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Architects: Narrative Architects
- Area: 244 m²
- Year: 2024
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Lead Architects: Namin Hwang, Sihong Kim
Text description provided by the architects. The Julpo Regeneration Series represents an experimental approach aimed at revitalizing a declining town and exploring new possibilities. Julpo, once a thriving port over the past century and the birthplace of renowned politicians and literary figures, bears traces of its former glory in its urban fabric. However, after the port's closure due to natural sediment accumulation, the region shifted to an agriculture-based economy, gradually losing its vibrancy as young people migrated to cities. As echoed in the dialogue from the film Byeonsan, "All we have to show here is the sunset," we sought to inject new publicness and emotional energy into the town's urban structure by employing architectural language that contrasts with its existing context.
The tension between the rigid urban context and contrasting architectural forms creates novel spatial experiences. In response to the town's lethargy, the deliberate dissonance evoked through disparate forms and colors brings latent conflicts to the surface as explicit narratives. This demonstrates that urban regeneration is not only about reorganizing spaces for functionality but also about introducing new publicness and interaction into stagnant urban structures through architecture as a physical entity. By integrating contrasting architectural forms with community activities, the building transforms into a dynamic public space, offering new possibilities for urban regeneration through architectural interventions.
Julpo Regeneration Hub & Public Restroom – The management building of Julpo Market stands apart, existing outside the rigid orthogonal grid of the urban structure established during the Japanese colonial era. Once serving as a modest meeting place for the market merchants' association and a public restroom, this building has now been reimagined as a central hub for urban regeneration, aimed at breathing new life into Julpo. The original brick structure has been reinforced, and its interior reconfigured to transform the building into a versatile, multipurpose space for the local community. Where previously there was only a small meeting room, an office, and a restroom, the spaces now house expanded programs: an enlarged meeting room, a video studio, and a shared kitchen. The previously inaccessible rooftop, now connected by a newly added steel staircase, has been repurposed as a sunset observation deck, infusing the building with a fresh functional and symbolic role.
The newly constructed public restroom reacts to the linear context formed by the management building and the surrounding urban fabric, responding to the functional needs of the market merchants, their customers, and the elderly residents of the nearby aging housing. In contrast, the restroom's lightweight steel structure features a low-tech, double-curved roof, sheathed in uniform metallic cladding. This sculptural form deliberately rejects the architectural language of the existing building and the surrounding urban order, asserting itself as a striking counterpoint. By engaging the environment in a distinctly contrasting vocabulary, the restroom functions as a mediator, creating a new dialogue between the architecture, the town, and its community.
The tension and interaction between these juxtaposed, contextually detached forms craft an experience of unexpected spatial vitality. In direct opposition to the inertia of Julpo, the dissonance provoked by contrasting forms and colors consciously draws out latent conflicts, rendering them explicit as narratives embedded in the urban landscape. This approach underscores that urban regeneration is not merely the functional rearrangement of spaces but a deliberate process of introducing new publicness and dynamic interactions into stagnant urban frameworks through the medium of architecture. By merging bold, contrasting architectural forms with community-driven activities, the building becomes a dynamic public space, presenting a compelling vision for the untapped potential of architectural intervention in urban regeneration.
Julpo Warehouse Renovation – As a major hub for exploitation during the Japanese colonial period, Julpo, like many port towns, features large, orderly plots of land lined with warehouses. These structures, arranged in a systematic manner, have maintained their alignment for over 60 years, even after the port ceased to function. The warehouses, initially used to store seafood, later served as agricultural storage and have since been left neglected. However, during Julpo's heyday, they likely operated as a bustling center of the local economy, supplying seafood to the nearby market.
With the decline of Julpo's economy, the traditional reinforced concrete warehouses lost their function but still stood tall, maintaining their presence and the old town order. However, their closed-off nature hindered the flow of movement between the market, the senior community center, and the gateball court, limiting the expansion of public programs.
Our approach was to open and reconfigure these static, single-function spaces—warehouses—transforming them into multi-layered spaces capable of hosting diverse community activities and public functions. By opening the reinforced concrete walls, we extended the range of activity from the building's interior to the outdoor space behind it. The stainless steel doors of the cold storage, left fixed open, now serve as a welcoming canopy. At the front, the hanging gallery acts as an open structure connecting the interior and exterior of the warehouse, dismantling its rigid spatial order and introducing new dynamic flows. This reconfiguration, emerging from contrasting relationships, naturally links the lively atmosphere of the market to the backyard courtyard, infusing vitality into the previously enclosed and static space.
The curtain wall, completely open toward the rear courtyard, blurs the spatial boundaries, allowing the space to act as a backdrop for various community activities. This flexible space, capable of adapting to needs and circumstances, carries forward the temporal narrative of the warehouse—from its past as a seafood storage facility to an agricultural warehouse, and finally, its period of abandonment—offering the potential for continuous evolution through new programs and activities.
The community activities within the warehouse radiate outward through the gallery that traverses and penetrates its exterior walls. A lightweight steel structure with grating, suspended within the existing reinforced concrete frame, creates new spatial layers. Walking through the elevated gallery provides an experience where exhibitions of Julpo's past overlap with the present town context, fostering an interplay of perspectives between the inside and outside of the building. The juxtaposition of exhibitions and landscapes offers a fresh perception of the familiar town scenery, inviting each visitor to interpret and experience it in their own way. The process of expressing and sharing these impressions through words and writings breathes new life into the stagnant streets, sparking the beginnings of urban regeneration.
