A Remodeling Concept for the Underground Shopping Mall in Seoul

First appeared in the 1970s, the underground shopping mall has been spreading across the country, and there reportedly exist 77 malls in the 2010. After over 30 decades operation, many underground shopping malls are now under the planning phase for renovation in many cities. This study considers the renovation issue of the underground shopping mall in the perspective of spatial re-configuration. A case is taken from Kangnam Terminal Underground Shopping Mall in Seoul for detailed observation and suggestion. The monotonous and confusing spatial layout of the existing mall is investigated by observation methods. Based on the observation, a modified plan is suggested and evaluated by means of computer simulation program, Depth Map. The program mainly deals with visual network analysis in order to quantify the optical exposure in a given space. It is argued in this paper that the enhanced visual connectedness could affect the pedestrian performance positively in the shopping mall, and this leads to an easy and quick access to each shops in users’ stand point. It is thought that this configurational solution for the remodelling of a specific case would be an effective reference for other malls in the country which are facing the similar problems.