Today, urban voids have emerged as challenges to the strategic utilization of cities undergoing constant expansion or shrinkage. Urban voids are unused, underused and misused urban spaces, including abandoned buildings, vacant lots, and derelict areas. Many relevant studies conducted over the past 40 years tend to be unconsolidated, which obstructs the comprehensive accumulation of topic-related scholarship. Hence, this paper examines the dispersed definitions and conceptual approaches to urban voids mentioned in the literature and reclassify various terms to comprehensively clarify their attributes and potentials. Further research on urban voids should build strong academic and practical foundations to shape sustainable cities.
The decline of inner-city manufacturing industries is a global phenomenon, leaving behind vacant land and brownfield sites in cities. These post-industrial areas with their negative images of dereliction and obsolete urban environments have prompted many cities to implement various redevelopment strategies, among which is the concept of the Urban Entertainment Center (UEC), which combines shopping, recreation, and entertainment, with various public spaces. This study attempts to understand the changes that have been triggered by the revitalization strategy of UEC development in large-scale post-industrial sites in Seoul. Here, Special Planning District (SPD) regulation has been adopted to induce creative and long-term urban developments; however, this has been limited to private high-rise residential buildings. This paper examines two UEC development cases applied along with the SPD in semi-industrial areas for their achievements that differ from former implementations. Our analysis reveals several positive aspects: it provides a sustainable urban infrastructure for the region, overcomes the limitations of the SPD regulation practice, and establishes improved urban environment and design quality oriented toward public interest. The “privatization of planning” has become an issue in redevelopment projects. However, the two UEC precedents that are discussed imply that building cooperative public–private partnerships through a reciprocal process will secure more public benefit overall.
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