Housing Experiments on the Threshold: Busan EDC Smart Village | Unsangdong Architects
written by
Kim Bongkyun
photographed by
Namgoong Sun (unless otherwise indicated)
materials provided by
Unsangdong Architects
edited by
Kim Bokyoung
SPACE February 2026 (No. 699)
A Smart Village Experimenting with the Role of Architecture in the Smart Era
Busan EDC Smart Village (hereinafter Smart Village) is a living laboratory conceived under the concept of ‘a city that lives with technology’. While technology rapidly advances everyday life, its speed often disregards human rhythms. Rather than placing technology at the forefront, we repositioned it as the background to life and restored the place of human beings at the centre. The Smart Village is an architectural proposal that seeks this point of balance.
The complex is organised around a single pedestrian axis, the ‘Smart Community Corridor’. More than a simple circulation system, it constitutes a social cross-section where residents’ lives intersect, while pavements for walking and the gaze of passersby occupy the centre. Housing is arranged along the perimeter in detached types and in party-wall-connected types, forming block configurations that share open courtyards. In the detached houses, south-facing daylighting, private yards, and flexible furniture propose ways of ‘living broadly within small spaces’. In the party-wall housing, which explores the boundaries and rhythms of shared living, the party wall functions both as a device for energy efficiency and as a loose connection between dwellings.
Within the Smart Village, 3,000 sensors collect data on temperature, electricity use, and patte...
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Jang Yoongyoo
Jang Yoongyoo is a progressive architect who investigates architectural phenomena and believes that a physical reality originates from architectural concepts. After graduating from Seoul National University’s Department of Architecture and its Graduate School, he founded the Jang Yoongyoo Architectural Experiment Atelier, which later evolved into Unsangdong Architects. His practice focuses on an architecture that responds to the changing and dynamic conditions of a new era. Jang has been awarded the Korean Architecture Award, the Seoul Architecture Award, and the Korea Institute of Architects (KIA) Award, and has gained international acclaim through awards and features in prominent international media outlets. He is currently a Professor at the College of Architecture, Kookmin University.
Shin Changhoon
Shin Changhoon graduated from the Department of Architectural Engineering at Yeungnam University and the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Seoul. He co-founded Unsangdong Architects with Jang Yoongyoo to pursue and realise experimental and conceptual architecture. He has dedicated himself to archiving and promoting Korean architecture through his leadership of platforms such as ‘Space Coordinator’ and ‘Architecture Sympathy’. Having served as a Seoul Public Architect, he currently acts as the General Architect of Suseong-gu and the Vice Chair of the Suseong International Biennale. His broader contributions to public architectural culture include his tenure as Chair of the Young Architects Committee of the KIA. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Seoul.
