Amidst the eye-popping economic growth coupled with urbanization /industrialization over the past half a century, Korea now enjoys the 12th or 13th world largest trade volume, setting apart from the poorest of the poor. Few is surely confident, howeve...
Amidst the eye-popping economic growth coupled with urbanization /industrialization over the past half a century, Korea now enjoys the 12th or 13th world largest trade volume, setting apart from the poorest of the poor. Few is surely confident, however, that the growth is everlasting...being exemplified by the experiences from the Western countries like UK through the ladder of industrialization one or two centuries earlier. The initial driving forces along with glittering growth momentum were at a low ebb, being blocked by challenging latecomers in the late 20th century, accordingly making the conventional power to seek for newer growth motives. Korea is not exceptional as a whole, despite its shorter historicity of urbanization, given the fact that the growth engine well worked by far gets rusty in many cities and areas, which calls for new dimensional drivers to bounce back hinges.
To releap the ditch, the key word for regional regeneration in the 21st century is 'culture' based on quality life of human being...focusing on 'better-humanly' qualitative progress setting free from the conventional quantitative expansion. Cities are striving for making themselves reborn to cultural cities to create value-added life afford ability by overlapping culture into their unique heritages backed by indefinite creativity. In this regard, it is of outstanding importance that, to keep urban regeneration sustainable, much effort be paid on generalized and strategic approach, not just depending on introduction of cultural facilities.
The study with this string of background aims at providing directions in planning cultural facilities bound for urban regeneration by investigating the literature and case studies/research papers on how much they are meaningful in the spectrum of cities. More specifically, it adopts case studies on 8 cultural facilities out of 5 countries in total among successfully acceptable foreign examples in an attempt to find out those facilities practically beneficial to urban regeneration as well as their adaptability to Korea, if so, including suggestive points, consequently leading to the following results;
Firstly, it must be pointed out that the operational activation is lagging comparatively against volumetric expansion of cultural facilities. Until now, the policy orientation onto the local cultural space has been focused on large-scaled buildings--with stereotyped architectural design in one sense--rather than program-based operational schemefulness. In other words, to simplify the status-quo is that the software like operating system does not catch up with the hardware like spatial infra buildings. Therefore, it is needless to say that more profound, interdisciplinary programs be developed in a diversified and differentiated manner to cover up the local cultural tastes and flavors.
Secondly, it was proven that the existent cultural facilities failed to closely involve in the life of residents, not so much conducive to affecting their cultural comfort ability and welfare and even their quality life. What is worst is the emotional accessibility letting them just as they are which are spaced apart. In this context, to utilize them as the complex cultural space could be a suggestive alternative to soothe problems down, getting closer and friendlier to territorial residents through improved accessibility.
Lastly, there gives rise to territorial inequality due to the fact that cultural facilities were excessively constructed to metropolis including Seoul in spite of the governmental endeavor to broaden the scope locally. However, many evidences in foreign countries, as mentioned before, demonstrate on successful effects through construction of cultural facilities; for example, <Bilbao Ria 2000> Project in Spain, <The 2nd Cultural Master plan> in France, <Millenium Project> in UK and <Internationale Bauausstellung Emscher Park> in Germany, all of which are recognized to spur up local development culturally. Cultural policies deemed vital for strengthen cultural and artistic space must be made by lay much weight on culturally alleviated regions for the sake of balanced cultural development.
In consequence, the study presumes that cultural facilities, based on their socio-economic values, be beneficial to urban regeneration. If the suggestive results gainable from the study are applicable for our local situation, it could surely lead to local and national competitiveness through successful regional activation and urban regeneration as well.
The ultimate objective of urban regeneration lies in fostering city development and flourishing life quality for residents. At the point, the preparation of cultural space in the course of urban regeneration may be indispensible as its strategic tool. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the study is in short of preliminary study, given lack of sufficient case studies for showcase models, where in some part there was no option to rely on indirect literature review as for examples with impossible access. And, under the situation that the domestic cultural facilities selected for the study are not matured for verifiably effectuating the urban regeneration, this study does not have methodological rationality fully as a research.