ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the significance of Nanjido Landfill’s residence and the habitants’ work of waste collection in the context of social ecology. The early populations of Nanjido Landfill settled close to the landfill site so that they could work in the landfill conveniently. The early settlers, who started living in the Nanjido Landfill area before 1984, built houses by themselves with scrapped materials found in the garbage dump. In 1984, most Nanjido Landfill residents moved into the collective housing complex provided by Seoul City. The Nanjido Landfill population’s residency generally refers to the complex of prefabricated collective housing buildings, similar to Quonsets, located in 482 Sangam-dong. The motivation behind the City’s decision to provide the illegal occupants with the right of residence is not clear. The Nanjido Landfill residents could freely transform the housing units because they were outside the legal boundary of the land and architecture laws of the City.
