Guryong Village
The 1988 Olympics
The 1988 Summer Olympics were hosted in Seoul in the immediate wake of two Olympic games hosted by the world Superpowers, the Soviet Union in 1980 and the United States in 1984. In an attempt to demonstrate the successful reconstruction of South Korea, the central government wanted to show off the country on the Global Stage. This neccesitated a wide range of construction projects.
Spaciality
Guryong Village was first constructed after a group of relatively poor people were evicted from their housing on the site of the park for the upcoming 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. These people were shuffled from spot to spot until they bought a small plot of land and managed to build themselves a microcommunity of the disenfranchised.
Origins of Guryong Village
The confict inherent in the origins of Guryong Village can be synthesized by analyzing the differing notions of Spatiality between the dwellers and the state. The dwellers considered their houses to be a space of residence. In contrast, the state considered their dwellings to be the site of an Olympic Park. As the state is a much stronger entity, it was able to realize its Spaciality by evicting the dwellers and constructing a park.