Prime Minister Han Seong-sook toured a site where a closed school's grounds are being turned into a combined housing-and-school development and said the real task is figuring out how to turn such land into quality public assets. "I think it is time to let go of our fixed ideas about housing as well," she said.
Han visited the former Gonghang High School site in Banghwa-dong, Gangseo District, Seoul, on the 22nd and said she hoped the project would become a model for creating a new kind of residential environment. The government plans to supply 19,000 public housing units by 2030 by using unused school land and closed schools such as the Gonghang High School site.
Kim Yi-tak, first vice minister of land, infrastructure and transport, who accompanied Han on the housing supply site visit, said combined housing-and-school developments are unfamiliar in Korea but are widely used in Singapore and Hong Kong. "We are working with the Seoul city government to build a pilot project to show the public, and we are considering whether this model can be expanded," he said.
Han said that bringing together residential and educational facilities, along with sports facilities or other social overhead capital that local governments need, creates a structure that can improve overall living conditions.