At the end of March 2020, New York became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in America, with almost ten times more cases than any other state. Quoting health experts, CNN wrote that “the first and most obvious explanation” was density. New York City has “more than double the density of Chicago and Philadelphia and more than three times the density of Los Angeles… New Yorkers pack together on the subway, bump into each other on sidewalks… they live in crowded apartment buildings.”
At that same time, however, the hyper-dense city of Seoul registered only 0.35% of New York City’s total cases, and a mere 0.01% of New York City’s death count. Given that Seoul has two million more people than New York City and has 1.7 times its density, these numbers are eye-opening, especially when one considers that people in Seoul use crowded subways and buses more than New Yorkers do, and almost half of Seoul’s citizens live in densely populated apartment buildings. Seoul’s statistics at that time appeared to prove that the government’s preemptive response, which involved aggressive measures through the national health insurance system and a successful appeal to civic consciousness, helped stem the rapid spread of the coronavirus.
However today, in August 2020, infections are on the rise within the greater Seoul Metropolitan Area. This second wave of infections seems to highlight the vulnerability of dense and compact cities. This presents Seoul and South Korea with new challenges in terms of social mix policies and strategies for residential development. For example, social distancing could be used as a pretext for the justification of spatial separation of socioeconomic classes within cities.
Population density is certainly a condition that contributes to the rapid spread of infectious diseases, but it is the distribution and quality of that density that really needs to be focused on. People of all classes and means need to live and work harmoniously in the inner city to foster the city’s economic, social, and cultural vitality. Yet, all around the world, cities are becoming more fragmented spatially, divisive politically, and stratified economically and socially. Large-scale residential development is at the heart of the problem.
In Seoul, one and two-story single detached houses have been increasingly demolished over the last several decades in favor of high-rise apartment buildings. While an apartment building is legally defined as ‘a multi-family house taller than 5 stories,’ efforts towards drastic verticalization began after Korea’s 1997 foreign exchange crisis. Today, most landowners and developers try to reach 35 stories based on regulatory limits. The problem is the indeterminate quality of the density that is created. While there are elaborate measures to calculate geospatial densities, there is a lack of social consensus around the quality of urban space in relation to density.
While there are elaborate measures to calculate geospatial densities, there is a lack of social consensus around the quality of urban space in relation to density