizens can only harm one another. We therefore designate roads, parks, water supply and sewerage systems, and other facilities as shared public assets available to everyone.
For many people to live well together on the same ground, urban planning must establish a public order for land use and the shared assets of civil society through the will and contribution of citizens themselves. Our lives today are private, but they are also public. Urban planning, in other words, tells the story of our public life.

Myung-gu Kang, Professor of Urban Planning and Design, University of Seoul

[Vertical pixel type on the right wall] A promise about how land is used, and a decision on the assets we build together

A citizen's day in one slice of the city: the city by day
Urban planning, the invisible lines that shape our quality of life

Urban planning cannot be seen.
But the boundaries of zoning districts,
the lines of roads, the ground left empty for parks —
these invisible lines come together
to make the streets we walk every day
and the scenes we meet.

This drawing shows
how those abstract ‘lines’
are translated into the concrete ‘landscape’
of a citizen's day.

Look closely at how the same space changes
between day and night, and at how the plan
you cannot see is designing
the way we live.

Overall curation and content
Professor Jungbin Kim, Department of Urban Planning and Design, University of Seoul
Drawing by Ilhyun Lee
Production support: Soyoung Seol · Yunjeong Cho · Hyunho Cho

[Labels on the map] Green network / Building coverage ratio / Floor area ratio / River zone management / Zoning district / Pedestrian-only street / Everyday social infrastructure / Flood level / Layout of neighbourhood facilities / Walkable catchment / Arterial road / Collector road / Rear street / Sponge city / Retention and leisure zone / District unit plan / Public contribution / Publicly accessible open space / Public parking / Station area / TOD / Multimodal transfer

[7:30] A morning walk with a child
A morning walk with a child. A park and a library both lie within 500 m. A morning walk made by neighbourhood-level planning.

[8:00] On the way to the station
The further you leave the alley, the wider the street and the taller the buildings. Even the scene that used to change at night becomes the same.

[12:30] A break in a publicly accessible open space after lunch
A small wood in the middle of a forest of buildings — the city's margin, handed to citizens in return for permission to build higher.

[18:10] Along the stream after work
A walking path on the way home along the stream after work. A retention space that floods when it rains: ground left empty protects the city.

A citizen's day in one slice of the city: the city by night
Urban planning, the invisible lines that shape our quality of life

Urban planning does not work only by day.
The way home made safe by crime prevention design,
the lights of a centre kept awake by mixed-use development,
the last stretch joined by a late-night bus,
the darkness left along the ecological axis —
these invisible promises come together
to make the night streets we walk without fear
and the scene of coming home.

This drawing shows
It shows how the same space as the city by day
changes when night falls.
Turning the lights on is planning,
and turning them off is planning too.

Look closely at how the invisible lines
keep watch over the city at night.
the way we live.

[Labels on the map] CPTED / Pedestrian safety network / Ecological night lighting / Natural surveillance / Dark sky / Smart street lighting / Green axis / Lighting environment management / Preventing centre-city hollowing / Street-activating uses / Pedestrian network / Media façade lights out at 23:00

[23:00] The green axis along the stream, darkness by design
Turning the night on is planning and turning it off is planning: the darkness of the green axis, lights out at 23:00, is the city's promise to the ecosystem.

[21:30] Night in the centre, and why the lights stay on
The office lights are off, but the floors above are lit. Mixed-use development with housing keeps the centre alive. The convenience store facing the public open space is open tonight as well.

[20:00] The alley on the way home
The same alley walked with a child that morning. At night the light from windows and the street lamps keep watch over it.

[18:30] Going home, the lights of the commercial street
The zoning colours laid on the ground by day rise as light at night. The brightness of the night is planned too.

02

1966, dreaming of Seoul's future / DREAMING OF SEOUL'S FUTURE IN 1966

After Liberation and the war, in a city of ruins, Seoul had to survive. Tomorrow could be met only by enduring today, and so living through the ‘present’ was what mattered. Past the years when eating and sleeping had to be solved at once, in the 1960s we came face to face with Seoul's many ‘problems’. Its body had grown, but the various organs did not work properly — an unstable condition. Seoul had to resolve its scattered problems, assemble the elements of a city into a workable structure, and respond to a changing future.

On top of that, Seoul bore the heavy role of capital of the Republic of Korea. It was like the young head of a poor household, responsible for the family's livelihood and its economy. Even relatives from the provinces flocked to Seoul in search of work, and finding them work was its task as well. So institutions and organisations were put in place to let Seoul function, and experts and administrators gathered to struggle over a vision of the future. This was the urban planning that became Seoul's ‘foundation’.
All of it was being done for the first time.

After Liberation and the Korean War, Seoul first had to survive as a city of ruins. The future could be reached only by enduring the present, and the most urgent tasks were food, shelter, and the basic necessities of daily life. By the 1960s, however, Seoul faced a different set of urban problems. Its body had grown rapidly, but the organs needed to support it were not yet functioning properly. Seoul had to resolve scattered problems, organize the elements of the city into a workable structure, and prepare for a changing future.
At the same time, Seoul carried the heavy responsibility of being the capital of the Republic of Korea. It was like the young head of a struggling household, expected to support the family and manage its livelihood. People from across the country came to Seoul in search of work, and the city also had to find ways to accommodate them. Institutions and planning organizations were therefore established, while experts and administrators struggled to envision a future in which Seoul could function as a modern city. This was urban planning for the foundations of Seoul.
Everything was being attempted for the first time.

How have we imagined the future?
Star Trek is a science-fiction drama first broadcast in 1966.
Dreaming of a future Seoul was then, and is now,
something anyone can do.

[Photo caption] The Delta Vega planet on the STAR TREK episode,
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" Season 1, Episode 3. Original air date, September 22, 1966. Image is a frame grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

[English panel on the left wall] …Had Outgrown … 1966
…oth the fervor of state-led … severe urban overcrowding. …zing the fatherland,' the Park … exports, construction, and …ear Economic Development … in a new urban land scape …uildings and commercial c-…orea-Japan relations and the … the Vietnam War made eco-…people entered a new era of …continuing poverty and cong-
…n of 1963 more than doubled …ulation had reached approxi-…ife remained concentrated in …ates, particularly Jongno and …as still a quiet rural landscape …by rapid population growth, … traffic shortages. Urban pov-…re: roughly one-third of resi-…ng. At the same time, economic …s of leisure and consumption, …dio, and television, while mod-…ances emerged as symbols of
…Baek-young Kim, Professor of Sociology, Seoul National University

[Caption to the exhibition panel graphics]
Population (1) — inflow from the provinces · Local Administration Charts (1959)
Population (3) — population density and other measures · Local Administration Charts (1959)
Changes in administrative boundaries · Atlas of Seoul Urban Planning (1965)
Housing supply and demand · Basic Survey Report for Urban Planning, vol. 2 (1962)
Population movement over ten years · Basic Survey Report for Urban Planning, vol. 2 (1962)
Travel time from the outskirts to City Hall · Basic Survey Report for Urban Planning, vol. 2 (1962)
Housing (1)
Construction and recovery (8) — water supply mains / number of taps in the city / water charges collected / state of the city water supply

The founding of «SPACE», «Urban Affairs» and «Developing Forum»

Why were the three magazines founded in 1966 given these titles?
The three titles also say something about the reality of the time.
The city was a problem, development was the task at hand,
and architecture was a space not yet defined.

SPACE
: founded November 1966 by Kim Swoo-geun

Urban Affairs
: founded September 1966 by the Korea Local Administration Association

Developing Forum
: founded April 1966 by the Korea Planners' Association

THINK

(magazine covers on display)
空間 SPACE / 建築·都市·藝術 ARCHITECTURE URBAN DESIGN ART / 11 1966
都市問題 / 第1號 / 韓国都市行政会 / No.1 / ⑨
DEVELOPING Forum / APRIL 1, '66 / Korea Planners' Association

WHY
Why a plan is needed
: problems and conditions
CONTEXT AND CONSTRAINTS

It wasn't made overnight
: urban planning and the story inside the filing cabinets

Even amid political turmoil and war, the dream of the city of Seoul did not stop. Preparatory work on institutions and other matters went on for the eventual recovery of ordinary life and urban function. In the 1950s, at the fiercest moment of the war, when the capital had been lost and a temporary capital set up in Busan, plans for a future Seoul were still attempted. They were capital reconstruction plans made in anticipation of the return to Seoul.
Much was changed and re-established in 1962, when Seoul acquired special status as the capital. That same year the Urban Planning Act was enacted and an Urban Planning Bureau was set up in the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the institutional ground for planning Seoul was gradually laid. Administrators and experts gathered around the Urban Planning Committee and surveyed and reviewed conditions inside and outside Seoul — street networks, parks, markets, cases from overseas cities. This was the groundwork that made planning possible: a process of feeling out what was lacking, what had to be fixed, and what kind of city could be built.
The 1960s were a time when there was not even a map on which to draw urban planning lines, and when, through the efforts of the administrators and planners of the Urban Planning Bureau, plans were made one by one, however clumsy.

Through the documents, reports, maps and drawings left in the archives of the Urban Planning Bureau of the time, we set out to find what all this actually was.
The first urban master plan of 1966 was not achieved overnight.

It Was Not Created Overnight
: Urban Planning and the Stories Inside the Filing Cabinets

Even amid political turmoil and war, the dream of Seoul as a functioning city did not disappear. Institutions and other preparations were developed in anticipation of the eventual restoration of ordinary urban life. During the fiercest years of the Korean War in the 1950s, when the capital had been lost and a temporary capital established in Busan, plans for Seoul's future were still attempted. These were capital reconstruction plans prepared for the eventual return to Seoul.
Many institutions were reorganized in 1962, when Seoul acquired special status as the national capital. The Urban Planning Act was enacted that year, and an Urban Planning Bureau was established within the Seoul Metropolitan Government, gradually providing the institutional foundation for planning the city. Administrators and experts gathered around the Seoul Urban Planning Committee to investigate and review conditions within and beyond Seoul, including street networks, parks, markets, and examples from overseas cities. This was the groundwork that made planning possible: a process of determining what was missing, what had to be corrected, and what kind of city could be built. At a time when Seoul did not even possess adequate maps on which to draw urban planning lines, administrators and planners in the Urban Planning Bureau produced plans one by one, however tentative they may have been.

The documents, reports, maps, and drawings preserved in the archives of the former Urban Planning Bureau allow us to examine what this work actually involved.
The first urban master plan of 1966 did not emerge overnight.

Large, concentrated, dense: Seoul grew, but people stayed in one place

In 1949 the four districts of Eunpyeong, Guro, Sungin and Ttukdo were incorporated into Seoul, roughly doubling its area.
But the war left even the survey undone, and with neither a street network nor a land use plan in place, Seoul expanded again in 1963 and its administrative area widened from 268 km² to 613 km².
The population poured in faster still. Seoul's population, 1.56 million in 1955, grew to 2.44 million in 1960, 3.25 million at the end of 1963, and 3.79 million in 1966. Those who came in search of work and opportunity were Seoul's strength, and at the same time the weight Seoul had to carry.

The chain of problems set off by population growth

Because people came up from the provinces ‘with no plan at all’, Seoul held several times more people without work than with it. In the 1960s those who could not find housing built shacks and unauthorised houses wherever there was empty ground — along the streams and on the hillsides near the centre, where at least there was work.
Even land secured through urban planning for parks and roads was being occupied by the incoming crowds. Unemployment, the housing shortage and unauthorised settlement were not separate problems: they surfaced together with the places to live that a city grown too fast had failed to provide.

On what should economic growth be built?

The First Five-Year Economic Development Plan was drawn up in 1962. Aiming at building an industrial nation for the modernisation of the fatherland, it sought to resolve various problems and lay the basis of a self-reliant economy. Economic development was not a matter of factories, ports and roads alone. For industry to grow, housing for workers, roads for goods, electricity and water and sewerage, industrial land and markets all had to be provided together. Urban planning was the device that arranged and connected these elements within a single city. Urban planning emerged as the underpinning plan for national economic growth.

(captions to the exhibition graphs)
Housing (I) / housing supply · Local Administration Charts (1959)
Construction and recovery (B) / state of the city water supply and other measures · Local Administration Charts (1959)
Traffic war, a living hell / traffic conditions · Korea Life (1968)

Emergency treatment:
the planning attempts of the 1950s

Seoul's reconstruction plans of the 1950s were urgent urban planning meant to set the war-shattered capital moving again. The war had destroyed roads, housing and public facilities on a large scale, and Seoul had to recover its basic functions as a city. The war damage recovery plan announced in 1952 as ‘Ministry of Home Affairs Notice No. 23’ was the starting point.
The plan set out to put roads and squares in order, to redefine the uses of land, and to restore the centre by rearranging land holdings.
But Seoul's agenda of the time was not solved by recovery alone. As evacuation, return and population growth continued, housing was short and infrastructure insufficient. The reconstruction plans of the 1950s were closer to an emergency prescription for making post-war Seoul work again. That experience showed the need to plan Seoul on a wider and longer term thereafter.

(captions to the material)
South Seoul plan proposed by Park Heung-sik · Urban Planning Project Report (1963) / Hanyang University Architecture Library, donated by Choi Jong-hyun
Urban Reconstruction Plan for Seoul / 1952 / Construction Division, Urban Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government / keywords: war damage recovery, streets, squares

(part of the emergency-treatment text, left of the panel)
(Part of the emergency-treatment text, left of the panel) …the capital shattered by war … was urban planning. The war … destroyed roads and …, and Seoul had to recover its basic … as a city. In 1952, as ‘Ministry of Home Affairs Notice No. 23’ … was the starting point. …put in order, redefining the uses of land, … and restoring …. …was not solved by recovery alone. As evacuation and … continued, housing was short and infrastructure … The reconstruction plans of the 1950s were closer to an emergency prescription for making post-war Seoul work again. That experience showed the need to plan Seoul … on a longer term thereafter.

(captions to the material photographs)
South Seoul plan proposed by Park Heung-sik · Urban Planning Project Report (1963) / Hanyang University Architecture Library, donated by Choi Jong-hyun
Bird's-eye view of District 4
Han-Kang Land development plan (HAN-KANG LAND)
Urban Reconstruction Plan for Seoul / 1952 / Construction Division, Urban Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government / keywords: war damage recovery, streets, squares

(part of the document titles inside the case)
Outline Report on the Urban Plan for the Gado, Sangin, Goyang and Guro Districts / Seoul Metropolitan Government
Report on the Seoul Urban Master Plan (draft)
1964 urban (?) Seoul area (?) urban planning (?)

New Edition Map of Seoul Metropolitan City
5KM / 10KM / 15KM (distance contours)
Legend · Urban planning district drawing
[Handwritten legend] Legend: aesthetic district, classes 1 to 5
Jungang Map & Culture Co. · Urban Improvement Bureau, Seoul Metropolitan Government

Building the institutions: the formation of the Seoul Urban Planning Committee and the creation of the Urban Planning Bureau

Seoul's steep population growth and urban expansion in the early 1960s produced urban problems that existing methods alone could not handle. The Urban Planning Act was therefore enacted in January 1962, and in February of the same year the urban planning division of the Construction Bureau was enlarged and reorganised. Meanwhile the Seoul Urban Planning Committee, launched in 1946, was formalised by ordinance in 1958. The committee took charge of survey and deliberation on urban planning, and its members took part in drawing up plans and securing planning and research resources. This enlargement of the administrative organisation and the activity of a body of experts laid the ground on which Seoul could be planned in the long term and as a whole, and led to the «Seoul Urban Master Plan» of 1966.

What should the future Seoul be?

To carry a rapidly growing population and expanding urban functions, a long-term question had to be asked about the direction in which Seoul should be led. In 1959 the architect Kim Chung-up published a piece in the «Dong-a Ilbo» on the absence of a vision for the city's future, stressing that national land planning, regional planning and urban planning had to be connected to one another. Seoul's problems, he meant, should be seen not within Seoul alone but within the spatial structure of the whole country. Such questions carried over into discussion of long-term plans at both the metropolitan and national level, and were taken up in earnest at the round table «The Future Image of Seoul», held ahead of the «Seoul Urban Master Plan» of 1966. Painters, architects and art critics as well as officials of the Ministry of Construction and the Seoul Metropolitan Government took part, discussing the harmony of the city, the effect of aesthetic districts, the redistribution of urban functions and the importance of a master plan. Urban planning in the Seoul of the 1960s was not the business of administrators and experts alone: it was a process in which society together asked what kind of city Seoul should be, and looked for a direction.

Preface to Ju Won, «Urban Planning and Regional Planning» (1956)

In his memoir, Ju Won recounts that he uncovered material on urban planning dedicated to Choe Nam-seon and heard a great deal about it. He held that in drawing up a future plan for Seoul, nothing came before grasping our past accurately, and he sought to understand how Hanyang had been built in the Joseon period. That is why the 1966 «Seoul Urban Master Plan» report devotes so much space to the history of urban planning.
(caption) Key figures connected with urban planning and with early Joseon-period architects

THINK

(calligraphy in a yellow mount: a classical Chinese poem — difficult to read)

Population Distribution Map No. 12
One dot = 100 persons

[Exhibition caption] Basic Survey for Urban Planning, Vol. 1 / 1962 / Seoul Metropolitan Library
A basic survey report for urban planning compiled in 1962 by the Seoul Urban Planning Committee. …(abridged)

[Document cover] Survey Report of Urban Planning Material (1962)
Basic Survey Report for Urban Planning, Vol. 2
Municipal Records Room
Seoul Metropolitan Library / 111314SG0000014201
Seoul Metropolitan Urban Planning Committee

[Exhibition caption] Research by the Seoul Urban Planning Committee / Basic Survey for Urban Planning, Vol. 2 / 1962 / Seoul Metropolitan Library
(Contents)
1. Population survey
2. Land use and meteorological survey
3. Survey of supply facilities and factories
4. Survey of dedicated uses and underground utilities within the built-up area
5. Survey of transport and metering facilities within the built-up area
6. Survey of social welfare facilities
7. (none)
8. Survey of power and accounts
(Appendix) Drawings and charts

Since the winter of 1961 the Seoul Urban Planning Committee, until then little more than a name, has been greatly strengthened; an operating plan has been drawn up with a budget more than ten times the previous one, and the collection and survey of basic planning material — the absolute precondition of urban planning — is under way: that is, a survey of all the natural and man-made conditions of Seoul.
To give further examples: surveys of the use, structure, number of storeys and layout of existing buildings for the designation of fire prevention districts; basic survey and measurement of the newly incorporated districts (Ttukdo, Suyu, Eunpyeong and Guro — four districts incorporated in 1949), together with land use relations and owner-by-owner registers; and the collection of material on the basic urban planning survey and land use attending the administrative expansion due to take effect on 1 January 1963.
To survey housing conditions across Seoul, students of the Department of Architectural Engineering at the Seoul National University College of Engineering have been guided and assisted in a housing survey, while students of the Department of Geography at the Seoul National University College of Education have carried out a condition survey across Gwangju-gun, Gwacheon-myeon and Sindong-myeon. Finally, a daytime-occupancy survey to establish Seoul's daytime and night-time populations is now under way as the last piece of survey work under this year's operating plan.
Yoon Jung-seop, “Seoul Urban Planning in 1962 and the Future Master Plan”, «Architecture» 6, Architectural Institute of Korea, 1962

Cabinet A

A-01, Survey and cadastre
(most of the text illegible owing to glare)

A-02, Land use
Seoul's land use plans in the 1960s focused on arranging residential, commercial and green functions across the enlarged administrative area. As the city expanded rapidly in the 1970s, the designation of greenbelts, aesthetic districts and redevelopment districts was used to control the extent, density and appearance of growth. The aesthetic districts first designated around Jongno and Sejong-ro in 1965 controlled the height, use and appearance of buildings on major streets, and the greenbelt established in 1971 restrained disorderly sprawl on the edge of Seoul. The subdivision of zoning districts sorted land by permissible use and development intensity. These three instruments regulated the urban fringe, the appearance of the centre and land use within it, and together formed a single management system that guided Seoul's growth selectively.

Administrative drawings
These drawings were kept by the urban planning division and the Urban Planning Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. They fall broadly into three types. The first divides Seoul horizontally and joins several sheets at a scale of 1:3,000. The planning situation of the time is marked by hand, and it appears the content was drawn over or corrected whenever planning matters changed; a note remains, however, that the material has no legal force and may be used for reference only. The second type has a similar scale and format to the first. These appear to be original printed drawings produced by survey, mostly covering the Han River and the Gangnam area, and they carry traces of use as the base drawing for preparing plans. The third is a cadastral map identified as 1970s material: cadastral sheets at 1:600 bound by district, used to grasp individual parcel boundaries and land information in finer detail.

Cabinet B

B-01. Parks
With the Urban Planning Act and related legislation newly overhauled in 1962, Seoul's urban parks also underwent a large-scale reorganisation. In the process, park land in some areas with inadequate supply facilities was released or reduced. …(abridged)…

B-02. Surveys of overseas practice
At the time it was not easy to travel abroad, and difficult to buy material from overseas. …(abridged)…

B-03. Comprehensive surveys
Before drawing up a long-term plan, the Seoul Urban Planning Committee carried out in 1962 the baseline surveys needed for the city's planning. The subjects included population, housing, streets and more. …(abridged)…

B-04. Redevelopment
By the end of the 1960s there were too few ways to move residents living in the housing of the central area out to the edge of Seoul. …(abridged)… It was serious enough at the time that the «Seoul Urban Master Plan '66» treated the rearrangement and redevelopment of the existing built-up area in a chapter of its own.

B-05. Street networks
Planning an urban street network begins with establishing traffic volumes. …(abridged)… In the 1960s Seoul carried out a three-month traffic count across 49 routes and then planned two measures to relieve the congestion concentrated in the centre. …(abridged)…

B-06. Rivers
The improvement of Seoul's rivers was an infrastructure programme meant to reduce damage from heavy rain and to support the expansion of the centre. Lining rivers with concrete, or covering them over and using them as roads, was widely practised — closer to the opposite of today's naturalised restoration. After the survey of the Han River was concluded in 1971, a broad survey of Seoul's tributaries was carried out and improvement plans were drawn at a scale of 1:1,200.

[Right] Cabinet A / A-01. Survey and cadastre / A-02. Land use / Administrative drawings (same text as pid 35)

[Left] Seoul urban planning projection map, detail: Gari district (Sinjak-dong–Yeoksam-dong)
August 1965, drawing by the Seoul Blueprint Works, scale 1:3,000
The same month, different speeds
On 1 January 1963 Seoul more than doubled its territory. That August the newly incorporated land was gazetted as Seoul urban planning area. This drawing is what that gazette looked like once it became an actual sheet. Not all the incorporated land was drawn at the same speed. On this Gari district sheet the blocks are divided and the places for schools, parks and shops are marked one by one — meaning this side was regarded as land that would become city first. At the western end of the sheet, in Dongjak-dong, the national cemetery already stood; that is why the green band runs long along the ridge. When deciding how far the city would reach, the things already in place had their lines drawn first. The uncoloured parts must be read as well. The red grid stops at the foot of the hills, and beyond it the blueprint stands as it is — not because there was no plan, but because its turn had not yet come. Those empty places would be filled by other drawings ten and twenty years later. Most of the lines drawn here were realised. Anyone passing along Seocho-daero and Nambusunhwan-ro today is walking along lines drawn on paper one summer sixty years ago.

[Right] Seoul urban planning projection map, detail: Jobon district (Sinsa-dong–Cheongdam-dong)
August 1965, drawing by the Seoul Blueprint Works, scale 1:3,000
1965: a city drawn before the bridge
In May 1965 the Seoul Metropolitan Government submitted to the central government its plan to build the Third Han River Bridge — today's Hannam Bridge. This drawing was made in August 1965, while the baseline survey for the bridge was under way; that is, the drawing came before the bridge. On land only just incorporated into Seoul, the Urban Planning Committee laid out roads, fixed the sites of schools and arranged shops and parks. To lay colour over the blueprint meant that here, unlike the drawings of the centre, there was almost nothing to demolish and almost nothing to avoid. If planning in the centre was a matter of drawing lines over people already living there, planning here was designing a city from the beginning on ground close to blank paper. The red line that forks at the western edge of the sheet was realised four years later as the Hannam Bridge. The junction at the eastern edge coincides with the point where the Yeongdong Bridge would later be built. At a moment when there was not a single bridge, two crossing points and the city that would fill the space between them were already drawn on paper. Most of the lines drawn here were realised. Anyone passing along Apgujeong-ro and Dosan-daero today is walking along lines drawn on paper one summer sixty years ago.

DRIVER (partial)
… information …

A dream made visible
15 August Urban Planning Exhibition

On 15 August 1966, before the first «Seoul Urban Master Plan» was drawn up, the <15 August Urban Planning Exhibition> marking the 21st anniversary of Liberation opened on City Hall Plaza. Mayor Kim Hyun-ok, who had taken office just four months before the exhibition, announced that he would use it to unveil the ‘New Seoul Plan’, the ‘Eastern Seoul Development Plan’ and the ‘lifting of urban planning lines’. Though it was an outdoor show in midsummer, it drew such interest that a quarter of Seoul's citizens came to see it. Not all of the response was favourable: among experts there was criticism that the plans lacked detail and that this was administration for show. Even so the exhibition was an important turning point. Through it the city intended both to tell citizens about the development projects to come and to raise the money that planning required. An urban planning tax was created afterwards, and the Junggok-dong land readjustment project, led by the private sector without public funds, took concrete shape.
The exhibition was a new experience for citizens as well. Through survey information and planning maps of the areas newly incorporated into Seoul, they could see the city's ‘present’ and ‘future’ for themselves — which areas would be developed, where roads would run, how the city would change. In that sense the exhibition was the first large public disclosure of urban planning to citizens, and an early attempt at civic participation in imagining Seoul's future.
© Jeong Soo-in

Dreams Made Visible
: The August 15 Urban Planning Exhibition
Before the first Seoul Comprehensive Urban Plan was established, the 8·15 Urban Planning Exhibition opened at Seoul City Hall Plaza on 15 August 1966. Held to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Korea's Liberation, the exhibition introduced projects including the New Seoul Plan, the Eastern Seoul Development Plan, and the Removal of Urban Planning Restrictions. Despite being held outdoors in mid-summer, it attracted nearly one quarter of Seoul's population. Although criticized by some experts as lacking concrete proposals, the exhibition became a turning point. It introduced future urban projects to the public, helped build support for urban planning, and was followed by measures such as the Urban Planning Tax and the Junggok-dong Land Readjustment Project. For many citizens, it was their first opportunity to see Seoul's future through planning maps and survey data. They could visualize where roads would be built, which districts would be developed, and how the city would change. More than an exhibition, it marked the first large-scale public presentation of Seoul's urban planning and an early attempt to engage citizens in imagining the city's future.
© Jeong Soo-in

[Booklet, left] Comprehensive exhibition / Guide to the Five-Year Economic Development Plan
[Caption] Guidebook for the Comprehensive Exhibition on the Five-Year Economic Development Plan / 1966 / Seoul Museum of History
The ‘comprehensive exhibition on the Five-Year Economic Development Plan’, held in October 1966, was meant to tell the public about the economic and political plans the state had set — including the results of the First Five-Year Plan and the outlook for the Second — and to present the coming development visually. …(abridged)

[Booklet, centre] Catalogue of the Industrial Exhibition Commemorating the 1st Anniversary of the Military Revolution
THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION OF THE 1ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE MILITARY REVOLUTION OF KOREA / APRIL 20 - JUNE 5 1962
Place: Gyeongbokgung / Dates: 20 Apr – 5 Jun / Organised by: Korea Industrial Promotion Association / Supported by: government ministries
[Caption] Industrial Exhibition in Commemoration of the 1st Anniversary of the Military Revolution: The May 16 Military Coup / 1962 / Seoul Museum of History

[Right] A Plan for Tokyo, 1960 — Towards a Structural …

[Folding map, below] Guide Map of the Industrial Exhibition Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Liberation
[Caption] Guide Map of the Industrial Exhibition Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Liberation / 1955

An exhibition presenting the results of the First Economic Development Plan was held at Deoksugung. From the summer of 1966 to the spring of 1967, the area around Seoul City Hall became a stage on which the capital and the economic development of the Republic of Korea were advertised at home and abroad.

[Upper right] …in midsummer, a large-scale event mobilising every expert in the urban and architectural field.

[Exhibit] Magazine cover «Free World», urban planning mayor …
[Documents] Resolutions, journals and many other handwritten papers on Seoul urban planning
[Caption] View of the exhibition entrance (di… political material) …
Seoul City Hall (Seoul urban planning) comprehensive development (1966), produced by Iljisa …

[Press photograph] (April 17) MAP OF THE CITY— Kim Hyun-ok is a South Korean military leader turned mayor of the capital city of Seoul. Kim, a … boyish man with an inner drive which communicates itself to his aides, has torn up and rebuilt the capital so that it would be unrecognisable to the GI's of … years ago. He poses before a backdrop of the city he has built. (AP Wirephoto) 1969

[Caption] Keyword: Kim Hyun-ok / Photograph of Seoul Mayor Kim Hyun-ok (18 April 1969) / 1969 / Seoul Museum of History
Mayor Kim Hyun-ok, who took office in April 1966, rapidly expanded Seoul's urban base — roads, bridges, housing. At the <15 August Urban Planning Exhibition>, held four months into his term, he disclosed the city's future development to citizens and showed his intent to turn plans into actual projects. But development driven by speed also produced shoddy work and safety problems. When the Wau Apartments collapsed in April 1970, Kim submitted his resignation, taking responsibility for the accident. His term shows both the achievements of rapid urban development and the danger on its underside.

03
Imagination becomes reality
IMAGINATION BECOMES REALITY

All urban planning is a means of helping citizens achieve better lives. Yet even in hardship and difficulty, what matters is not only short-term remedies but the setting of a long-term, structural direction — because a city is not a disposable object. After Liberation our country, and Seoul as its capital, were in exactly that position. We first pursued economic development and modernisation through industrialisation, and urban planning was an important instrument supporting it. The planning of the «Seoul Urban Master Plan '66», drawn up in the 1960s, and the process of its realisation stand as a representation and a proof of our modernisation and industrialisation.
Korea is now recognised worldwide as the only country to have achieved both post-war industrialisation (modernisation) and democratisation. There could only be a wide range of demands and hopes; the bucket list overflowed. It is interesting to speak of those among them that still affect our urban life today — precisely because these plans were established through the thought and study of our own experts and administrators, and achieved by our own hands in ways suited to our conditions. It is said that when we travel, we see as much as we know. We hope that this occasion carries an honest account of our urban spatial environment, and that the more citizens come to know, the more they will love Seoul.
Kim Ki-ho, Professor Emeritus, Department of Urban Planning and Design, University of Seoul

All urban planning is a means to help citizens live better lives. Even in times of hardship and crisis, a city needs more than short-term remedies. It needs a long-term, structural direction, because a city is not a disposable object. After Liberation, Korea-and Seoul as its capital-found itself in precisely that situation. The country first pursued economic growth and modernization through industrialization, and urban planning became one of the essential tools supporting that effort. The 1966 Seoul Urban Master Plan and the process through which it was realized therefore stand as evidence of Korea's modernization and industrialization.
There were countless needs and aspirations; the city's wish list seemed endless. Yet it is meaningful to revisit the plans that still shape urban life today. They were imagined, studied, and carried out by Korean experts and administrators in response to Seoul's own conditions. People often say that when we travel, we see only as much as we know. Through this exhibition, we hope citizens will come to understand Seoul's urban spaces more deeply-and, by knowing more, come to love Seoul more.
Ki-ho Kim, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning and Design, University of Seoul

都市計劃展示會 (第六回) ㅇ 8·15 二十一週年
Seoul Metropolitan Government

[Left] Guide to the Capital City Construction Plan / 1967 / Seoul Museum of History

[Right] Keyword: exhibition leaflet
Leaflet for the urban planning exhibition on the 21st anniversary of Liberation
Leaflet for the Urban Planning Exhibition in Commemoration of the 21st Anniversary of the National Liberation
1966
Seoul Museum of History

Keyword: exhibition feedback form
Exhibition feedback form
Exhibition Feedback Form
1966
Seoul Museum of History

Keyword: exhibition leaflet
Leaflet «What is urban planning?»
Leaflet: "What Is Urban Planning?"
1966
Seoul Museum of History

What urban planning is
It means the urban planning by which a city is built so as to be well ordered, convenient and beautiful.
Seoul Metropolitan Government

[Lower left] Model of the future Seoul / Specification Future Vision Master Plan / 1966 / Seoul Metropolitan Archives

[Lower centre] This is how Seoul will change (an outline of the urban master plan)

Keyword: exhibition leaflet
Leaflet «This is how Seoul will change»
Leaflet: "This Is How Seoul Will Change"
1966
Seoul Museum of History
Four leaflets in all were produced for the exhibition. Three explained the format and guidance of the show; one was a preface. This leaflet was produced by the Korea Planners' Association and written by Kim Ui-won (later a professor at Gachon University). It sets out in fourteen items how Seoul would change once planned. As it came before the «Seoul Urban Master Plan '66» was finished, it differs somewhat from the final plan.
Seoul Metropolitan Government

Let us all work together to build a capital [Seoul] good to live in

[Subtitle of the film above] The Blank-Slate New Seoul Plan was made in the shape of the rose of Sharon, the national flower, in the hope that it would become the cradle of historic and national development. The core institutions of the state were to be arranged in the capital.

[Wall label] Original sketch of the Blank-Slate New Seoul Plan
Original Sketch of the Blank-Slate New Seoul Plan
1966

[Foot of the drawing] 1/2570 0 100 200 300

Leaflet 22, the New Seoul Urban Plan

By determining an area that would become the cradle of historic and national development and that met the requirements of national land planning, we seek to create a planned city of world standing as the New Seoul.
1. To achieve a decisive improvement in capital functions, an east–west and a north–south axis are conceived:
a. North–south axis: the presidential residence and the legislature, with commercial facilities between them
b. East–west axis: the executive and the judiciary, with public facilities between them
2. Land use plan (total area 30–40 million pyeong)
a. Area plan
Government complex 20%
Commercial 5%
Residential 40%
Light industry 5%
Green space 30%
3. Population distribution plan
Planned total population: 1–1.5 million
Employed population: 400,000
Primary industry 10%
Secondary industry 20%
Tertiary industry 70%

Greater Seoul 20-Year Urban Plan · Latest General Map of Seoul
1969
Keyword: latest general map of Seoul (Greater Seoul 20-Year Urban Plan)
Latest general map of Seoul (Greater Seoul 20-Year Urban Plan)
Latest Seoul 20-Year Urban Map
1967
Seoul Museum of History
A map published in 1967 by the Greater Seoul Transport Map Association in line with the planning decisions, reflecting the «Greater Seoul 20-Year Urban Plan» gazetted on 28 February 1967.

[Vertical label at right] Proportions of the plan

1966 · 1st plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan '66
THE MASTER PLAN OF SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT / Seoul Metropolitan Government

One centre – five sub-centres
(1-1) Diagram of urban function dispersal
(1-2) Neighbourhood and community plan
(1-3) Community plan and neighbourhood concept
(1-4) Transport network plan
(1-5) Street network plan
(1-6) Subway plan
(1-7) Industrial area concept plan
(1-8) Residential area concept plan
(1-9) Green area concept plan
(1-10) Plan for the distribution and dispersal of business districts

(Drawing numbers) 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, 1-6, 1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 1-10
(Chinese characters in the 1-1 diagram) Office of the President, executive, judiciary, legislature
(partially visible at right) Adjusted Establishment of the Seoul Urban Master Plan / 2-1, 2-4, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8, 2-9

1971 · 2nd plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan, adjusted establishment '70
THE MASTER PLAN OF SEOUL METROPOLIS IN 1971, '70 / Seoul Metropolitan Government

One centre – seven sub-centres
(2-1) Concentric composition of Seoul
(2-2) Layout of sub-centres
(2-3) Residents' community concept
(2-4) Street network plan
(2-5) Transport plan
(2-6) Capital region rail network plan
(2-7) Subway plan
(2-8) Aggregate land use plan
(2-9) Land use plan

(Drawing numbers) 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8, 2-9
(partially visible at left) Area plan concept / Area plan concept / Plan for district distribution and dispersal / … plan
(Partially visible at right) 3-1, 3-3, 3-4, 3-7

1978 · 3rd plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan — towards the 2000s
Seoul Urban Master Plan · Seoul Metropolitan Government
One city centre – 7 regional centres – 27 district centres – 157 neighbourhood centres
(3-1) Reorganisation of urban structure
(3-2) Basic urban structure concept
(3-3) Neighbourhood plan
(3-4) Arterial street network plan
(3-5) Motor expressway network plan
(3-6) Urban rail network plan
(3-7) Composite drawing of the Seoul Urban Master Plan

[English labels on the drawings] Basic idea of Urban structure / Conception of community plan / Freeway network / Subway network / Composite plan of the Seoul Urban Master Plan

[Part of the 2nd plan at left] …centre / …concentric …drawing / …layout drawing / …community …drawing / …network plan / …transport plan / capital region rail network …plan / subway plan / (2-8) aggregate land use plan / (2-9) land use plan

[Part of the 4th plan at right] 4-3

1980 · 4th plan
Seoul 2000 Long-Term Urban Development Concept and Medium-Term Plan
Long-Term Urban Development Concept and Medium-Term Plan · Planning framework and summary · Population, economy and society · Seoul Metropolitan Government
One centre – 17 regional centres – 72 district centres
(4-1) Commercial area plan
(4-2) Neighbourhood divisions
(4-3) Urban expressway network plan
(4-4) Arterial road network plan
(4-5) Rail station catchments
(4-6) Composite urban planning drawing

[Part of the 5th plan at right] 5-1 / 5-2 / 5-3 / 5-4 / 5-5 / 5-6 / 5-8

1990 · 5th plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan towards the 2000s
Seoul Urban Master Plan 1990 · Seoul Metropolitan Government
One centre – 5 sub-centres – 58 district centres
(5-1) Basic spatial structure concept
(5-2) Neighbourhood divisions
(5-3) Urban expressway network concept
(5-4) Arterial road network plan
(5-5) Urban rail network concept
(5-6) Commercial areas
(5-7) Industrial areas
(5-8) Residential areas
(5-9) Green areas

[Drawing labels] Urban expressway network concept / Arterial road network plan / Urban rail network concept

[Part of the 6th plan at right] 6-2 / 6-3 / 6-4 / 6-5 / 6-6

1997 · 6th plan
2011 Seoul Urban Master Plan
One centre – 4 sub-centres – 11 regional centres – 54 district centres
(6-1) Seoul centre system
(6-2) Neighbourhood divisions
(6-3) Arterial road network plan
(6-4) Urban expressway network plan
(6-5) Subway and rail plan
(6-6) Basic urban structure concept

[Part of the 5th plan at left] …centre …centre / …structure basic …drawing / neighbourhood divisions / urban expressway network concept / arterial road network plan / urban rail network concept / (5-6) commercial (5-7) industrial (5-8) residential (5-9) green areas

[Part of the 7th plan at right] 2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan / 7-1 / 7-4

2006 · 7th plan
2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan
One centre – 5 sub-centres – 11 regional centres – 53 district centres
(7-1) Concept of Seoul's spatial structure
(7-2) Seoul centre system
(7-3) Neighbourhood divisions
(7-4) Transport plan: arterial road network
(7-5) Route map of Seoul's arterial road network
(7-6) Transport plan: rail network
(7-7) Basic urban structure concept

[Part of the 8th plan at right] One centre – 5 sub-centres – 11 regional centres – 53 district centres / 2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan

2014 · 8th plan
2030 Seoul Plan
Three centres – 7 wide-area centres – 12 regional centres
(8-1) Centre system of the 2030 Seoul Plan
(8-2) Neighbourhood divisions
(8-3) Reference drawing: road network concept of the capital region wide-area urban plan
(8-4) Wide-area transport axis concept
(8-5) Basic urban structure concept

[7th plan at left] One centre – 5 sub-centres – 11 regional centres – 53 district centres
(7-1) Concept of Seoul's spatial structure
(7-2) Seoul centre system
(7-3) Neighbourhood divisions
(7-4) Transport plan: arterial road network
(7-5) Route map of Seoul's arterial road network
(7-6) Transport plan: rail network
(7-7) Basic urban structure concept

2040 Seoul Plan
2023

8th plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan
Three centres – 7 wide-area centres – 12 regional centres
(8-1) Centre system of the 2030 Seoul Plan
(8-2) Neighbourhood divisions
(8-3) Reference drawing: road network concept of the capital region wide-area urban plan
(8-4) Wide-area transport axis concept
(8-5) Basic urban structure concept

2040 Seoul Plan
2023 · 9th plan
2040 Seoul Plan
Three centres – 7 wide-area centres – 12 regional centres
(9-1) Seoul centre system
(9-2) Division into wide-area neighbourhoods
(9-3) Reference: capital region high-speed transport network
(9-4) The wide-area metropolitan region, linking the express rail network with the centre system
(9-5) Four innovation axes: linking centres with industrial nodes
(9-6) Parks, green space and waterfront axes

#5 The birth of the alley community

The origin of neighbourhood planning and community planning

“Jeonghwan, go down to the house below and get a bowl of rice. And take this to them.”

At dinner time in an alley in Ssangmun-dong, side dishes and snacks pass between five households. Jeonghwan's family, a bowl of rice short, sends salad over to Deok-seon's family and asks for one bowl of rice.
Deok-seon's family sends back the rice with a dish of kkakdugi; Jeonghwan's family then sends bulgogi to Seon-woo's family, and Seon-woo's family sends curry back. The relay of side dishes, which ends only after lettuce, oysters and laver have gone round as well, shows the smallest unit of neighbourhood, the one formed within walking distance.

From the drama «Reply 1988» (2015)

(Partially visible at right) #4 Meeting her… the magpie bridge of the 21st century, … / “…yah, …come out.” / (2001)

Page 173
Neighbourhood and community plan
① Changneung ② Susaek ③ Eunpyeong ④ Sindo ⑤ Suyu ⑥ Chang-dong
⑦ Gongdeok ⑧ Cheongnyang ⑨ Jungang ⑩ Mangu ⑪ Cheonho ⑫ Songpa
⑬ Gangnam ⑭ Naegok ⑮ Gwacheon ⑯ Guro ⑰ Siheung
⑱ Yeongdeungpo ⑲ Yeoui ⑳ Oryu ㉑ Gimpo
(Place names in Chinese characters on the map) Sindo, Chang-dong, Suyu, Gongdeok, Changneung, Eunpyeong, Cheongnyang, Susaek, Jungang, Mangu, Gimpo, Yeoui, Cheonho, Yeongdeungpo, Gangnam, Guro, Songpa, Siheung, Gwacheon, Naegok
Neighbourhood and community plan

Neighbourhood planning, included in the field of urban planning continuously since the «Seoul Urban Master Plan» of 1966, remained a non-statutory plan for many years until it finally became statutory in 2024 — which also means it came to be recognised as a necessary plan rather than one that might just as well be absent. Expressions such as ‘walkable neighbourhood’ and ‘15-minute neighbourhood’, and the term community, are now widely used; the significance here is that, early on, planning took an interest beyond publicly led physical plans in the spatial range within which residents form relationships and live, and brought it into the field of planning.

(Partially visible at left) p. 66 / …‘the direction of the land use plan…’ / 1965, ‘the Second Han River Bridge…with the Han River Bridge alone…in order to resolve…Yeouido and other parts of Seoul…’

‘Seoul… plan… after it was drawn up’

After the first Seoul Urban Master Plan of 1966, the Seoul Metropolitan Government drew up eight further urban master plans. In the …s the focus was on dispersing Seoul's population and developing Gangnam, and the … plan proposed shifting Seoul's spatial structure from a single centre to a ‘polycentric’ one and reorganising the transport system into a ‘grid’. With the amendment of the Urban Planning Act in 1981, the urban master plan settled into place as a statutory plan.
The «Seoul Urban Master Plan towards the 2000s», drawn up in 1990, was Seoul's first statutory urban master plan and proposed a spatial structure reorganising the city into a polycentric system of one centre and five sub-centres. The «2011 Seoul Urban Master Plan» (1997), drawn up after the introduction of local self-government, moved away from growth- and development-led planning to concentrate on improving the quality of citizens' lives. In the 2000s the «2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan» (2006) set out the ‘healing’ of urban problems accumulated during rapid growth and the ‘recovery’ of Seoul's history and natural environment as its keywords. The «2030 Seoul Plan» of 2014 attempted participatory planning, with a citizens' panel of 100 presenting a vision for Seoul's future, and the «2040 Seoul Plan» (2023) emphasises the creation of ‘walkable everyday neighbourhoods’ so that citizens can live their daily lives within walking distance.
Yang Jae-seop, honorary research fellow of The Seoul Institute; head of Doyeonjae

(Table)
No. | Year | Title | Planning body | Mayor of Seoul | Notes | Stage
1st | 1966 | Seoul Urban Master Plan '66 | Korea Planners' Association | Kim Hyun-ok | · Seoul's first urban plan · building a modern capital | Introduction
2nd | 1971 | Seoul Urban Master Plan, adjusted establishment '70 | Korea Planners' Association | Yang Taek-sik | · reflecting changed conditions, including stronger measures against population concentration in the capital region | Development
3rd | 1978 | Seoul Urban Master Plan — towards the 2000s | Daeji Engineering | Koo Ja-choon | · proposing a polycentric urban structure and a grid transport system |
4th | 1980 | Seoul 2000 Long-Term Urban Development Concept and Medium-Term Plan | Institute of Urban and Regional Planning | Chung Sang-chun | · drawn up as an extension of the 1978 master plan |
5th | 1990 | Seoul Urban Master Plan towards the 2000s | Environmental Planning Institute, Seoul National University | Goh Kun | · Seoul's first statutory urban master plan under the 1981 amendment of the Urban Planning Act | Consolidation
6th | 1997 | 2011 Seoul Urban Master Plan | Seoul Development Institute | Cho Soon | · the first master plan drawn up under an elected administration · a human-centred city worth living in |
7th | 2006 | 2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan | Seoul Development Institute | Lee Myung-bak | · emphasising the healing of urban problems from the rapid growth era and the recovery of Seoul's history and natural environment |
8th | 2014 | 2030 Seoul Plan | The Seoul Institute | Park Won-soon | · also called the Seoul Plan · a participatory master plan drawn up with a citizens' panel | Maturity
9th | 2023 | 2040 Seoul Plan | The Seoul Institute | Oh Se-hoon | · presenting new planning concepts such as walkable everyday neighbourhoods and Beyond Zoning |

Source: rewritten from Kim In-hee, “Retrospect and prospect of the Seoul Urban Master Plan”, in «Changing Seoul, Evolving Plans: proceedings of the forum on the Seoul Urban Master Plan and its monitoring», The Seoul Institute, 18 July 2025, p. 7

3rd · 1978
«Seoul Urban Master Plan — towards the 2000s»

The third plan sought to redraw Seoul's long-term urban structure with the 2000s in view. If the 1966 plan first set out Seoul's basic frame, the 1978 plan sought to order the Seoul that had followed rapid growth more systematically. It is marked in particular by its proposal of a polycentric urban structure, dividing functions concentrated in the centre among several centres, and a grid transport system connecting the whole city efficiently. The idea of turning Seoul from a city dependent on a single centre into a metropolis in which several nodes work together began in earnest here.

4th · 1980
«Seoul 2000 Long-Term Urban Development Concept and Medium-Term Plan»

The fourth plan was drawn up as an extension of the 1978 master plan. It carried the broad direction for the Seoul of the 2000s set out by the preceding plan into more concrete development concepts and a medium-term plan. By this time Seoul had already grown into a giant city, and problems of housing, transport, land use, parks, environment and infrastructure were appearing at once. The fourth plan therefore did not stop at presenting a long-term vision but focused on how actual development and improvement would be carried out in stages.

5th · 1990
«Seoul Urban Master Plan towards the 2000s»

The fifth plan matters as Seoul's first statutory urban master plan. As the amendment of the Urban Planning Act in 1981 clarified the legal character of the master plan, Seoul's long-term planning also came to be drawn up and approved within an institutional framework. Setting out a direction for Seoul's development towards the 2000s, it dealt comprehensively with sectoral plans for urban structure, land use, transport, housing and environment. It was the moment at which the urban master plan settled into place as an official plan managing Seoul's future, beyond a mere concept or administrative document.

6th · 1997
«2011 Seoul Urban Master Plan»

The sixth plan was the first master plan drawn up under an elected administration. As local self-government took hold, Seoul's planning too began to shift from administration-led development plans towards considering citizens' lives and the quality of the city together. Aiming at a ‘human-centred city worth living in’, it treated not only growth and development but also the residential environment, neighbourhoods, the urban environment, culture and welfare as important tasks. Less how much bigger Seoul should be made, than how the Seoul that had already grown could be made a good place to live.

7th · 2006
«2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan»

The seventh plan put its weight on healing the urban problems accumulated during the era of rapid growth and on recovering Seoul's history and natural environment. Where earlier planning had concentrated on growth, expansion and imposing an order on development, this plan looked back at the problems left by growth. It set out to resolve congestion, regional imbalance, environmental damage and disparities in the living environment, and reflected the turn towards an environmentally sound city symbolised by the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon and the making of Seoul Forest — developing Seoul as a world city and, at the same time,

8th · 2014
«2030 Seoul Plan»

The eighth plan is a participatory master plan also known as the ‘Seoul Plan’. Where earlier plans were made largely by experts and administrative bodies, this one is marked by the formation of a citizens' panel to bring citizens' views into the planning process. It was an attempt to change the future of Seoul from something the administration presents unilaterally into something citizens discuss and choose together. Responding to new urban problems — low growth, ageing, climate change, housing insecurity — it was a plan of the mature period, one that sought to look at Seoul again with citizens' lives at the centre.

9th · 2023
«2040 Seoul Plan»

The ninth plan presents new planning concepts reflecting changed ways of life and demands on urban space. The walkable everyday neighbourhood and Beyond Zoning are the most prominent. The walkable everyday neighbourhood is the idea that citizens should be able to find the functions they need for daily life close by, without travelling far. Beyond Zoning is a direction that goes past the existing zoning system, which strictly separated residential, business and commercial functions, towards mixed and flexible urban space. The 2040 plan seeks to turn Seoul not into a city that expands further, but into one that works more conveniently and flexibly close to everyday life.

THINK
Seoul Urban Master Plan '66
Seoul Urban Master Plan, adjusted establishment '70
Seoul Urban Master Plan — towards the 2000s
Seoul 2000 Long-Term Urban Development Concept and Medium-Term Plan
Seoul Urban Master Plan towards the 2000s
2011 Seoul Urban Master Plan
2020 Seoul Urban Master Plan
2030 Seoul Plan
2040 Seoul Plan

The names given to the Seoul Urban Master Plan

The word ‘master plan’, meaning the long-term plan of urban planning, continued throughout, though in 1980 it was briefly replaced by the term ‘long-term concept and medium-term plan’. The direction of planning towards the 2000s was carried over three times with difficulty. Only in 1997 did the master plan change to being labelled by its target year rather than the year of its establishment. The changes in the name of the master plan are, in a word, a story of twists and turns.

04
The age of Seoul's population decline

Our urban planning
OUR URBAN PLANNING

Seoul is not a city made by any one era. It is a city built from the layered time of the people who lived in Hanyang during the Joseon period, those who met the changes of modernity in the Korean Empire, those who passed along the streets and alleys of Gyeongseong under colonial rule, and the countless citizens who live in Seoul today. In times when the size of the city and its population changed little, the city could be sustained simply by managing the existing order. But from the 1960s, when the population exploded and the city expanded rapidly, Seoul became a city that could no longer hold together by dealing with present problems alone. The future could not be predicted exactly, but preparation to meet it was needed.
Urban planning is therefore a matter of seeing Seoul widely and, at the same time, of looking at it closely. The broad direction of Seoul must be read within the currents of the capital region and the nation, but the streets, markets, schools and parks of the neighbourhood where I live, the old houses and the memories of people, must also be recorded with care. A vast plan takes its meaning on top of small daily life. The Seoul Urban Master Plan is not a plan for Seoul alone but a plan belonging to all of us who live this city together. The Seoul to come is common ground, to be imagined more widely, examined more closely, and made together.

Seoul was not made by any single era. It is a city formed by the accumulated traces of people who lived in Hanyang during the Joseon Dynasty, experienced the transformations of the Korean Empire, walked the streets and alleys of Gyeongseong under Japanese colonial rule, and inhabit Seoul today. When the city's size and population changed only slowly, it was possible to sustain the city largely by managing the existing order. But after the 1960s, when the population exploded and the city expanded rapidly, Seoul could no longer survive by responding only to immediate problems. The future could not be predicted with certainty, but the city had to prepare for it.
Urban planning therefore requires both a broad view and close attention to local realities. We must understand Seoul within the larger flows of the nation and metropolitan region, while also carefully recording the roads, markets, schools, parks, old houses, and memories of the neighborhoods where we live. A grand plan gains meaning only when it reaches everyday life. The Seoul Urban Master Plan is not merely a plan for Seoul as an administrative territory. It is a plan for all of us who live together in this city. The Seoul of the future must be imagined on a larger scale, examined more closely, and made together as our common ground.

monitoring of the Seoul Urban Master Plan

The urban master plan is a comprehensive plan drawn up under the «Act on Planning and Use of National Territory». It sets the policy direction and framework for improving citizens' quality of life and for sustainable urban development through the efficient and rational use of the city's limited resources. Monitoring how the goals, policies and strategies presented in the master plan are pursued, and to what degree they are being achieved, therefore matters.

A monitoring system able to diagnose the results of the master plan was proposed in the «2030 Seoul Plan» of 2014 and introduced through the 2015 amendment of the «Seoul Urban Planning Ordinance». The Seoul Metropolitan Government has carried out monitoring of the 2030 and 2040 Seoul Plans from 2015 to the present. That Seoul was the first in the country to introduce a monitoring system for the urban master plan carries great significance for Korea's planning system: drawing up a master plan matters, but diagnosing its progress, its results and the changes in the city matters still more.
Maeng Da-mi, senior research fellow, The Seoul Institute

(On the monitor) Industrial specialisation in Seoul / information and communications, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance and others

The Seoul Potato Map

The «Seoul Potato Map» looks at Seoul not as one vast mass but as an organism formed by countless neighbourhoods and everyday districts. Understanding the city as ‘Big by Small’, it seeks to read the large Seoul again within a set of small communities and their relations. The so-called Potato Plan — the ‘Social & Functional Analysis’ of Abercrombie's Greater London Plan, which the 1966 «Seoul Urban Master Plan» consulted — was a method that took the city apart through the relations of people, life and function rather than physical form; here Seoul's 25 districts have been redrawn through the eyes of local experts. By adding Seoul's own layers — mountains and streams, apartment estates, traditional markets, centrality, districts under development — on top of potato-shaped neighbourhood units, it shows that Seoul is not a uniform metropolis but an ecosystem of micro-cities with different times, densities and identities. Its achievement lies in making visible again the individuality of neighbourhoods, their social relations and the meaning of natural topography, all obscured by the logic of development. At the same time the «Seoul Potato Map» asks how Seoul might recover the lost connection between nature and daily life, how the durability and liveability of neighbourhoods might be raised, and how ‘Seoul-ness’ might be carried on as a strategy for the future city.
Park Hye-ri, project lead, the Seoul Potato Map

(Map) LONDON SOCIAL & FUNCTIONAL AREAS

Seocho-gu
Seocho-gu: living amid nature, a city of culture
Kim Ki-ho

Seocho-gu is a good place to live, where the Seoripul green belt joining the Han River with Mount Umyeon and Mount Cheonggye meets the Banpocheon and Yangjaecheon streams. Leading the development of Gangnam and the era of apartment living, it created neighbourhood-unit housing estates and, holding the legal district, Seoul National University of Education, the National Library of Korea and the Seoul Arts Center, is growing into an international city combining nature, housing, business and culture.

(Foot of the left page) Cho Hang-man, Seo Ji-young
…apartments built, the … railway and Nambusunhwan-ro, cheap housing … apartments built, urbanisation joined to the capital region, social mobility …

Gwanak-gu
Gwanak-gu: a condensed cross-section of the history of urban change in the capital region
Cho Hang-man, Seo Ji-young

Gwanak-gu began as a resettlement area for evicted and displaced people on the slopes of Mount Gwanak, and took in Seoul's growth and migration. The relocation of Seoul National University, the subway and Nambusunhwan-ro, and cheap housing became a base of opportunity, and the hillside settlements were turned into apartments through redevelopment. A place where varied areas and communities coexist, it is a condensed cross-section of the history of urban change — the urbanisation, social mobility and regeneration experienced by Seoul and the capital region.

Seocho-gu
Seocho-gu: living amid nature, a city of culture

Urban form analysis map

This is the groundwork of documenting Seoul's urban space, undertaken to grasp the context of its formation and change within continuous space and continuous time. Based on the original cadastral maps, it shows the built-up area within the Hanyang city wall and the villages of Gyeonggi-do in the early twentieth century, the old roads that connected those spaces and the old watercourses that reveal the original terrain; the various methods of urban development by which they were transformed into the urban space of Seoul and the spatial units of those methods; and the processes of change still under way, together with the date of each individual building (by year of building approval).

2020–2026 survey areas of the documentation by urban district
○ Field survey area · area name (district – legal dong – area number)

Early twentieth-century built-up area and old villages, old roads and old watercourses (original cadastral maps of Gyeonggi-do, 1910s)
● Sites (built-up areas and villages)
● Roads (old roads)
● Rivers and ditches (old watercourses)
● Railways (rail lines)

Cultural heritage
● Cultural heritage sites
● Seoul Future Heritage

Building date (year of approval for use, from the building register)
● Before the 1930s
● 1940s
● 1950s
● 1960s
● 1970s
● 1980s
● 1990s
● 2000s onward
● Date unknown (unregistered buildings)

Housing estates and group housing areas
○ Official residences and company housing
○ Cultural housing areas
● Housing Corporation estates
○ Municipal and citizens' housing estates (municipal housing, municipal flats, citizens' flats)
● Resettlement areas
● Village structure improvement

Urban planning
■ Land readjustment project
■ Housing site development district
■ Consolidated housing area
■ Apartment district
● Urban development district
● Public housing district
⊘ Redevelopment promotion district (New Town)
● Urban regeneration redevelopment (centre redevelopment)
● Housing improvement redevelopment (housing redevelopment)
● Housing reconstruction
● Small-scale housing improvement
● Residential environment improvement
● Residential environment management
--- Hanyang City Wall of Seoul
1914 / 1936 / 1949 / 1963 / 1973

Bongcheon-dong
Drone photogrammetry 3D model · documentation of urban space

(Caption: a panel print of the Bongcheon-dong part of a 3D model built from drone photogrammetry data captured over twelve flights up to 11 February 2026. To capture the actual life and living space of the city, the present alleys and neighbourhoods are shown, centred on the survey area, using actual orthophotographs and aerial images for most of the area. ※ The source imagery is low resolution, so detailed reading is limited.)

(Labels on the map) Bongcheon 2-dong · Bongcheon-dong resettlement area / Bongcheon 1-dong resettlement area / Bongcheon-dong resettlement area

Where are we today?
2024 monitoring assessment of the Seoul Urban Master Plan
Seoul's present position, in figures worth noting
(https://data.si.re.kr/node/65450)

1. Population change
2. Citizens' life course
3. Housing supply
4. Housing type
5. Building life cycle
6. Industrial structure
7. Centres
8. Wide-area neighbourhoods
9. Carbon emissions

1. Population change
Even as out-migration eases, sensitivity to population change rises
Housing supply on Seoul's fringe, the pandemic and other factors are expected to diversify the drivers of population change

1-1 Seoul in the fourth year past the dead cross: natural decrease narrows slightly
- Seoul's population in 2024 was 9.288 million, down 0.5% on 2023
- Natural increase in 2024 was −11,000; the rate of decline has narrowed slightly since 2022

1-2 Rising life expectancy, a step towards a healthy ageing society
- Life expectancy in Seoul rose from 83.0 years in 2014 to 85.0 in 2023
- In the ‘subjective health assessment’ of those aged 60 and over,
- positive answers rose from 26.6% in 2014
- to 35.6% in 2024

1-3 The rush out of Seoul slows; migration converges towards a balance
- Outflow through migration continues, but the pace is easing
- Outflow to Gyeonggi and Incheon has fallen sharply

1-4 Education and jobs bring people to Seoul
- Reasons for moving into Seoul from elsewhere: work 36.4%, family 23.5%, housing 15.3%, education 13.2%
- Inflow for work and education is increasing
- Reasons for moving out of Seoul: family 32.0%, housing 26.9%, work 23.3%
- Outflow driven by housing is decreasing

2. Citizens' life course
A change in the ‘sequential life model’
The emergence of a post-generation that dissolves the boundaries between generations

2-1 ‘Living alone’ increases in every age group
- Single-person households rose from 1.116 million to 1.627 million, up 45.9% on 2015
- Reasons for living alone include bereavement, divorce or separation, study and work, and the wish for an independent life
- 66.0% intend to remain in a single-person household, and the intention rises markedly with age

2-2 Households formed through social ties: the rise of non-relative households
- Non-relative households rose 155.9%; among households headed by someone in their thirties, by 256.6%

2-3 Marriages and births delayed by the pandemic are still catching up
- Seoul's marriage rate (marriages per 1,000 people) rebounded slightly, from 3.8 in 2022 to 3.9 in 2023
- Births in 2024 numbered 42,000, up 5.4% on 2023

2-4 The age of multiple careers in one life begins in earnest
- The economic participation rate of those aged 65 and over is 29.6%, up 2.9 points on 2015
- Seoul has 508,000 workers aged 65 and over

3. Housing supply
Seoul reaches 260,000 officetels
With the growth of the solo economy, the housing market for one- and two-person households is expected to expand

3-1 With household numbers rising fast, housing in Seoul remains short
- The housing stock is growing, but the housing supply ratio fell to 93.6% in 2023, down 2.4 points from 96.0% in 2015

3-2 Active supply of quasi-housing for one- and two-person households
- Housing completions are on a downward trend; officetels are used as housing for one- and two-person households

4. Housing type
Thirty years of the apartment republic
With ‘villa phobia’, housing supply converges on apartments

4-1 Seoul, a city of multi-unit housing
- Detached houses made up 3.5% of Seoul's housing in 2023
- 25% of demolished dwellings were detached houses

4-2 New low-rise flats face extinction; the housing ladder is broken
- Multi-household and row housing made up more than half of completions until 2017
- In 2024 the share was only 12.5%

4-3 Detached houses are [cut off at right]
- Detached and multi-family houses […]
- Total stock of detached houses […]

5. Building life cycle
Ageing buildings increase rapidly and in large numbers, while new construction [is …]
With little new building and much ageing, the age structure of buildings resembles that of the population

5-1 Buildings are ageing rapidly too
- In 2024, buildings 30 years old or more accounted for 29.6% of gross floor area in Seoul (184.3 km²)
- New building permits in 2024 covered 3.1 km² of floor area, 62.2% down on 2019 (8.3 km²)

5-2 A low share of new building and a high share of ageing stock: an inverted pyramid
- In 2024, 58.3% of Seoul's buildings were 30 years old or more
- By floor area they accounted for 29.6%
- The floor-area share of ageing buildings continues to rise

1. Population change
Even as out-migration eases, sensitivity to population change rises
Housing supply on Seoul's fringe, the pandemic and other factors are expected to diversify the drivers of population change

1-1 Seoul in the fourth year past the dead cross: natural decrease narrows slightly
- Seoul's population in 2024 was 9.288 million, down 0.5% on 2023
- Natural increase in 2024 was −11,000; the rate of decline has narrowed slightly since 2022

1-2 Rising life expectancy, a step towards a healthy ageing society
- Life expectancy in Seoul rose from 83.0 years in 2014 to 85.0 in 2023
- In the ‘subjective health assessment’ of those aged 60 and over, positive answers rose from 26.6% in 2014 to 35.6% in 2024

(1-3) The rush slows; migration converges towards a balance
- Outflow through migration continues, but the pace is easing
- Outflow to Gyeonggi and Incheon has fallen sharply

1-4 Education and jobs bring people to Seoul
- Reasons for moving into Seoul from elsewhere: work 36.4%, family 23.5%, housing 15.3%, education 13.2%
- Inflow for work and education is increasing
- Reasons for moving out of Seoul: family 32.0%, housing 26.9%, work 23.3%
- Outflow driven by housing is decreasing

2. (Building) life cycle — a change in the ‘sequential life model’
The emergence of a post-generation that dissolves the boundaries between generations

2-2 Households formed through social ties: the rise of non-relative households
- Non-relative households rose 155.9%; among households headed by someone in their thirties, by 256.6%

2-3 Marriages and births delayed by the pandemic are still catching up
- Seoul's marriage rate (marriages per 1,000 people) rebounded slightly, from 3.8 in 2022 to 3.9 in 2023
- Births in 2024 numbered 42,000, up 5.4% on 2023

2-4 The age of multiple careers in one life begins in earnest
- The economic participation rate of those aged 65 and over is 29.6%, up 2.9 points on 2015
- Seoul has 508,000 workers aged 65 and over

3. Housing supply
Seoul reaches 260,000 officetels
With the growth of the solo economy, the housing market for one- and two-person households is expected to expand

3-1 With household numbers rising fast, housing in Seoul remains short
- The housing stock is growing, but the housing supply ratio fell to 93.6% in 2023, down 2.4 points from 96.0% in 2015

3-2 Active supply of quasi-housing for one- and two-person households
- Housing completions are on a downward trend; officetels are used as housing for one- and two-person households

4. Housing type
Thirty years of the apartment republic
With ‘villa phobia’, housing supply converges on apartments

4-1 Seoul, a city of multi-unit housing
- Detached houses made up 3.5% of Seoul's housing in 2023
- 25% of demolished dwellings were detached houses

4-2 New low-rise flats face extinction; the housing ladder is broken
- Multi-household and row housing made up more than half of completions until 2017
- In 2024 the share was only 12.5%

4-3 Detached houses are a rarity, and many are converted into space for consumption
- 70.1% of detached and multi-family houses are 30 years old or more
- The total stock of detached houses is falling, while ‘house-and-shop’ detached houses hold steady

5. Building life cycle
Ageing buildings increase rapidly and in large numbers, while new construction slows
With little new building and much ageing, the age structure of buildings resembles that of the population

5-1 Buildings are ageing rapidly too
- In 2024, buildings 30 years old or more accounted for 29.6% of gross floor area in Seoul (184.3 km²)
- New building permits in 2024 covered 3.1 km² of floor area, 62.2% down on 2019 (8.3 km²)

5-2 A low share of new building and a high share of ageing stock: an inverted pyramid
- In 2024, 58.9% of Seoul's buildings were 30 years old or more, accounting for 29.6% by floor area
- The floor-area share of ageing buildings is expected to keep rising

5-3 Ageing by building use varies widely between areas
- For residential buildings, the areas with the oldest stock and those with the most new building are spatially distinct
- Office buildings cluster in the city centre and the wide-area centres
- Neighbourhood facilities show both a high ageing share and a high new-build share in the three Gangnam districts

6. Industrial structure
Restructuring rather than recovery after Covid
With economic growth slowing, job growth has stalled, and the boundaries between industries are breaking down as they restructure

6-1 Slower growth and a flat trend in employment
- Seoul's GRDP growth stalled with the shock of Covid-19 in 2020
- Employment has been flat since feeling the effects of the pandemic in 2021

6-2 Continued growth and restructuring of knowledge-intensive industries
- Seoul's specialised industries are composed mainly of knowledge-intensive sectors
- They have contributed substantially to growth in regional product and employment

7. Centres
Seoul's centres are turning into ‘hybrid towns’
With leisure, work and shopping each specialising, the functions of centres are expected to expand

7-1 Work, socialising and leisure happen in the centres
- Seoul's centres are spaces where many people and buildings cluster and varied activities and functions take place
- They are made up of varied, largely non-residential uses

7-2 The centre changes its clothes, and the functions of centres expand further
- Since 2019, 46.9% of Seoul's newly permitted building area has been concentrated in the centres
- Since 2019 the share of newly permitted floor area was 18.2% in the city centre, 13.2% in the wide-area centres and 7.8% in the regional centres
- Of the uses newly permitted within the centres, 80.9% are non-residential, and offices account for 49.1% of those

8. Wide-area (centres)
(Centres) strengthened
Work–(life)

8-1 (Analysing) the work commute into Seoul
- Commuting trips into Seoul originating in Gyeonggi and Incheon accounted for 23.9%, (rising) since 2019
- 69.5% of those who moved out of Seoul went to Gyeonggi or Incheon

9. Carbon emissions
After the endemic transition, the carbon footprint grows again
Carbon emissions rise with an economy still centred on fossil fuels

9-1 Greenhouse gas emissions return to pre-pandemic levels
- Emissions have been rising since the endemic transition

9-2 Greenhouse gas emissions (rise) in the building energy sector
- Of Seoul's total greenhouse gas emissions, (the building sector — electricity use, transport and so on — accounts for 91.1%)

9-3 Building emissions rise without a brake
- As buildings age and grow larger, emissions from the building sector increase

[3. Housing supply — part at right] …Seoul reaches 260,000 officetels / with the growth of the … market, the housing market for one- and two-person households is expected to expand
(Navy box at left) …housing in Seoul remains short / …ratio was 93.6% in 2023 / …decrease
3-2 Active supply of quasi-housing for one- and two-person households / - Housing completions are on a downward trend; officetels are used as housing for one- and two-person households

4. Housing type / Thirty years of the apartment republic / With ‘villa phobia’, housing supply converges on apartments
4-2 New low-rise flats face extinction; the housing ladder is broken / - Multi-household and row housing made up more than half of completions until 2017 / - In 2024 the share was only 12.5%
4-3 Detached houses are a rarity, and many are converted into space for consumption / - 70.1% of detached and multi-family houses are 30 years old or more / - The total stock of detached houses is falling, while ‘house-and-shop’ detached houses hold steady

5. Building life cycle / Ageing buildings increase rapidly and in large numbers, while new construction slows / With little new building and much ageing, the age structure of buildings resembles that of the population
5-2 A high share of new building and a high share of ageing stock: an inverted pyramid / - In 2024, 58.9% of Seoul's buildings were 30 years old or more, accounting for 25.6% by floor area / - The floor-area share of ageing buildings is expected to keep rising
5-3 Ageing by building use varies widely between areas / - For residential buildings, the areas with the oldest stock and those with the most new building are spatially distinct / - Office buildings cluster in the city centre and the wide-area centres / - Neighbourhood facilities show both a high ageing share and a high new-build share in the three Gangnam districts

6. Industrial structure / Restructuring rather than recovery after Covid / With economic growth slowing, job growth has stalled, and the boundaries between industries are breaking down as they restructure
6-1 Slower growth and a flat trend in employment / - Seoul's GRDP growth stalled with the shock of Covid-19 in 2020 / - Employment has been flat since feeling the effects of the pandemic in 2021
6-2 Continued growth and restructuring of knowledge-intensive industries / - Seoul's specialised industries are composed mainly of knowledge-intensive sectors / - They have contributed substantially to growth in regional product and employment

7. Centres / Seoul's centres are turning into ‘hybrid towns’ / With leisure, work and shopping each specialising, the functions of centres are expected to expand
7-1 Work, socialising and leisure happen in the centres / - Seoul's centres are spaces where many people and buildings cluster and varied activities and functions take place / - They are made up of varied, largely non-residential uses
7-2 The centre changes its clothes, and the functions of centres expand further / - Since 2019, 46.9% of Seoul's newly permitted building area has been concentrated in the centres / - Since 2019 the share of newly permitted floor area was 18.2% in the city centre, 13.2% in the wide-area centres and 7.8% in the regional centres / - Of the uses newly permitted within the centres, 80.9% are non-residential, and offices account for 49.1% of those
7-3 Hybrid towns and higher-order centres, each with a different face and a different role within Seoul / - All three city centres specialise in office functions / - The seven wide-area centres specialise in manufacturing and distribution (8.33), lodging and entertainment (2.36) and retail (2.28)

8. Wide-area neighbourhoods / Seoul's strengthened wide-area neighbourhood / The separation of work and home widens the spatial range of daily movement
8-1 The work–home separation into Seoul deepens / - Commuting trips into Seoul originating in Gyeonggi and Incheon accounted for 23.9%, rising gradually since 2019 / - Of the 466,000 people who moved out of Seoul, 69.5% moved to Gyeonggi or Incheon
8-2 Work–home separation makes the capital region polycentric / - A four-colour map of the capital region seen through its relationship with Seoul: regional characteristics read through commuting shares and out-migration
8-3 Wide-area commuting patterns must be considered even in clusters of specialised industry / - Although Seoul's share of jobs in the capital region has fallen (47.1% in 2015, 43.8% in 2023), the share of commuting into Seoul from Gyeonggi and Incheon has risen / - Districts with a high share of workers in specialised industries tend to receive more inbound commuting

9. Carbon emissions / After the endemic transition, the carbon footprint grows again / Carbon emissions rise with an economy still centred on fossil fuels
9-1 Greenhouse gas emissions return to pre-pandemic levels / - Emissions have been rising since the endemic transition
9-2 The building energy sector dominates greenhouse gas emissions / - Of Seoul's emissions, 91.7% come from everyday energy consumption: heating and cooling of buildings, electricity use and transport
9-3 Building emissions rise without a brake / - As buildings age and grow larger, emissions from the building sector increase
9-4 The transport sector is shifting to cleaner energy / - Emissions from transport fell 19.8% against 2016; direct emissions fell while indirect emissions rose
9-5 Rising volumes of household waste increase the treatment burden / - Of all waste in 2023, construction waste accounted for 62.7% and household waste 27.7% / - Treatment methods: recycling 85.6%, incineration 7.5%, landfill 2.5%

Contents

Foreword … 010

I. General remarks

1. History of Seoul's urban development … 014

2. Outline of the plan … 019
2-1. The significance of the master plan … 019
2-2. Premises of the plan … 019
2-3. Basic direction of the plan … 019
2-4. Goals and period of the plan … 020
2-5. Method of the plan … 020

3. Population change … 021

4. Industrial activity in Seoul … 025
4-1. Overview … 025
4-2. Production activity by industry … 025

II. Master plan

1. Development sphere and urban function plan … 036
1-1. Development sphere … 036
1-2. Functions … 038
1-3. Character of the city … 040
1-4. Urban development sphere and function plan … 041
(1) «Seoul» as the capital … 042
(2) «Seoul» as a regional economic centre … 043
(3) «Seoul» as a unit city … 049

2. Estimate of optimal population and population distribution plan … 055
2-1. Optimal population … 055
2-2. Population distribution plan … 056

3. Economic activity in Seoul and its outlook
3-1. Economic structure of Seoul
3-2. Distribution economy of Seoul
3-3. Public finance and banking in Seoul
3-4. Income and living standards in Seoul
3-5. Economic development plan for Seoul
3-6. Outlook for income and living standards

4. Plan for the centre and sub-centres
4-1. Movement plan
4-2. District plan for the centre and sub-centres

5. Land use plan
5-1. Purpose of the land use plan
5-2. Premises of the land use plan
(1) Character of the city
(2) Land use concept for the Seoul metropolitan region
(3) Land use plan, community plan and neighbourhood concept in the Seoul master plan
(4) Basic principles and direction of the land use plan
1) Commercial and business areas
2) Industrial areas
3) Realisation and assessment of the Seoul–Incheon special area plan
4) Relocation of non-conforming factories to the suburbs and trends in industrial areas
5) Harmony between the sphere of living and the sphere of production
6) Distribution of industrial water resources and wastewater treatment
7) Scale and area of industrial areas
8) Residential areas
9) Parks and green space
5-3. Criteria for the zoning district plan
(1) Commercial and business areas
(2) Industrial areas
(3) Residential areas
(4) Green areas
5-4. Zoning district plan

(1) Business areas …… 153
(2) Commercial areas …… 155
(3) Industrial areas …… 155
(4) Housing areas …… 156
(5) Green space system …… 157
(6) Education district …… 158

6. Urban facilities plan …… 159
6-1. Transport plan …… 159
(1) Street plan …… 162
(2) Water transport plan …… 180
(3) Airport plan …… 180
6-2. Communications plan …… 180
6-3. Water supply plan …… 187
6-4. Sewerage plan …… 197
6-5. Social and public facilities plan …… 205

7. Housing supply plan …… 208
7-1. Housing overview …… 208
7-2. Housing construction plan …… 210
7-3. Housing improvement plan …… 211
7-4. Outlook for housing projects …… 212
7-5. Housing supply plan …… 213
7-6. Construction of flats for low-income households …… 215
7-7. Image of space in housing districts …… 215

8. Urban planning project plan …… 217
8-1. Goals of the plan …… 217
8-2. Subjects of the plan …… 217
8-3. Period and stages of the plan …… 218
8-4. Guidelines for drawing up the plan …… 219
(1) Guidelines for the financial plan …… 219
(2) Guidelines for setting priorities in implementation …… 219
8-5. Criteria for prioritising planned streets …… 219
8-6. Criteria for prioritising planned parks …… 221
8-7. Municipal financial plan
8-8. Stage 1 release from urban planning …… 224

III. Rearrangement and redevelopment of existing plans

1. History of urban planning in Seoul …… 225
1-1. The Hanseong period (1394–1910) …… 225
1-2. The Gyeongseong period (1910–1945) …… 232
1-3. The Seoul period (1945– ) …… 235

2. Rearrangement of existing plans …… 237
2-1. Method of rearranging existing urban plans …… 237
2-2. Principles for revising the existing street network plan …… 241
2-3. Adjustment of the city-centre plaza plan …… 244

3. Redevelopment plan for the existing built-up area …… 254
3-1. Present state of the existing built-up area …… 254
3-2. Guidelines for drawing up the redevelopment plan …… 257
3-3. Redevelopment districts …… 259
3-4. Aesthetic districts …… 260
3-5. Height districts …… 261