Strategic planning indicators for urban regeneration: a case study on mixed-use development in Seoul

Following rapid economic growth, older sections of Seoul have experienced a decline. Mixed-used Developments (MXDs) offer viable approaches for urban regeneration in Seoul. The MXD projects that have been constructed were intended to improve built environments as well as revitalise social and local culture. Whilst visions and directions for urban regeneration in world cites are well documented, little is understood of the strategic planning of urban projects in Seoul. This paper investigates five MXD projects via 12 strategic planning factors. It outlines the opportunities and challenges of MXD projects within Seoul contexts. The factors consisted of 41 strategic planning schemes, extracted from relevant literature and a survey of experts. We used 30 strategic planning schemes as indicators for measuring strategic planning to support urban regeneration. The results of a case study indicate that strategic planning for ‘User convenience’, ‘Functional integration’ and ‘Visual perception’ is commonly applied to five projects. However, strategic approaches to ‘Divergence of connection’, ‘Regional identity’, ‘Art & design unification’ and ‘Amenity of low levels’ vary with different visions and urban functions. This implies that the underlying strategic planning of MXD projects can be characterised via our strategic planning indicators. The case study has allowed us to explore MXD projects and the strategic planning indicators for urban regeneration with an understanding of the urban context of the city. This paper contributes to evaluating MXD projects in terms of strategic planning as well as to the construction of strategic planning indicators for future developments.