SPACE June 2026 (No. 703)
Chuncheon is not a planned city built around large-scale industrial complexes like Ulsan or Changwon, nor is it a residential-focused new town like those found in the Seoul metropolitan area, such as Bundang or Ilsan. Instead, Chuncheon is a city that has evolved over the years through an interplay of administrative, military, tourism, and educational functions, resulting in a relatively low-density and landscape-oriented urban structure. Chuncheon’s mountains and water landscapes do not merely serve as a backdrop to the city; rather, they function as defining elements that shape the city’s form, modes of transportation, and the essential structure of its living zones. Instead of being densely compressed, the city’s skyline loosely unfolds along the mountain contours and water flows, and each of its residential areas have been dispersed in deference to these geographical features to adopt their own distinctive atmospheres. Because of these characteristics, Chuncheon is perceived not as a unicentric city but as a polycentric city, where diverse landscapes and programmes coexist.
Originally, Chuncheon was a rural town that was spontaneously formed around the river and basin. However, the situation changed dramatically after the opening of the Gyeongchun Line in 1939. The railway dismantled the existing town structure and introduced a new urban axis centred on the station, and this became the catalyst for the densification of commercial districts, administrative facilities, and accommodation and distribution functions in the station vicinities. Today, much of the street grid in Chuncheon’s old downtown can be traced back to this period’s expansion process. Subsequently, the construction of the Uiam Dam and the Soyanggang Dam in the 1960s and 1970s transformed the city once more. The river was changed into a vast lake system, and Chuncheon was reimagined as a city centred on waterfront tourism and...
Kang Yerin (Seoul National University) + SoA (Lee Chihoon, Park Youngseo)
Jang Wooseok, Kim Jungmin, Park Yeon
15, Uduhari-gil, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do, Korea
sports facility
8,175m²
3,482.66m²
7,118.01m²
B1, 2F
71
16.35m
42.6%
60.86%
RC, SRC, steel truss
UHPC panel, exterior insulation render
ceramic tile, paint finish
Base Structural Consultants
Joosung MEC
Chung Song Engineering & Construction
Hanul Enterprise Co., Ltd.
May 2020 – Nov. 2021
Mar. 2022 – Dec. 2023
22.2 billion KRW
Chuncheon City
Lab D+H