SPACE July 2024 (No. 680)
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
Here, we’ll consider the rise and fall in the numbers of vacant houses in ordinary small and medium-sized (hereinafter mid-size) cities. Thousands of vacant houses, falling prey to the vagaries of time, have become vacant land, leaving a network of holes across the landscapes of mid-size cities. In one such perforated place, a road cuts through allowing for a regular stream of traffic to pass through, while in another an elderly man sows seeds. Detecting a particular pattern in this questionable picture, the Mid-Size Forum believes it to be the unique urban structure of contemporary mid-size cities. It also seeks ways of overcoming what now feels like an inevitable urban phenomenon.
Perforation phenomenon in mid-size city observed through aerial photograph
Empty houses are now a nationwide phenomenon. We see it spreading throughout cities of all shapes and sizes, from big cities like Busan to island communities like Jeju Island. The problem of empty houses has been an issue since 2010 owing to the decline in the national population, with various media outlets introducing it as a social problem. At that time, empty houses were associated with sanitation issues such as stray cats and garbage, safety issues such as building deterioration and crime risk, and regeneration was the solution. It has been over a decade since the problem of empty houses first came to public attention. How has the empty house phenomenon changed in our cities over the years? What is next for the phenomenon?
What happens after a vacancy in a mid-size city differs significantly from what occurs in large cities. Unlike larger cities, mid-size cities are characterised by a low proportion of apartments and a very high proportion of detached houses. Mid-size cities are also likely to experience different development pressures to large cities as they are less likely to attract people from outside the city. Against this background, most of the vacant houses in mid-size cities are detached houses, and detached houses that become vacant eventually disappear over time due to the low development pressure characteristic of mid-size cities.
The vacancies arising and disappearing over time herald changes to the overall urban form. Previously, mid-size cities had a single, cohesive urban form with a dense architectural layout. Still, the cohesion of the urban form is breaking down now, as empty sites in the middle of the city are starting to create holes in the urban space.
This is not a phenomenon unique to Korea. It is a global phenomenon, with the U.S., Europe and Japan also experiencing a population decline earlier. In Japan this phenomenon has been dubbed ‘urban spongification’: ‘spongification’ means that population decline creates random vacancies and vacant lots within the city rather than shrinking the town’s size. In contrast to this unpredictable phenomenon, certain patterns can be detected in the disappearance of vacant houses in mid-size cities in Korea. The pattern is due to the urban structure in Korea. In this issue, we will examine the evolution of the vacancy phenomenon and its subsequent processes in relation to the urban fabric of mid-size cities.
Distribution of detached houses in major mid-size cities. Detached houses comprise many of the building types in mid-size cities.
Mid-Size Cities and Detached Houses
Detached houses comprise many of the building types in mid-size cities. The difference can be recognised compared to the proportion of detached houses in large cities. It is less than 2% of all building types in Seoul. On the other hand, in mid-size cities such as Namwon, Jeongeup, Sangju, Nonsan, Milyang, Gimje, Mungyeong, and Yeongcheon, the proportion of detached houses is 52.7%, 49.6%, 62.1%, 50.9%, 51.3%, 60.1%, 54.9%, and 46%, respectively, with most cities having more than 50%.
If one analyses the statistics, one can find a correlation between the share of detached houses in our cities’ building types and the number of people. In cities with a population of 100,000 or less, the share of detached houses is very high, often over 59%, while in towns with a population of 300,000 or more, the share of detached houses decreases significantly as the share of apartments in the city increases. In other words, the smaller the city, the higher the proportion of them. Because of these trends, the impact of detached housing types on the city as a whole is more remarkable in mid-size cities. So, observing how these housing types are changing in mid-size cities is a valuable milestone to gauge the direction of the town as a whole.
A detached house has a simple ownership relationship that is not collective like apartments, townhouses, or multi-family dwellings. Because of this simplicity of ownership, they are more likely than other building types to become vacant and, once vacant, more likely to be neglected and unmaintained. Therefore, it is essential to understand the age of house owners to understand the evolution of detached house in mid-size cities under decay pressure. If a house owner dies of old age or moves elsewhere, a new owner is unlikely to move there as the city’s population declines.
In most mid-size cities, detached house owners are older. In Namwon, Jeongeup, Sangju, Milyang, Naju, Gimje, and Yeongcheon, the proportion of detached house owners aged 60 or older is 39.5%, 30%, 36.9%, 36%, 38%, 31.6%, and 40%, respectively. Under these circumstances, unless there is an additional influx of new people into the city or the number of births in the city outstrips the number of deaths, many detached houses will likely remain vacant in the next two to three decades. However, in the previous section on ‘Urban Concentration’ (covered in SPACE No. 677), most mid-size cities outside of metropolitan areas have higher outflows than inflows and an ageing population with more deaths than births. As a result, detached house vacancies in mid-size cities will continue to increase, as will the number of unmanaged and neglected vacant properties.
The proportion of detached houses (top) and number of vacant houses (bottom) in mid-size cities with a population of 300,000 or less. While smaller cities have a higher proportion of detached houses, these detached houses are more likely to become vacant compared to other building types in mid-size cities under decay pressure.
The Perforation Phenomenon
Statistics show that a large proportion of empty houses are older houses that are more than 30 years old. In Namwon, 2,142 detached houses built before 1999 remain vacant, of which 1,842 are old houses. Old, empty houses are not unique in Namwon but are common in mid-size
cities nationwide. In Jeongeup, Sangju, Nonsan, Miryang, Naju, Gimje, and Mungyeong, the number of vacant detached houses is 3,377; 3,971; 2,547; 2,547; 3,901; 3,817; 3,409; and 2,314, respectively. The proportions of old houses over 30 years old are 51.1%, 64.9%, 44.9%, 50.4%, 41.7%, 55.9%, and 62.9%.
Older, vacant houses are subject to gradual demolition for safety, health, and landscaping reasons. There is already legislation in place for the demolition. However, demolishing an empty house is not as straightforward as one might think; there is a complex web of interests at play here. It is because there is a conflict between what the property owner has to bear, such as increased taxes and demolition costs, and what the neighbours have to bear, such as safety and hygiene reasons. The public is gradually removing vacant houses through various methods to resolve various complaints that arise in the process. The cumulative effect of these removal efforts is that mid-size cities are seeing an unprecedented number of empty sites.
If one visits a mid-size city, one will notice a lot of empty sites. Especially if one walks through the streets of the old town, one will often find large car parks at the back of the blocks. In addition, a small vegetable garden growing crops can be seen right next to a residential area, while bare land overgrown with weeds is also spread out in the middle of a residential area. These are mostly spaces created by the demolition of empty houses. We decided to cite these spaces under the ‘perforation phenomenon’ because, from the perspective of urban form, they look like holes in the urban space.
In mid-size cities, perforation phenomenon is happening fast. By comparing historical and recent aerial photographs, it is easy to see how many perforations have occurred in the old towns of mid-size cities. In Namwon old town, for example, about 16.5% of the total area of the old town has been perforated in the last 20 years. In addition, mid-size cities are also experiencing a significant proportion of perforations in their urban spaces. In Jeongeup, Nonsan, and Mungyeong, perforations have occurred in about 9.3%, 10.3%, and 7.2% of the old town area in the last 20 years, respectively. Translating this into the number of buildings demolished, 572 buildings have been lost in Namwon, 312 in Jeongeup, 291 in Nonsan, and 177 in Mungyeong compared to the early 2000s, with 190,328m2, 71,601m2, 55,636m2, and 36,357m2 of floor space respectively.
(left) Urban perforations in Namwon, Jeollabuk-do over the past 20 years, (right) Diagrams of changes in urban block (1994 – 2024)
Appropriative Usages
The empty sites created by the perforation phenomenon are used in various ways. Car parking is by far the largest of these. Since the 1990s, the expansion of urban areas, thinning of population densities, and consequent weakening of public transport systems have transformed transport in mid-size cities into a car-centric system. As a result, the demand for parking in cities has increased. Still, the urban fabric and architecture of older neighbourhoods that predate the current legal framework need to be revised to accommodate this demand. This is because buildings in the old town were built without the obligation to install parking lots, and lots often do not face a street with a width of more than 4m. Under these conditions, most new empty sites in urban spaces are eventually used as parking lots.
Turning the land into a parking lot is in the best interest of both the landowner and the local community. In one fell swoop, landowners can reduce the taxes associated with demolishing vacant properties, and communities can address increased parking demand and the safety, health, and landscape issues that come with vacant properties. This alignment of interests has converted many vacant lots into parking lots.
Another part of the empty space created by the perforation is being used as agricultural green areas. Walking around a mid-size city, it is not uncommon to see vegetable gardens in the middle of residential neighbourhoods. If one looks closely, one will notice that these gardens are cultivated with great care and expertise. Analysing the cultivated agricultural green space in these cities from aerial photographs, one can see that it occupies a non-negligible area in the old town. In Namwon, the cultivated area of agricultural green space in the old town is 12,227m2, more than one-third of which was newly created in the last 20 years.
The emergence of agricultural green areas in urban spaces results from urban planning failing to reach its original goals. Until now, mid-size cities have planned their urban space by segmenting it by use, dividing it into zoning, and managing to ensure that it is executed in line with set goals. However, as the population declines and the facilities for the designated uses become unavailable or unnecessary, agricultural green areas, such as kitchen gardens, which were not selected for urban planning purposes in the first place, are taking their place on an ad hoc basis. These agricultural greens can be found in the middle of old towns, bordering residential streets, or on land adjacent to neighbourhood facilities. This means that juxtapositions between uses are difficult to imagine in a traditional urban planning framework.
The agricultural green areas emerging in mid-size cities are mainly cultivated on the ‘site’ according to land use classification. In other words, spaces used for something other than its intended purpose. These appropriative uses are not unrelated to the growing elderly population in mid-size cities. For older people who have fewer hours of paid work in the form of employment and therefore have more free time during the day (Time-Use Survey, Statistics Korea, 2019) but who face increasing financial burdens in old age, small-scale cultivation provides them with alternative productive activities to compensate. Given the present ageing population, the amount of agricultural green space in mid-size cities is likely to continue expanding. And if this trend continues, the concept of the city in the mid-size will gradually change.
Maybe cities are no longer divided into zoning or districts but rather a collection of disparate parts where existing uses and productive greenery meet abruptly. Imagine the landscape it creates: an older man in a straw hat tends to his crops with farm machinery in a heavily travelled urban area. It’s a surreal image. This juxtaposition of such unexpected or disparate elements may become the new aesthetic in mid-size cities.
Views of urban perforation in Namwon (top) and Sangju (bottom).The empty sites in mid-size cities created by the perforation phenomenon are being used as parking lots or agricultural greaan areas.
Thick Blocks
Before the current Building Act was enacted, many mid-size cities existed on the land. The Building Act, enacted in 1962, sets out the basic requirements for a site on which buildings can be built. To construct a building, the site must be adjoined at least 2m to a road of at least 4m-wide (hereinafter bordering obligation). However, many sites in cities built before the Building Act still do not comply with these bordering obligations. These sites are particularly common in older neighbourhoods in mid-size cities. They are located in the back of large blocks and connected by narrow alleys that are inaccessible to vehicles. We named the large blocks containing these sites ‘thick blocks’. A thick block has a structure that is so large that only the site on the outside of the block is adjoined to a road at least 4m-wide, and such a road does not border the land on the inside.
Thick blocks are universal in pre-modern urban areas, both in large and mid-size cities. For example, this block type is most clearly seen in Namwon. Namwon’s city blocks date back to the Tong-il Silla period (BC 57 – AD 936). Inside the blocks, which are laid out in a giant grid of 160×160m based on ancient squared-zoning, many sites are not bordered by roads more than 4m-wide. The percentage of the total field they occupy in the block is also significant. After examining the lot configuration of a block in Namwon old town, we found that about 37% of the lots in the block needed to comply with the bordering obligation.
Thick blocks can be found in Namwon and the old towns of most mid-size cities with a long history. Even in these cities, the proportion of sites in thick blocks that do not comply with the bordering obligation is high. In the thick blocks of Nonsan, Gimje, Naju, Mungyeong, Sangju, Yeongcheon, and Milyang old towns, about 40%, 23%, 28%, 23%, 23%, 30%, and 25% of sites do not comply with the bordering obligation. These sites that do not comply with the bordering obligations and the thick blocks that house them are common in the old neighbourhoods of mid-size cities. Although only some of those cities have a formalised, large-scale block form like Namwon, thick blocks in different shapes and sizes are repeated in the old towns of mid-size cities.
Urban perforations in mid-size cities over the past 20 years. In mid-size cities, perforation phenomenon is happening fast.
Patterns
Thick blocks are found in mid-size cities as well as large cities with a long history. However, in large cities, development pressures are so intense that only a tiny fraction are preserved, and most are lost to redevelopment. On the other hand, in mid-size cities, thick blocks evolve through two paths: One is when a city designates additional urban planning facility roads, and the thicker block splits into smaller blocks. This differentiation is carried out in a way that urban planning facility roads cut into the existing urban fabric. As a result, walking through the old town, one will likely encounter a unique cityscape in which buildings’ front yards, walls, and structures are cut out as straight as a ruler. However, no matter how many urban planning facility roads are designated, ensuring that all parcels in a thick block meet the road is not easy. It is because the roads are forced to pass through private property, and various interests are involved, including compensation issues. Therefore, adding new urban planning facility roads only reduces the size of the block, and it is not practical to eliminate all sites that are not adjacent to a road.
Another evolutionary path for thick blocks is when a house owner on a lot that does not comply with the bordering obligation dies or moves away, leaving the lot vacant. Since land that does not comply with the bordering obligation is not accessible for building or expansion under the Building Act, it is much less likely to lead to new development activities than land facing a road. Therefore, buildings on such sites are likely to age with their owners and undergo a process of decay. As a result, in the old towns of mid-size cities, the decay process is more concentrated in the inner part of the block, which is not bordered by roads, than in the outer part. Over time, the cumulative effect of these phenomena evolves the shape of the block, with the interior gradually emptying out and the buildings outside the block on the street remaining. This evolution into a block with an empty centre is observed in the old towns of most mid-size cities where population decline is in progress. The 160×160m grid blocks in Namwon, mentioned earlier, also have a high concentration of perforations in the inner fields of the block, which are difficult to access by vehicle, and relatively few perforations in the roadside fields outside the block. This pattern of perforation occurrence is similar in most thick blocks in Namwon and in Nonsan, Gimje, Jeongeup, Naju, Mungyeong, Sangju, Yeongcheon, and Miryang.
Rather than appearing randomly in depopulated older neighbourhoods, these perforations are more likely to occur in areas that are prone to perforation than in regions that are not. If these patterns are universal and unavoidable across mid-size cities, why not embrace them and use them to envision a new future for these declining cities? In the next issue, we will continue our discussion of perforation phenomenon caused by the decay pressure and the strategies that can be used to capitalise on the patterns it creates.
Diagrams of thick block in mid-size cities. These blocks, housing sites which don’t comply with the bordering obligations, vary in shape and size and are repeated in the old towns of mid-size cities.
You can see more information on the SPACE No. July (2024).
Lee Janghwan, Lee Sanghyun
Lee Janghwan and Lee Sanghyun founded the Mid-Size City Forum, a research group that observes changes outside of metropolitan areas and explores their potential. Lee Janghwan is a principal at Urban Operations, working on urban, cultural, and architectural issues, and an adjunct professor at Hongik University. He graduated from Hongik University and Seoul School of Architecture (SA), and graduated with honours from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He worked at the OMA and designed the Qatar National Library, as well as numerous projects throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Lee Sanghyun is working at the Daegu Metropolitan City Urban Design Department and is an independent urban researcher. He received his master’s degree from department of urban planning and engineering of Hanyang University and Delft University of Technology, respectively, and later worked as an urban designer at Palmbout Urban Landscapes.
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