OMA Unveils Hillside Redevelopment Project in Busan, South Korea
Arts & Culture Climate Change, Energy & Pollution Density HousingSummary
This ArchDaily article spotlights the Busan Slope Housing project in South Korea, which adopts a context-sensitive approach to hillside urban development. In collaboration with Busan Architecture Festival and the Department of Housing and Architecture, OMA aims to balance modern housing needs with the social and spatial histories of these neighbourhoods. The project’s sites, Yeongju and Anchang, were once refuges for displaced communities during the Korean War. As a result, informal settlements and informal, community-driven networks were created.
Unlike conventional and uniform high-rise urban models, OMA’s proposal embraces the irregular nature of hillside topography by introducing four housing types based on their adaptability to slopes, solar access, orientation, and proximity to public space: towers on high points, urban villas in central nodes, row houses along ridges, and terrace housing in steeper areas.
OMA’s overall goal is to create a reproducible redevelopment strategy with circulation as a primary organizing principle to preserve and strengthen the informal social connectivity that characterizes these communities.