Explore Seongsu-dong's architecture with a guided walking tour

Seoul's Seongdong-gu will run an architecture education program called "Gagahoho" with local architects from Monday through Saturday.

Now in its 10th year, the program is operated jointly by Seongdong-gu and the Seongdong-gu Architects Association under an MOU. It was designed to give children and residents hands-on opportunities to deepen their understanding of cities and architecture and to build broader cultural literacy.

From Monday through Friday, a "traveling architecture class" will visit 11 after-school care centers — known as Aiккumnuriteo — across the district, reaching 130 elementary school students. Participants will examine the forms of well-known buildings alongside an architect and then use lines and shapes to design their own structures.

On Saturday, a separate "children's architecture class" for 30 elementary school students will be held in the main auditorium on the third floor of the Seongdong-gu Office. An architect will walk the children through how buildings come to life in an accessible, story-based format, and participants will construct their own spaces using wooden sticks.

Also on Saturday, a "Seongsu-dong architecture tour" will take 20 district residents on a walking tour of the neighborhood's most distinctive buildings, accompanied by four architects who will explain the stories and spatial characteristics behind each structure.

The tour departs from Shoe Theme Park and proceeds on foot to major landmarks including Dior, Tamburins, Blue Elephant, Daelim Warehouse, Seongsu Yeonbang and Amore Seongsu. Participants will experience the full range of Seongsu-dong's architectural culture — from repurposed old factories and warehouses to facilities with strikingly original designs.

Seongdong-gu has been running a red-brick building support project to preserve Seongsu-dong's distinctive urban landscape. Drawing on an ordinance enacted in July 2017 on the preservation and support of red-brick buildings, the district has provided ongoing support to protect the historical and cultural value of factories, warehouses and housing built from red brick in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since last year, the district has expanded the program to cover the entire Seongsu-dong area — including the southern side of Ttukseom Station, the area around Korea National Open University and the cafe street near Seongsu Station — subsidizing a portion of construction costs for red-brick building renovations. Through these efforts to preserve the value of older structures, red-brick buildings have become a defining feature of Seongsu-dong's urban identity.

"I hope this architecture program will give children a chance to learn architectural principles and nurture their creativity, while offering residents a fresh opportunity to discover Seongsu-dong's architectural culture and the value of their community," said Seongdong-gu District Mayor Yoo Bo-hwa. "We will continue to create diverse opportunities for people to experience architecture and the city up close in their everyday lives."