Seoul, the capital city of Republic of Korea, has gone through rapid and compressed growth since 1960s as a response to reconstructing the city after the devastating crisis of Korean War. In part of facilitate the development, the national government has actively adopted the form of apartment under supportive national policies and planning instruments. The mass production in large quantities of apartment complexes has rested on the conviction that it would be an effective device to deal with ultra-dense environment in Seoul where the skyrocketing population growth has challenged the demand of adequate living space (Kim, 2018).
It is true that densification is one of the core in contemporary society, giving essence in urbanity. It has been always the intriguing topic in urbanism which dominates and imposes the prevailing theories and manifests at that ages. Yet, what constituted the density in apartment complexes in Seoul is the logic of capitalism, where the quantity of floor area of verticality decides everything in speculating the gainable maximum profits. Importantly, the challenges inherent in apartment lie at its scale of complex (block), not at the building itself, as Grands Ensemble, where the characteristics of enlargement and internalization execute the exclusivity and polarization between spaces. While the more than half of Seoul’s citizens are living in apartments, the ongoing phenomenon of producing apartment complex would continue to proliferate, as the desire to live in luxurious and enclosed community will not disappear.
This graduation project aims to explore the new role of apartment complexes in relation to urban fabric, and to open the discussion for envisioning integrated and dynamic living environment. Therefore, it seeks the new definition of ‘Apartment Urbanism’ in Seoul, where the density is represented not only by form, but also by its function and overarching relationships that operate simultaneously. Borrowing the lens of ‘depth structure’, the orienting concept in implementing design strategies as territorial, scalable and institutional depths, this project argues that the despite the rationale in area-based approach characterized by rigid zoning system, the relation-based approach using patterns delivers the possibility to embrace all interacting and conflicting forces as a cohesive language. Conditioned at different settings of private and public properties, it proposes a model that is more adjustable to the context and adaptive to process, ultimately shaping the synergetic relationship between spaces and people.

Water scarcity is a problem not only in the Tarim river but worldwide. Starting from water scarcity in the upper reaches of the Tarim River, this research focuses on exploring the possible solution for water scarcity and unsustainable livelihood for farmers in this region. By referring to similar cases and literature, principles of water-saving, afforestation, and new circularity were concluded to solve those problems. During the design process, the possibility of the upper reaches of the Tarim River was explored by the method of logical system and mapping. This project brings a new water system, farming method, and forest to this region and by those new elements could formulate a new solid circularity. In this design-based research, solutions for water scarcity and sustainable livelihood are explored, experimented , and achieved in the upper reaches of the Tarim River.

The thesis conducts spatial explorations through design and discusses the possibilities of using the street market as infrastructure to facilitate collective making and create conditions for inclusive urbanization through achieving supply justice. The street market is a spatial vehicle that can deliver the thesis goal. Supply justice as a development strategy can incubate and mobilize the collective networks carried by the street market to practice inclusive urbanization. The collective making and street market as two symbiotic urban networks are potent instruments in promoting supply justice. Together, they can trigger collective actions in the urbanization process and effectively address the challenge from the dominating supply companies. The thesis categorized four themes to explore the street market’s capacity and transferability as infrastructure for inclusive urbanization.