Grand View of Seoul Urban Planning

Grand Review of Seoul Urban Planning: From the Struggles of 1966 to the Seoul of 2026

The beginning of everything great is always crude. There is the '1966 Seoul Urban Master Plan,' the pioneer and first record of Seoul's highest-level urban planning. It was a time when there were no proper references or reliable precedents to rely on. To modern eyes, the drawings may seem rough and the content woefully insufficient. However, it was the fierce struggle of the administrators and planners of that era, who worked day and night to build the framework of the city upon a wasteland.

The history of the city's plans and the urban planning influenced by them is not merely a fragment of urban history, but is akin to the 'Urban DNA' upon which we stand. Of course, since the efforts and outcomes of that time responded to the conditions and context of that era, they will differ greatly from the challenges and solutions that the present and future must address.

This exhibition calmly unfolds the context of how these reckless first plans operated to become our daily lives today, and the chronology through which the giant organism called Seoul has grown over the past several decades. The <Grand Review of Seoul Urban Planning> starts by reviewing that first, clumsy starting point, encouraging visitors to ask themselves questions and seek a direction for the city of Seoul. What kind of future Seoul should we dream of in 2026?

Related Exhibitions: Visual echoes of Seoul, Visual traces of Seoul, Looking forward to the past (Urban Model Video Hall) Seoul AI Foundation, MIT Senseable City Lab

Seoul Institute Expert Discussion: August 14 (Fri) - Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow of Seoul Urban Master Plan Monitoring

Korea Planning Association Symposium: October 7 (Wed) - How a City is Made: The Story of Seoul Created by Planning