The Gaepo Guryong Village Redevelopment Project reimagines Guryong Village—one of the last remaining informal residential settlements in central Seoul—into a sustainable urban district that fundamentally addresses long-standing issues of safety, environment, and housing, while presenting new possibilities for the future city.
Moving beyond the conventional approach of housing provision, the project proposes “LEMON CITY,” an urban model designed to actively respond to changing social, economic, and environmental conditions, and to continuously grow and evolve over time.

LEMON CITY is founded on the concept of a “Self-Immunity City,” an urban system that achieves resilience through internal circulation, urban autonomy, multi-layered spatial utilization, open community structures, and coexistence with nature.

A Self-Immunity City is not a city that passively reacts to external change, but one that is capable of self-regulation, recovery, and long-term evolution through its own internal mechanisms.

Based on this concept, the project aims to realize a future-oriented urban paradigm in which living, working, leisure, and community life operate in balanced harmony. LEMON CITY is articulated through the following five integrated strategies:

Local Urbanism | Local Circular Economy
Establishing a self-sustaining urban structure where local production, consumption, and daily life are organically connected.

Empowered Autonomy | A Self-Sufficient City
Building autonomous systems that minimize external dependency and enable urban functions to be completed within the district.

Multi-layered Identity | Spaces of Layered Urban Identity
Providing rich urban experiences through three-dimensional spatial structures where housing, work, culture, and education overlap.

Open Diversity | An Inclusive and Open Community
Creating an open community environment that embraces diverse social groups and lifestyles.

Natural Resilience | A Sustainable System in Coexistence with Nature
Enhancing environmental resilience and urban sustainability through planning that respects topography and existing green networks.

By honoring the place-specific identity and collective memory of Guryong Village, LEMON CITY presents a forward-looking residential district that proposes a new model for urban regeneration in central Seoul—one that combines a stable foundation for everyday life with an expandable and resilient urban vision.