om the Gwanghwamun Gate, which connects the plaza with the nearby royal palace. During the Japanese occupation of Korea the colonial government built a large governmental building between the royal palace and plaza, destroying the traditional symbolic relation of the two. Later the South Korean government also built an administrative complex right next to the plaza. The plaza was therefore always an important place, where the state institutions were located and their power was represented. Yet the plaza is also a place where citizens contested the state power. Several historic events took place on the plaza, which is sometimes called the “prototype public space in Korea.” The history of the Gwanghwamun Plaza therefore not only represents the state but also the South Korean civic society.
Yet decades of rapid urbanisation turned the Gwanghwamun Plaza into a large expressway rather than public plaza. The urban design competition aimed to reconstruct the plaza was organized in 2007 and the new plaza was opened to the public in 2009. Its urban design refers to different Korean historic events and personalities and allows flexibility in terms of adopting the plaza to the changing requirements in the future. The metropolitan government actually selected the basic urban design through a popular voting, which favoured a reconstruction of the plaza with two roads on its both sides. The new plaza hence faces the five-lane road sections on its sides, which prevents a direct access for pedestrians from the surrounding area.
The Bupyeong Culture Street and Gwanghwamun Plaza were aimed to reconstruct the existing street into pedestrian public space, integrating the local history and culture as an important part of the urban design. Yet the restoration of the Gwanghwamun Plaza lacks a meaningful relation to the local history and culture. It superficially resembles a theme park for tourists rather than the most important public space in Seoul. Its careful historic restoration seem to have come second to the construction of new tourist attraction and marketing of global Seoul. The Gwanghwamun Plaza is namely expected to attract new international events and tourists and affect the economic competitiveness and global appeal of Seoul. By providing new public facilities the new plaza also improves the quality of everyday life in the city, yet not everyone seems to benefit equally from such approach. On the contrary the Bupyeong Culture Street improves social amenities, creates new opportunities for social interaction and strengthens the sense of neighbourhood and community attachment.
The Bupyeong Culture Street is a successful example of community-based urban design, where the citizens were involved in the decision-making from the beginning on. The resulting urban design reflects the interests and values that the local merchants, street vendors, residents and visitors attach to the place. On the other hand the metropolitan government took most of the decisions unilaterally in the case of Gwanghwamun Plaza, mainly to complete the project in the shortest time possible. Public concerns about the restoration and symbolic meaning of the place had little effect on the urban design. While Bupyeong Culture Street has become one of the main public spaces in the city, the metropolitan government banned public gatherings from the Gwanghwamun plaza and the riot police still guards the plaza, which questions its meaning as the main public space in Seoul.
Urban development in the metropolitan Seoul used to be characterised by massive urbanization, which paid little attention to the environmental and social consequences or the preservation of local history and culture. Unrestricted economic growth and speculative urban development were instrumentalised in order to strengthen the national power. The civic society was denied participation in decision-making. Comparison of the recent urban design in Seoul therefore shows fresh approach to urban development in terms of the local history and culture, quality of everyday life, economic competitiveness, public u