SPACE April 2024 (No. 677)
Rapid population decline is shaking the fabric of small and medium-sized cities to the core. To rebuild these cities, we need to move away from the inertia of regeneration and take a perspective that acknowledging change. This is where the Mid-Size City Forum comes in. They look at phenomena outside the metropolitan area and seek urban and architectural alternatives to the crisis.
[Series] The Possibilities Inherent in Extinction, Mid-Size City Forum
01 What is Happening Outside the Metropolitan Area
02 Thinning Phenomenon
03 Urban Perforation
04 Erasing Plan
05 Ad-hoc Architecture
06 Global Mid-Size City
07 Resilient Mid-Size City
08 Fantastic Mid-Size City
09 Outside of the Mid-Size City
New normal condition of mid-size cities
I once visited a small city in Gyeongsangnam-do as a hiker. The memory of walking down the streets in the middle of the day, waiting for a bus that never came, with no shops open and no pedestrians around, is romantic at first, but in hindsight, it’s a bit sorrowful. It has long since become the norm in many small and medium-sized (hereinafter mid-size) cities. The Mid-Size City Forum explains the causes and phenomenon with the concept of ‘thinning urban concentration’ and imagines a solution that works for Korean mid-size cities with a ‘dual spatial structure’.
Mid-size cities are going through a lot of changes right now. The most easily recognisable of these is the scene on the street, where there are noticeably fewer people walking around. It is more than just a unique phenomenon in one or two cities. Empty streets are typical in mid-size cities across the country. Why ...
