21st Century (2000–present)

Sejong Special Self-Governing City

2012– · South Korea · East Asia – Korea · National modernization and capital-city building · Planned by Korean Government
Master plan site plan for Sejong, the Multifunctional Administrative City, by Balmori Associates with H Architecture and Haeahn Architecture: the flat, looping government complex (orange) around an empty green centre, with the ring of neighbourhood units and the Geum river edge.
Master plan site plan for Sejong, the Multifunctional Administrative City, by Balmori Associates with H Architecture and Haeahn Architecture: the flat, looping government complex (orange) around an empty green centre, with the ring of neighbourhood units and the Geum river edge. · © Balmori Associates — used with credit · Balmori Associates with H Architecture and Haeahn Architecture, site plan of the Multifunctional Administrative City (Sejong) master plan

Core idea

Administrative capital relocation

Why it matters

Balanced national development

Description

Sejong (from 2012) is South Korea's purpose-built administrative capital, planned to relieve Seoul by relocating government ministries into a decentralized, ring-shaped, green city without a single dominant centre, organized around a looping transit spine.

Significance

Sejong is a major contemporary experiment in administrative decentralization and the 'centerless' city, testing whether relocating government can rebalance an over-concentrated national capital region.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.