Urban environment has been growing organically through lots of various activities in sectors of economy, society, culture, etc. In this process, different cultures have created by time and correlation property being added. This makes the authenticity ...
Urban environment has been growing organically through lots of various activities in sectors of economy, society, culture, etc. In this process, different cultures have created by time and correlation property being added. This makes the authenticity of place, creating the image and identity of the region. Finally, it has the basic essentials of the brand-name item. Garosu-gil(means by allee) in Shinsa-dong, Seoul, is one of the right place in the case of becoming the big issue when it comes to the identity of placeness.
This study analyzed not only the process where Garosu-gil is formed as the commercial street, but also the physical environment features of the street space. Then 25 items in 8 types of activation factors which are about economics, convenience, safety, selectivity, informativeness, amenities, Cultural enviroment, convention were drawn based on the preceding studies about the commercial street and activation factors. The user object survey was conducted with these items to figure out what makes Garosu-gil activated and commercialized. The results can be summarized as follows.
Firstly, on features of the formation process to a commercial street, Garosu-gil was recognized as a neighborhood street early in Gangnam development period. After taking advantage of a succession of policies to activate Gangnam, Shinsa-dong started to be commercialized because of the transfer of the wealthy class and commercial rights of the northern area of Han Gang river to this new place. After that, this street started to have represented the image of unique and cultural identity after several of galleries, fashion schools, businesses related design settled on the ground of the location factors including the cheap land value, the sense of place in where it was quiet and comfortable of the allee, the formation of the demand customer, etc. While the consumption businesses, such as cafes, restaurants, clothing shops and etc., gathered in this tree-lined street, this place became gradually a commercial street.
Secondly, on physical features of the street space, the ratio of the height of the building facing the street to the width of street(so called, D/H ratio) is 1.0 which means that street space feels balanced and pleasant. Also, it showed up that the vitality of the street was a bit high through 'the scale of active frontages' by Llewelyn Davies(2000). As to the use of the first floor of wayside buildings, the fashion related types of businesses and eating and drinking related types of businesses are occuping a most. According to the businesses, the forms of the facades can be divided into the types of 'articulated', 'exposed' and 'enclosed'. As to the clothing stores and the general merchandise, there was many articulated types. Also, there are many exposed facades of the cafes and restaurants. Those enhance the vitality of street. On the contrary, it was researched that the accommodation of walk ways was insufficient and the quality of the pedestrian environment was not high.
Thirdly, on the characteristics of visitors' behavior according to questionair survey, lots of the young female workers and students in their 20s to 30s who are in high level of education, more than the attending university, in Seoul, visit this place. Mostly, it visits with the assembly object of the friend or the work colleague and the cafe or the restaurant is very much used. visitors stayed for more than 2 hours. The information about Garosu-gil mainly understood through the peripheral person and they were mostly satisfied with Garosu-gil.
Last but not least, the activation factor in which users importantly think was 'the intrinsic atmosphere' of the street. Next, the importance of the factors including 'the integrated of the same category of business' such as in relations of fashion, eating & drinking, culture, etc., and 'the fashion style and appearance of people' showed up secondly high. With the overall activation for each type, the selectivity of consumers and the informativeness about the images of Garosu-gil was acting as the activation factor of the commercial street.
As a consequence of this study, we can find out 'atmosphere' is one of the most important activation factosr of Garosu-gil. In this 'atmosphere' of tree-lined street, it has have the cultural identity and the placeness through the period of from the the first time of Kangnam formed to the time of consumption stores occupied in the street. That is the important factor that Garosu-gil can be going on being activated by and this is the implied meaning of this study.
Key Word : Street, Commercial Street, Sinsa-dong Garosu-gil, Activation, Gallery.