In 2020, Hyundai won the New Hannam District 3 project, Korea’s largest redevelopment project with an estimated total project cost of seven trillion won. (5,2 billion euros) It will replace the current neighborhood; Bogwang-dong. A place that feels like home.
The location of the neighborhood is next to the Han river, Hannam-Dong, and Itaewon. This makes the land extremely valuable and this is also the reason for redevelopment. The plans have been made more than two decades ago. This has resulted in the neglect of the area, which made living cheaper than in the neighborhoods next to it. Stretching from Seoul Central Mosque to the Han River, it has traditionally been a low-income area where sleepy corner shops, butchers, and perma-makeshift market stalls run by South Koreans rub shoulders with Arab, Turkish, and Pakistani restaurants and grocers and hipster boutiques. Making it one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the entire country. However, all of this will get demolished in the name of ‘redevelopment’.
The project is a visual journey through the neighbourhood. A place that still feels different from the rest of the city. The work juxtapositions the warmth and diversity I felt against the years of neglect and against a city that is slowly swallowing neighborhoods like this. Taking the viewer along the paths I walked and showing a side of Seoul that is relatively unknown. Capturing strangers and friends made whilst living there and showing a unique beauty that I experienced in the chaos and imperfections of this place. Disrupting the peace and quite with the density of the city, A place in which new, luxurious apartment buildings and skyscrapers are popping out of the ground like weeds.
