녹색 도시를 위한 새로운 공간자원, 담과 벽

Abstract

Many individual, free-standing Korean houses in urban areas are surrounded by castellated defensive walls to provide privacy and security. Clearly, this distinctive trait distinguishes residential scenery in Korean cities from dominant patterns in Western countries. However, the persistence of walled family dwellings in Korean cities blights the urban environment by restricting green space and aggravates parking problems, This study reviews the issue by examining the cognitive attitude of Koreans towards walled dwellings to discover any measures that would mitigate this issue. The study’s results highlight that Koreans are not ready to demolish the walls as they prefer to live within their ‘castles’ free from the common gaze, particularly as privacy and security are ongoing issues. Given this findings, the study proposes two strategies: first, to try and cover the walls with various kinds of climbing plants to camouflage the problem without seeking to demolish the residential walls immediately; and secondly, to start demolishing walls surrounding public buildings and schools as an exemplar of what could be achieved by removing them from around free-standing private houses. Thus, this study highlights that camouflaging or removing walls in Korean urban areas provides an opportunity in the progressive development of greening cities.