Research Question: Re-imagining Songdo City (South Korea) to create a series of inclusive and diverse feminist community spaces.
This project explores the issues with inequality, abuse, harassment, and case of Molka (spy cameras) in South Korea. Understanding the presence of feminism painted a clear picture of the lives of women in this country. Feminism did not start here until 2015 and came about due to movement such as “#metoo” and “Escape the corset” campaigns.
These initial activities blew apart the current society as women started to fight back. Due to the intense nature of these campaigns’ some women were not finding the right outlet for their concerns, issues of online fanaticism came to light and something needed to change.
This sparked the idea for this project. Creating a space that could provide a safe and suitable way to go about changing South Korea, providing a more balanced and equal society. The creation of the feminist district would be able to supply these facilities, an addition to the existing city of Songdo, (west of Seoul) which would enable the feminist activities happening in the capital to reach further throughout South Korea.
After the implementation of a conceptual mistress plan was complete, I chose to develop a specific site which would act as the beating heart of the district. This would be a secondary location for the Korean Women’s Development Institute. Providing the necessary support and community needed to drive the district forward. For my final output I designed the accommodation and nursery aspects further to provide a clearer understanding of their importance within the KWDI.
This project has provided me with a clearer understanding of human centred architecture and its importance in our evolving society. I hope this is something I will be able to continue to develop in my career.
