SEOUL, KOREA — Seoul is set to tear down an old industrial site and turn it into a neighborhood that has everything — so residents won’t feel cut off during virus lockdowns.
Here are the details: CNN reports that the South Korean capital of Seoul has greenlighted a project to build the world’s first self-contained suburb.
Designed by Dutch architect firm UNStudio, the suburb will be a so-called “ten-minute city,” which means that it would have everything any resident needs within a 10-minute walk from his or her home.
The project is backed by the Hyundai Development Company and the plan is to take an old 125-acre industrial site and turn it into an interconnected smart city, built around eight high-rise apartment buildings.
Project blueprints show that the high-rises will be connected by a park filled with roads for pedestrians and bicycles only — no cars or trucks allowed.
The pedestrian-friendly grounds will also contain supermarkets, co-working offices, study spaces, entertainment venues, fitness centers, swimming pools and even hydroponic urban farms, where residents can grow their own food.
The architects say they also plan to include clean-energy generation and rainwater capture systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen growing interest in the idea of a ten-minute city, with people around the world working from home and avoiding public transport.