Page 99 - PhotoView eMagazine 2023.7 issue25

소영섭 So Youngseop : 주거단지 Residential complex

Residential complex

≪Residential Complex≫ is a set of photographs of the 37-year-old ‘Hyoja Jugong Complex 3’ located in Hyoja-dong, Wansan-gu,
Jeonju-si, which is about to be redeveloped and the residential culture and ecology of the old city center. ‘Hyojajugong Complex
3’ is a large-scale residential complex completed in 1984 by the Korea National Housing Corporation with 1,230 households in
35 buildings of various sizes ranging from 13 pyeong to 25 pyeong on a site that used to be a water parsley field. At the time

when the population of Jeonju was soaring, it was the newest five-story apartment complex in the new town where the middle
class, including civil servants, lived. However, at present, with the largest scale reconstruction scheduled for Jeonju with the goal
of completion in 2029, it is in a state of slum as an underdeveloped residential complex where mainly low-income and elderly

people live. ≪Residential Complex≫ are photographs capturing the residential environment and culture that will soon disappear
in a situation where some residents have left and some residents are still living.

A house is a physical container that captures the overall image of a culture and at the same time is a cultural product that creates

human life. Each culture has its own living environment, and within it there are unique characteristics. A house can be said to be
a place for people to live. However, once people enter and reside there, cultural phenomena created only by people are revealed.
As a tangible building, the house itself is clearly an inorganic material. However, when it operates as an organism called a house
and a human being, it functions as a living meaning system.
‘Hyojajugong Complex 3’ is also an old residential complex, revealing various meaning systems. The fifth-floor apartments lined

up in rows surrounded by dense trees suggest the taste of the residential consumption culture of the growing urban middle class
in contrast to the newly built high-rise apartments. The old trees beyond the triangular pointed roof symbolize the long 37-year
history of the apartment. In some complexes, the front doors of apartments covered by dense trees or locked front doors imply

that residents are leaving their homes. Abandoned cats and food and water bottles furnished by cat moms make the owner's
absence all the more real.

However, the lush metasequoia, the ivy that covers the veranda window, the Campsis grandiflora that climbs the wall above the

veranda antenna on the 3rd floor, the red roses that bloom against the black window, and the pile of flowers of various colors
that are in full bloom in the flower bed on the 1st floor are the tenacious vitality of nature. Not only that, but it alludes to the
strong will of the remaining people. Vegetables grown in public flower beds, blankets and towels spread on clotheslines or drying
racks tell us about the ordinary daily life of residents, which are still maintained even in the midst of hollowing out. In it, the lonely
back of her grandmother facing the front door filled with locks seems to be missing the last moments with her house where she

lived a fierce life. Her grandfather's expression, sitting alone on a long chair at her doorway, seems to be guarding the site of her
house until the end, looking at the surrounding landscape as if she would never see her departing neighbor again.

≪Residential Complex≫ is the space of a residential complex where several generations gathered and lived a fierce life, with the

documentary quality of photography at the forefront, and the spaces that are now more crowded and common, especially the
space of memories where I lived in a nearby apartment when I was a child and played with my friends. The last image of 'Hyoja
Jugong Complex 3', which is about to be summoned and redeveloped, was captured. Reconstructing the corroded landscape

over time, recalling the existing lifestyles of the redevelopment area of the apartment complex. By exploring the strata of time and
memory inherent in a specific space, we tried to confirm the changes, values, and meanings of residential culture revealed in the
process of modern urbanization. At the same time, ≪Residential Complex≫ approached the social issue of urban redevelopment
from a metaphorical point of view including lyricism, and attempted documentary photography that was sublimated more photo-
esthetically and artistically.