Hongje and Gireum: On the hunt for retaining walls

Up towards the Apatu

Hongje and Gireum are two areas in the north of Seoul where buildings are eroding the landscape, literally building into the slopes of the mountains. This, of course, isn’t out of the ordinary in Seoul. As demand for more space continues to the rises, the more demand there is to build. As my sketches from ‘Sketching Through the Haze from Namsan Mountain’ (211010) observed, the city is gradually weaving its way around the mountains. However when outward sprawl is exhausted, upwards sprawl offers an alternative. This is now reality in Seoul.

The point where city meets landscape is changing. Putting aside, for a moment, the moral question of corrosive expansion, it is important to understand how this edge condition is currently being dealt with. After Ryul’s tip off and a wander round two such areas in Seoul, the answer is retaining wall, after retaining wall. 

1 Retaining curved 2 End of the street 3 Steps up and up

As I reached street level from Hongjie station below, the view revealed the topography immediately. Mountains loom in the background behind proud Apatu apartments with shops and cafes in front. Alleyways lead off the main street rising up along steep slopes with low rise housing to either side. At the end, looking up, a giant Apatu rises from the ground utterly out of scale from anything that exists (apart from the mountains perhaps). What ensures it doesn’t tumble down the street? A hefty concrete retaining wall which residents of the older building have to look out on to. An unsightly necessity?