A Study on the Functions of Street as a Space for Activities : with Special Reference to Street in CBD of Seoul

Abstract

The present study· is about the outdoor space, the streets for pedestrian- sidewalks :and/or paths-in which we can find a great variety of human activities which result from the interaction of people and their environment in the commercial area of the CBD in Seoul. Rudofsky in his Streets For People, argues for the necessity of humanizing the street for pedestrians. He uses European and Middle Eastern examples to illustrate what a street can and should be. In Seoul, jt may be considered as an absurdity because of her resounding noise of construction work. Yet her old history and the complexity of various development activities in recent years tells us a lot about the necessity of faithfully cosidering "human" and "environment". Because of the fact that there are so few places for the pedestrians to visit and relax, the streets tend to be used for multiple functions, in spite of the fact that it is not provided or designed originally for other acitvities than transportation flow and/or passage-way. In order to analyze the multiple functions of the street which resulted from the various activities of pedestrians, it is the point of departure of this study that we conceive the street as a living space can be basically formed by the relationship between an object and a human being who participates in it. For such an analysis, this study includes the surveys of the detailed land uses along the six selected streets, especially the use of facade which have direct contacts with the pedestrians, and the existing physical conditions of street for pedestrians, and the observation of various activities which were generated during a day.