Location: Seoungsu-dong, Seoungbuk-gu, Seoul (서울시 성북구 성수동)
I was strolling down the street after getting some latte from a private cafe where actual coffee roasting is done and found myself in this neighborhood with amazing streets. I was in street Seoul-forest located in Seoungsu-dong, Seoungbuk-gu(성북구 성수동 서울숲 2길). This neighborhood, although quite well-known, without a doubt different from the other well-known neighborhoods like those in Hongdae, Itaewon, or Gangnam districts. Seoungsu-dong has kept its own history, identity, and characteristic and proved itself a neighborhood to be imitated with its building, streets and activities within these spaces that bring uniqueness and individuality to make the neighborhood a better place to walk and live.
What you can easily notice as soon as you enter the neighborhood is that there is no single building that seems to be newly built in recent time. But at the same time, the neighborhood does not seem to lag behind at all. Most of the buildings used remodeled. There is history of the neighborhood flowing which connects the past and the present. And this is what we all should emulate in the phase of ruthless urban development.
Many uniquely designed buildings are remodeled and used as cafes or private stores with remarkable exterior and interior design.
Commercial facilities are by far important. Activities are formed within the places and they work as a fundamental base for the local economy. And each street in the neighborhood was packed with stores many of them on the ground floor of residential houses. But what was surprising was that there was no single franchise among the stores and shops. Every one of them were privately owned stores with strong individual characteristics and designs.
Don't we all know what franchises bring to a street? They take away the identity and distinctiveness from streets and make them become like any other streets you can find all over the country. To put it in my own words, the streets get infested.
Even though the buildings with distinctive designs stand seriately next to one another, it does no work to harm the scenery or the landscape of the neighborhood but in fact, does the opposite.
And another work that's done really good to the buildings is that most of the buildings are greeting the pedestrians with wide open doors and windows. open windows and open spaces such as little gardens were installed to private buildings and parcels and provided displays and things to look at and at the same time, natural surveillance.
And such displays induce stationary populations in the streets. People walking by are able to see what's behind the windows and become fascinated by the things they see which make them want to go inside building for a better look.
Moreover, although the streets did not have wide widths there were restaurants with tables outside and even private gardens open to people. and many had windows where you can see people having meals chatting with each other. And this sort of view where you see other people doing their stuff is a very fascinating visual factor. Just because you can see people through doesn't mean it invades one's privacy. the display of others works as a strong positive force to enhance the attraction and excitement the place offers. And aren't people big factors to attract people? The streets in Seongsu-dong reminded me of the typical streets you can easily spot in Europe.
Streets and the places within them are where the events and activities occur. But as a matter of fact, the streets in the neighborhood do not have wide widths. They rather had widths you can find anywhere in typical neighborhoods. Then which factors did street Seoul-forest have that made it special and different from all the other streets?
First, all the streets in the neighborhood have pedestrian roads. Despite its 5 meters wide road in Seoul-forest 2ro(서울숲 2로), the fact that there was a pedestrian road guaranteed comfort and safe existence.
Second, there was no wall to separate the private lands and the public road. And I tell you it was amazing. Without any exaggeration, it was as if the whole neighborhood was welcoming me. By tearing down the walls I wasn't a stranger with threat but a welcomed guest to the neighborhood. There was one old apartment that had a tiny wall in front of its garden but it was beautifully painted without giving any sense of wariness or harming the view of the neighborhood.
Lastly, all the streets were very clean. I have not seen a single trash thrown out outside.
One of the factors to provoke activity is the street vendor. I saw a couple of them as I walked down the neighborhood, but they were unlike the normal ones you see in places like most other districts. The goods displayed for sale were mostly handmade, perfume, fabrics, clothes or something exotic.
I saw a building beautifully built designed with brick materials and with its front gate open which immediately led to a private garden. So I walked in to find out what's behind in it and found a few students outside selling bread they baked themselves for 1,000won, which is about a dollar. Don't underestimate the cheap bread. It was delicious and even looked good. There were a lot of people buying bread including myself and this one man had bought 5 of them. We were all people who walked by the house and by chance bumped into this vendor to buy the bread. I was lucky enough to get one of the last pieces of bread left.
<Handmade Shoe Street>
Seongsu-dong has a long history of its fame for well-known handmade shoes. And as a consequence of excellent urban regeneration, Handmade Shoe Street was planned and installed which revived the town's strong identity and history. You can find a map of the town indicating locations of every shop along with other facilities, and stickers on the pedestrian roads to show the way.
The shops are often located along the streets built pretty small and I was especially surprised by the work done by the town authority on the installations. Shops were unified with the same designs so they were placed organized and neatly. They had open windows to allow the passing populations to see the products they had behind the window. And you can even see the master craftsmen doing their work right in front of your eyes.
How is Seongbuk-dong different from many other famous places in Seoul? I mean the neighborhoods such as Yeonnam-dong, Yeonhei-dong, Hapjeong-dong, or Itaewon-dong. These places are most of the times packed with population from outside and have entertainment facilities where people come to drink alcohol. And this has often caused a big problem to the local residents with drunk or uncontrollable people. A perfect example would be the problem the residents living in Bokwang-ro 60gil, Itaewon-dong(이태원동 보광로 60길) suffer from.
There are wooden stairs right next to a residential area where people sit to drink and talk every weekend. The miserable residents suffer from noise problems daily. I'm assuming there have been countless civil complaints made on this matter, but the nightmare still goes on for the local residents. Unlike such unfortunate neighborhood, Most of the commercial facilities are used as restaurants, cafes, and places where noise isn't made. But what really contributes to the peaceful environment is the people's will to coexist with the local residents. The shops in the neighborhood first consider the locals with caution. The sign below on the picture was on the front gate of a restaurant demanding the customers to keep quite for the residents. Ins't this something hard to find nowadays and we all should respect?
<Connection to Seoul Forest>
The neighborhood is connected to Seoul Forest. The entry paths spread from the long road, street Seoul-forest and the level of connectivity and the clarity of the entrance to the park are very high. Since the neighborhood is connected to the park it allows many visiting populations to visit both the neighborhood and the park.
There is a small very old store nearby one of the entrances to the park where you can rent bicycle-like objects little kids can ride. I saw a foreign father and daughter renting one. How cool is that? Foreigners at an old traditional store?
Likewise, many requirements and factors have to be met for a city to become walkable and attractive. You need pedestrian roads to provide safe and comfortable walk, displays and building structures to provoke natural surveillance and interest, activities form in buildings and streets to induce stationary population and their suitable use, sanitation, safety and etc.
And Seoul has always been trying to build walkable streets as a complementary measure to the mess resulted from ruthless development. Garosu-gil in Shinsa-dong(신사동 가로수길) would be the street the city itself loves to present as a walkable street. Nevertheless personally, the streets in Seongsu-dong came to me as a better street than Garosu-gil for its unique streets, buildings and all the mysterious yet fascinating events happening within those spaces in contrast to Garosu-gil where the dominant facilities are franchises and buildings of expensive brands. Perhaps what we can see in Seongsu-dong should be a priority role model for other streets to follow.
If you are ever looking for a place to take your partner or a place for a nice evening dinner, go visit Seoungsu-dong. But go without a plan. You will be fascinated by the mystery and unknown attractions the neighborhood offers.
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