21st Century (2000–present)

Seoul Digital Media City (DMC)

2002– · South Korea · East Asia – Korea · Post-industrial regeneration and waterfront urbanism · Planned by SMG
Masterplan render of the Sangam Millennium City with the Digital Media City cluster (9) and the Nanjido parks
Masterplan render of the Sangam Millennium City with the Digital Media City cluster (9) and the Nanjido parks · © Seoul Metropolitan Government — used with credit · Seoul Metropolitan Government, via Seoul Solution (Seoul Policy Archive)

Core idea

Media/IT cluster in Sangam

Why it matters

Brownfield tech district since 2002 World Cup

Description

A planned media and information-technology cluster developed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government from 2002 in Sangam-dong, on reclaimed land adjacent to the former Nanjido landfill and the World Cup facilities. The plan laid out a compact district of broadcasting headquarters, digital-industry offices and supporting housing along a themed Digital Media Street, integrated with new parks created on the rehabilitated landfill.

Significance

Digital Media City exemplifies Korea's state-led cluster planning, using a single district to concentrate an entire industrial sector and to rebrand a stigmatised landfill periphery as a symbol of the digital economy. It is frequently cited in East Asian planning literature on innovation districts and mega-event legacies, linking the 2002 World Cup to long-term structural change in western Seoul.

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.