Adaptive Reuse of Daesun Flour Mills in Seoul

Daesun Flour Mills Co. Ltd was founded in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul in 1958 with the purpose of producing high-quality flour for meeting nutritional demand in South Korea. In 2013, as the company constructed their new factories elsewhere, in Dangjin, the Yeongdeungpo factories were closed. However, these 22 buildings on five acres of land remain of national significance, as monuments of South Korea’s industrial development and technological innovation.

     

ARGUS Management led by Sang-Jeong Park, undertook to preserve the major factories and convert them into a multi-complex, which will house commercial and cultural functions, innovative industries and public spaces. It is regarded as the first private sector-led industrial heritage regeneration project in Seoul. Yeongdeungpo, the area where the factories are located, has been in a state of decline since most of its industrial facilities were decommissioned by the turn of the century. Therefore, this project hopes to provide impetus to the regeneration of the area, and to become a source of economic growth in Seoul.

Dr Robin Kim joined the project as a MA(Master Advisor) in the first phase in 2018 and has advised on how to repurpose each building on the site, while preserving existing architectural forms and spaces. He has just renewed his advisory contract in the second phase and is focusing on the project’s current and prospective socio-economic impact on Yeongdeungpo.