Songdo: A Case Study On New Cities
Our familiarity with the places we live in may have us thinking that much of the built environment naturally grew and evolved throughout history. However, many old cities such as London, Paris, and New York are actually planned urban areas. Thus, spaces we were born into are spaces that have long been planned by those before us. Hence, we are also capable of planning our cities for ourselves and for those after us. With the growing global concerns including biodiversity loss and climate change, getting better at planning our cities is a must.
One notable attempt among a sea of ghost towns and shrinking cities is South Korea’s Songdo International City and, at its center, the Songdo International Business District (IBD). A contracting-out through private-public partnership that started in 2002 between the government of South Korea and private companies Gale International and POSCO E&C[1], the city is a master planned development inside the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ). Connected by a bridge to the Incheon International Airport and around 1–2 hours away from the center of Seoul, Songdo International City positions itself as an Aerotropolis — the gateway to Northeast Asia — and as the first smart city of its kind embracing sustainability practices and green technologies.[2]
At the very beginning, the project already faced controversies in relation to the city’s greenfield strategy of building on reclaimed land which was once the Songdo tidal flats. According to the Ramsar Convention, it is internationally important and eligible for protection. However, despite the nation’s vision of “low carbon green growth” through the Korean Green New Deal,[3] the National Strategy for Green Growth, and the Five-Year Plan,[4] the varying interpretations of green growth posed a conflict with new technologies and economic advantages in green development winning over habitat preservation and social justice. In this sense, green growth has become a sub-concept of holistic sustainable development and has left loopholes making sustainability questionable.[5] Even with gentrification issues, urban development persisted and the New Songdo City designed by Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF) Associates began to take shape.
The design of Songdo International City draws inspiration from other global cities including Sydney’s Opera House, New York’s Central Park, Venice’s canals, Paris’ boulevards, and London’s garden squares.[6] Planning concepts also include graduated urban density, extensive green space, and neighborhood diversity.[7] With these in mind, the city is divided into multiple major complexes including industrial, bio-technology, construction, and knowledge and information complexes, and at its core is the Songdo IBD which will be the focus for the analysis of the city’s built environment.
Following a grid-like pattern, the IBD is where office and commercial strips intersect and are flanked by residential and green zones which include major institutional facilities and social services. Though the Golf Course is the focal point of the city’s green space program and the biggest open space in the IBD, the Central Park is the IBD’s centerpiece. It includes features of different scales — from a public zoo to a mini library in the form of a repurposed phone booth. Park activities include running, cycling, and boating. Immediately around the park are a mix of low- to mid-rise institutional and commercial buildings, and high-rise residential and office buildings. The IBD aims to expand and accommodate density by maximizing connectivity while keeping its green, open spaces estimated at 40%.
Besides these striking urban features, the 86 square kilometer development (with the IBD at 9.3 square kilometers) also seamlessly integrates emerging technologies. The masterplan is under the LEED Neighborhood Design pilot program, being the first in Asia, and has all major buildings of the city LEED certified and includes features that help reduce energy consumption in each building.[8] A built-in pneumatic waste disposal system with underground pipes directly connects buildings to a centralized waste collection plant eliminating the need for garbage trucks.[9] As it aims to become a transit-oriented development, the city also includes 25km of bike paths, extensive walking paths, and charging stations for electric vehicles. The city also commits to its smart city promise by integrating a digital foundation for its infrastructure through a joint venture with Cisco and LG Corporation[10] which includes internet-enabled utility services — water, power, traffic, and telephony — and a centralized surveillance system.[11] Realizing how these ideas came to be before the advent of certain technologies such as iPhones shows how the Songdo International City was truly the first of its kind.
This new planned city seems promising, but there are also many concerns that the city faces today. Though the city’s population is finally increasing at a higher rate in recent years, its population as of 2020 at around 184,000 is still far from its original goal of 300,000 by 2025. Despite the integrated smart technology, road design can be considered outdated as streets are too wide for locals to consider walkable[12] especially in the winter. With the pneumatic waste management system set, an overlooked detail is the absence of garbage bins in public areas which has resulted in people leaving their trash along the streets and on park benches.[13] The presence of abandoned waste bags from households commonly observed on the streets also show how residents are not fully aware of the city’s waste collection system. Baek In Soo’s analysis of the urban resource flow of the city from a metabolic flow perspective shows that Songdo’s residents consume more electricity and water and also generate more sewage than the average Korean.[14] The pneumatic waste management system consumes more energy than expected and, since food waste and general waste go down the same pipe, recycling of wastes is not maximized. Also, only 3% of wastewater is recycled which is lower than the original target of the development at 30% due to the wastewater treatment facility not being able to desalinate the waste water. Thus, despite the original plan using recycled wastewater for the city’s irrigation, it is now only used for road cleaning and sanitation purposes. The LEED certification of the city also does not assure of improved use of resources as buildings are certified individually. Certification alone does not prove how buildings and its environment function efficiently in the long run during actual occupancy.[15] Also, considering how most residences are built for high-income earners, does it contribute to or hinder a diverse neighborhood instead? Finally, there is the issue of the right to privacy in public spaces in light of a surveillance society. Is this technology an added layer of community safety through Jacob’s eyes on the street, or is this Orwell’s dystopian vision of big brother?[16]
The people of Songdo have different opinions about their young city. Some say the city is a lonely place where, though technological conveniences do exist, the promised vibrant community does not.[17] There are also those who are worried that the city may just become a bedroom community similar to other towns at the edges of Seoul instead of the initially intended industrial and economic center it aims to become. Some also perceive Songdo as a generic city that has only proclaimed itself as a smart city.[18] Still, many would disagree with all these and are glad to call the vibrant smart city their home.
Songdo has also become a starting point for those who plan to capitalize on its successes. South Korea sees Smart City as a Service (SCaaS) as its own export product.[19] With a team of experts, Gale International’s Stan Gale has already started Songdo’s first “clone” through China’s Meixi Lake District[20] and considers selling what’s been done at Songdo to other nations including North Korea.[21]
Despite the issues, the Songdo International City still has good points that may be applied to other cities. Adding policies for graduated urban density can minimize the rampant urban sprawl. Integrating sustainable practices through stricter implementation of waste disposal methods at the source, especially households, can help in efficient resource management. Converting some lanes along our own wide streets into bike paths, wider pedestrian paths, and adding designated nooks for rest or for informal commerce can support the diverse local community. Making online connectivity through efficiently planned and well-maintained hardware and software throughout the city can make internet access universal and help the state keep track of and provide for the community’s needs. Improving open spaces in existing cities, including bodies of water, and designating open spaces to be preserved for future cities can boost the quality of life in these urban environments. Finally, the pros and cons of the beginnings, the processes and, eventually, the outcomes of Songdo can be a great resource in scrutinizing debatable project proposals such as the 318-hectare Waterfront Manila reclamation in Manila Bay and the New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, the Philippines’ own Aerotropolis.
A case study of new planned cities like Songdo may not provide ideal results, but valuable lessons can still be gained as we continue to aim for just and beautiful cities. Ultimately, cities aren’t just its buildings. Cities are always the people, and only time will tell if the people will come.
Image Sources:
Figure 1: http://www.songdonsic.com/en/opinion_en/tenant/
Figure 2: http://www.songdonsic.com/en/opinion_en/develop/
Figure 3: http://www.songdonsic.com/en/ibd_en/business/
Figure 5: http://www.phantom-urbanism.com/meixi-lake-city.html
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026427511730029X
[2] https://www.kpf.com/projects/new-songdo-city
[3] https://www.climatescorecard.org/2021/06/incheon-the-eco-friendly-city-of-the-future-in-republic-of-korea/
[4] https://www.oecd.org/greengrowth/greengrowthinactionkorea.htm
[5] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00139157.2011.570640
[6] https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/rtf-architectural-reviews/a4510-architectural-review-of-songdo-south-korea/
[7] https://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/songdo-master-plan
[8] https://newcities.org/cityquest-songdo-south-korea-conceptualized-ultimate-smart-sustainable-city/
[9] https://theconversation.com/as-cities-grow-the-internet-of-things-can-help-us-get-on-top-of-the-waste-crisis-127917
[10] https://www.acsa-arch.org/proceedings/Annual%20Meeting%20Proceedings/ACSA.AM.102/ACSA.AM.102.18.pdf
[11] https://longform.org/archive/writers/greg-lindsay
[12] http://www.newtowninstitute.org/spip.php?article1078
[13] (Nov. 10, 2018.) Songdo: Go Inside The City Of The Future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZKtr7vU5cI
[14] Baek, Insoo. (2015.) A Study on the Sustainable Infrastructure of the Songdo City Project: From the Viewpoint of the Metabolic Flow Perspective. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/37438492.pdf
[15] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-05/reconsidering-leed-buildings-in-the-era-of-climate-change
[16] https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/5527/1933
[17] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-22/songdo-south-korea-s-smartest-city-is-lonely
[18] http://www.newtowninstitute.org/newtowndata/newtown.php?newtownId=1758
[19] https://smartcityhub.com/urban-planning-and-building/songdo-model-of-the-smart-and-sustainable-city-of-the-future/
[20] https://www.fastcompany.com/1514547/ciscos-big-bet-new-songdo-creating-cities-scratch
