An urbanist's tour of the city of Seoul

The exterior of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park.

Which of Seoul’s two new projects is the truer picture of what lies ahead for cities?

The streets of Seoul strike me as a uniquely rich and incongruous mixture of the urban future and the urban past. As soon as I emerge from the city’s subway system – so admirably planned, so meticulously engineered, so impeccably maintained – I step into a reality where street names and addresses suddenly lose their meaning. Much of this has to do with an only recently revised building numbering system, based inexplicably on the date of construction.