ABSTRACT
During the period when Times Square opened in late 2009, Yeongdeungpo, an area located in the southwest part of Seoul, was filled with a high level of excitement and expectation floated in the air. The regeneration process of the area had started in earnest in the late 2000s with the construction of multi-purpose buildings combining residential and commercial functions, and the opening of the biggest shopping mall in Korea, Times Square, symbolized the most visible outcome of the urban regeneration planning. Yeongdeungpo used to be much more vibrant with high numbers of workers, factories, lodging houses, and other facilities such as cheap restaurants, pubs, and billiard halls, but post-industrialism had impacted negatively on this area. Most of the steel and textile factories closed and production relocated abroad in the search for cheaper rent and labour in the 1990s, and the remaining factory sites have become decayed space occupied by the most ‘undesirable people’ in modern neoliberal Seoul. Consequently, shabby industrial remains and heavily concentrated dosshouse zones have overtly represented Yeongdeungpo until recently. The emergence of new shopping malls, apartments, and complex buildings is a part of an urban planning program that regenerates the area into a “rich,” “secure” and “clean” place where majority of people would be eager to visit and consider residing.
