The goal of urban renewal design is to increase people's return visits.
As part of human-centered development, various urban regeneration projects are being actively carried out. The method of urban regeneration seems to be focused on regeneration projects aimed at revitalization, not destructive reconstruction. At the center of revitalization is the economic recovery of local residents, and in order to do so, there is a logic that many people should gather in the region. The easiest way to do this is to provide a reason for people to gather in the end. Perhaps for this reason, many local governments seem to use artists a lot. This seems to be actively taking place in various regions, as it is in line with the needs of artists who need support for workspaces and art activities. In fact, there are similar success stories, so there is not much reason not to benchmark them. The successes of Seoul's Seongsu-dong, Munrae-dong, and Yeonnam-dong-attracting at least people-have probably felt attractive to many local governments in need of urban renewal.
In a broader sense, a similar pattern can be found from the perspective of gathering people for urban revitalization. It is to have several similar facilities. This seems to be a hardware perspective rather than a software perspective in which artists participated. I naturally had many opportunities to look into many local cities when traveling abroad was difficult due to Corona 19. There were facilities that were commonly found from a hardware perspective. It was like a cable car, skywalk, zip line, luge... etc. In almost all regions, the qualifiers “first, best, and longest” were added to promote publicity. However, from the customer's point of view, the more these facilities are used, the more they are used, the less satisfied they are, and there is no significant difference between regions.
Assuming that the regeneration project will take place with local residents as the main body of urban regeneration, I think it would be better to introduce the concept of design thinking or service design here. From the point of view of design thinking, my thoughts on the existing urban regeneration method are as follows.
Both of the aforementioned approaches motivate customers to visit. In order for people to visit an area, it must have a specific purpose. 'Shall we go there once?' Makes you think It's like the psychology of people who want to visit hot places in their neighborhood. So what is the general behavior of people who have come with this motive? I think most of you will agree. Once they take an authentication picture. And they must be together in the certification picture. No matter how great a piece of art is on display, it feels empty if they are not in the picture. And they post photos on social media such as Instagram, hoping for a lot of “likes” And they quickly leave for the next place. The positive effect of this pattern of behavior is that it motivates people who subscribe to this visitor's social media to want to visit it as well.
But, let's ask. "Will this visitor come back here?" I think it will be difficult to answer easily. Why? If you think about the reason from the point of view of design thinking, it is because the motive for the visit was not extended to the motive for revisiting. In other words, the motive for the first visit, such as surprise, novelty, and sharing of feelings that others felt, can be achieved, but this cannot be extended as a motive for wanting to come again. In other words, there is no virtuous cycle leading to the return of the first visitor.
I think the motive, or incentive, of this return visit, is the key to urban renewal. Of course, there is a life span between cities and architecture, and it cannot be denied, but urban regeneration, which focuses solely on the creation of the initial motive for visiting, has a limited lifespan. Each region must again offer something different to see in order to extend this. This is similar to the way cafes and restaurants operate in hot areas. They focus on showcasing rather than what they sell, and to do this, they do regular renovations.
I think that the motivation of people to revisit the region can eventually come from the power of the content. This content should also be customer-centric. The approach of artists, designers, and businessmen to show what they want to show fits in with the motivation of the initial visit, but it is not easy to lead to a return visit. In order to create and stimulate customer's revisiting motivation, it would be good if the subject of the content is the visiting customer. Currently, local residents are actively participating in urban regeneration, but the participation of visitors who are customers who visit the area seems to be rare. Also, making 'connectivity' with the area for first-time visitors to a certain area can be an important direction to motivate revisiting. To do this, you need to carefully design the experience. Over and over again, you need to make your visitors feel that something can be of greater value. I am not a local resident, but I wonder if it is possible to revitalize the virtuous cycle city aimed at by urban regeneration only when visitors give things to attach to the area and space.
<Photo #1,2> This is an indoor garden created in the space of Cheongdam Station on Seoul Subway Line 7. Planting various plants on the wall allows you to feel the environment as well as the interior effect. This attempt is fresh, and I think it might motivate people to visit the station often for a break rather than traveling.
<Photo #3,4> This is the appearance of Yeongdeungpo Market Station on Seoul Subway Line 2. I think the old subway station, which is rarely visited by people, has been rebuilt with great design and art. It is very positive that space for designers has been created, but I wonder what the general citizens think. Especially in terms of motives for revisiting.
+In order to become a sustainable city, you need to motivate visitors to revisit.
++ You need to design experiences that shape the relationship between the visitor and the region.