The Yeongdeungpo Station Area, Once Fearful to Walk, Transformed into a Shining Attraction

Seoul City Plans to Designate Three Areas Including Yeongdeungpo Station Vicinity and Mullae Creative Village as 'Specialized Streets'

ON Mullae

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] The area around Yeongdeungpo Station in Seoul, once dark and underdeveloped, is being reborn as a new hotspot. On the 2nd, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced plans to designate three areas near Yeongdeungpo Station?Gyeongin-ro and Mullae Creative Village (the backstreets of Mullae-dong), where small-scale machine metal factories, art workshops, and trendy cafes coexist?as ‘specialized streets.’

The three areas are ▲Yeongdeungpo Station to Daeseon Flour Mill area (745m) ▲Mullae Creative Village and the machine metal industry cluster (1955m) ▲Gyeongin-ro (Yeongdeungpo Station to Dorimcheon section, 1418m).

Seoul aims not only to physically improve the poor pedestrian environment that inconveniences walkers but also to capture the industrial and cultural-artistic ecosystem that has evolved since the early 1900s. A Seoul city official said, “We plan to create streets with unique locality,” adding, “We will make the streets themselves a landmark.”

Before establishing the basic plan, Seoul held an idea contest to gather diverse and creative ideas from citizens, announcing the results on the 3rd. The contest was open to all interested citizens without restrictions on qualifications or fields, and a total of 83 teams participated. Seoul ultimately selected 10 teams, including one grand prize winner.

The grand prize winner, ‘ON Mullae,’ proposed placing elements such as light (neon lighting), water (low-floor fountains), and gaps (vacant spaces between buildings) to make Mullae Creative Village, located in the existing machine metal factory area, a space for small business owners, artists, and visitors alike. The judging panel noted, “The project stood out for its bold application of complementary elements like iron and water, light and color, and for addressing not only the public areas of the street but also the gaps between buildings that make up the street.”

Kang Maeng-hoon, Director of Urban Regeneration at Seoul City, said, “Seoul plans to promote urban regeneration revitalization projects so that local residents in Yeongdeungpo, Mullae-dong, and surrounding areas can lead autonomous regional changes,” adding, “We will refer to the diverse and innovative ideas from the contest to transform dirty and inconvenient alleys and sidewalks beyond mere facility improvements into another landmark.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.