“Asian Review 044” ― Seoul part5
Seoul City Fortress Wall and Dongdaemun Area
Dongdaemun (The East Gate) is one of the four major gates of the City Fortress Wall surrounding Hanyang along with Namdaemun, Xidaemun, and Sukjeongmun, and is officially called Hunginjimun.
Inside of these gates is a historical and cultural area called Hanyangdoseong, where height restrictions on buildings have been discussed for many years. Until the 1990s, different height restrictions were determined for each area, but in 2000 the height restriction of 90m was set, and then it was eased to 110m, with the possibility of the further easement depending on the contribution to the public.
In May 2016, the Mayor Park Won-seung redefined the maximum height of 90m, based on the height of the inner four mountains (Naksan, Namsan, Inwangsan and Baegaksan). In the autumn of 2018, the Mayor announced a plan to restore the limit to 110m in height to expand housing supply through the complex development of the city center. Also, the floor area ratio limitation has been reduced to 600% uniformly in Seoul, having possibility to obtain an extra 200% depending on the contribution to the public.
Dongdaemun is a shopping destination for foreign tourists as the Dongdaemun General Market and the Peace Market are located nearby. Dongdaemun General Market is a comprehensive wholesale/retail market for fabrics, fashion accessories, various accessories, and etc. It has four buildings: Building A, Building B, Building C and Shopping Town each with seven floors which consists more than 4,000 stores. Customers, such as pros, foreign tourists and locals who visits the market to purchase, are also full of variety. Commercial facilities such as Migliore Dongdaemun Shop (opened in 1998), Lotte Fit in Dongdaemun store (opened in 2013), DOOTA MALL (opened in 2014) are concentrated, and most stores are open even at midnight.
In Dongdaemun, a large cultural facility designed by Zaha Hadid has appeared. I would like to introduce it next time.
