Evaluating the consequences of supergrid developments with relation to the modernization and conservation of historic street patterns: a case study on early 20th century Seoul

Abstract

Planned supergrid developments are influential on both the modernization and conservation of historic street patterns and their spatial structures, but related discussions have so far remained largely at prescriptive or normative levels without an in-depth empirical basis. Through a case study on the historic city centre of Seoul by devising and applying a systematic framework of space syntax analysis incorporating relatively recent, less known but elaborate techniques, this study therefore empirically analysed the detailed spatio-configurational changes that occur when such plans are implemented and evaluated what their consequences may be with relation to the modernization and conservation of historic street patterns. While a variety of empirical evidence presents the spatio-configurational mechanisms of the planned supergrid consistently facilitating the historic street system’s modernization, results related to its conservation are mixed; the original spatial structure and order does become disrupted at the background and local-scale foreground levels but contrary to conventional perceptions it is spatially succeeded and expanded at the global-scale foreground level, and streets comprising the supergrid that had already existed before its development have a milder impact than newly constructed ones. Implications for the sustainable management and planning of historic street patterns and their spatial context are further discussed.

Keywords

• urban conservation
• sustainable development
• urban morphology
• urban design
• space syntax