That Other building

Keunrin Sengwhal Shiseol 큰린센괈힛설

I have noticed a building typology popping up in every APT complex i have visited. These rudimentary, doubled banked buildings are covered in signs, explicitly advertising their function, very much the Venturi ‘decorated shed’. The amount of dry cleaners, creches, grocers and doctors surgeries within these Keunsengs have been calculated according to a planning formula, no more, no less. According to an article by Kim Kwang Soo, ‘this type, namely a 3-4 storey building built within a 130 sqm-330 sqm lot for commercial purposes called ‘keunseng’ (neighborhood support facility) makes for 92.7% of all buildings within Seoul...(Korea-Germany Public Space Forum Journal 2005)

So according to this number, most of the buildings in Seoul have some kind of duty to respond to the needs of their neighborhood. But they seem to be exactly the opposite, outgrowths of a planning law, producing a noisy, dumb but powerful architectural type.