[Cityscapes] Exploring Songdo, Korea's incomplete futuristic dystopia

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CityscapesExploring Songdo, Korea's incomplete futuristic dystopia

Posted : 2018-06-19 18:38

Updated : 2018-06-19 21:39

A plaster Jesus is crucified in Songdo's Central Park as part of the Bible Expo in 2011. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

By Ron Bandun

It's not every day you see a city being born, unless you live in Songdo, an island metropolis built on reclaimed land in southern Incheon. Songdo is not Korea's first attempt at building a utopian city, nor is it even the latest.

Touted for its "car-free" design (despite now sporting a Starbucks drive-thru) and cutting-edge waste-disposal infrastructure, the fairest thing we can honestly say is it's still an incomplete project.

Songdo is built on former mudflats reclaimed by humanity, wrenched from the clutches of migratory birds that once stopped here for rest and sustenance.

Songdo International Business District is seen through the haze early from the mainland in the morning of Dec. 3, 2013. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

This East Asian Manhattan rose out of the sea, spoiling the sea view of mainland southern Incheon, once a resort area with motels, golfing and an amusement park. The park is long since abandoned and demolished but the motels are a good deal for anyone who needs to stay overnight in the area.

This writer first came to Songdo in May 2011. The subway was already open and many buildings were already partly inhabited. Still plenty of the reclaimed land was basically wasteland littered with trash.

Empty streets connect the unused land outside of Songdo's inhabited area, on April 9, 2015. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

And Central Park, the crown jewel of the project, was a dead space in the shadow of ultra-modern skyscrapers, abandoned except for deformed figures straight out of the Bible.

A religious group had rented the underused park for a set period of time, whereupon it built the Bible Expo, basically recreating scenes from the Bible with crass, tacky sets and life-size papier-mache figures, including the Garden of Eden, a nativity scene, the beheading of John the Baptist, a full-sized Noah's Ark made of empty beer bottles, crucifixion, and Santa Claus delivering gifts (that's in there somewhere, right?), among others.

A deformed biblical character lacks arms on June 4, 2011. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

Shortly after it opened, a typhoon hit, deforming the figures and smashing the Noah's Ark made out of empty beer bottles. They frankensteined it back into shape, but then a second typhoon apparently hit, at which point they gave up and left it unattended until the lease expired. The only exhibit the storm had spared was a golden bull standing atop a tall pedestal.

Songdo also was home to Korea's then-tallest building, the Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT). It topped out in 2009 but sat empty for years. Finally businesses moved in, most notably the Oakwood Premier Incheon hotel on the upper floors. I visited in April 2015, noticing all three hotel elevators had a button for the lobby halfway up, but one had another button for the 63rd floor. I hit that and rocketed up to the top. The doors opened on a totally vacant observation deck, the only security feature being a velvet rope right in front of the elevator door. I bypassed this and did a quick tour.

The view from NEATT's observation deck, which was "closed" but unlocked and unsupervised on April 13, 2015. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

When I came back to the elevator, it had gone down, so I hit the button. As the elevator came up, I could hear a female voice screaming inside. Turns out I'd accidentally abducted two hotel employees who'd never been up here before.

The area is lined with futuristic buildings that are closed to the public, such as Tomorrow City and the Tri-Bowl.

Tomorrow City, a striking building, sits unused. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

These days, Central Park is full of families on weekends, and young Koreans and foreigners live here in harmony, free of Korea's many social constraints. I asked one resident if the constant noisy construction bothered her; she told me "I just hear money." Songdo has formed its own local community, and they're all aware they're watching a city being born. They also know, once it gets up to capacity, it will be a logistical nightmare to live in.

A tragic collapse is seen in miniature at a Songdo showhome, April 13, 2015. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

We see articles all the time about China's many newly built ghost cities, especially Ordos/Kangbashi, portrayed in the media as some freak urban mutation, usually clickbait having fun at the expense of our economic rivals. Those places, just like Songdo, have been filling in with people. But while the idea of building an urban metropolis from scratch is unthinkable to Westerners, similar large-scale projects of U.S. allies such as Tokyo's Odaiba, a ghostly futuristic commercial district when I visited in 2006, and later Korea's Songdo seem to get a free pass in international media.

The writer is a self-described "anarchaeologist."

Songdo's empty streets light up at dusk on Dec. 2, 2013. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun

jdunbar@ktimes.com