1. Introduction
Island fishing villages along South Korea’s southern coast are undergoing significant spatial and socio-economic transformations driven by demographic decline, industrial restructuring and the long-term spatial consequences of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.1 Yaksan-myeon exemplifies these transitions (Figure 1). The shift from small-scale, community-based fisheries to large-scale aquaculture has reconfigured the spatial functions and relationships between residential areas, workspaces and public facilities. This restructuring has led to the diminished visibility of communal spaces within the landscape, a growing prevalence of idle structures and emerging concerns such as aesthetic homogenisation, the erosion of local identity and the deterioration of everyday living environments (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries 2023: 45–48).
To understand these multifaceted changes, this study draws on two complementary research approaches: Professor Woo’s qualitative, landscape-oriented architectural analysis and empirical field surveys conducted by Yeo-Ju Yi and Chang-Hwi Je’s research team in 2023 and 2025.2 By integrating interpretative and data-driven methodologies, the study aims to develop a multidimensional understanding of spatial transformations in island fishing villages. This approach is grounded in architectural theory, critical spatial studies and rural sociology,3 offering a robust framework for analysing how built environments mediate socio-economic transitions, cultural memory and the marginalisation of peripheral territories.4
2. Research Scope and Methodology
Professor Woo’s research investigates the cultural and historical layers embedded in the architectural landscape of Yaksan-myeon, with particular attention to the evolution of residential typologies, the spatial configurations of religious and commemorative sites and the aesthetic and functional standardisation of public welfare architecture (Woo 2020). His approach is grounded in qualitative interpretation and landscape hermeneutics, exploring how architectural forms mediate collective memory, belief systems and broader socio-political transformations over time (Huyssen 2003; Norberg-Schulz 1980; Woo 2021b).
In parallel, Yi’s research team conducted a systematic field survey in August 2023, documenting a total of 343 buildings across the three coastal villages of Dangmok, Haedong and Eodu-ri (Figure 2; Yi and Je 2023). Through direct visual inspection and semi-structured interviews with residents, the survey collected data on the physical conditions, spatial scale, legal registration status and typologies of idle spaces. This empirical dataset provides a material basis for understanding spatial abandonment, infrastructural obsolescence and the everyday lived experience of decline in peripheral coastal settlements (Yi and Je 2023: 17–35).
The integration of these two perspectives – interpretive landscape analysis and data-driven spatial documentation – enables a multilayered, situated reading of Yaksan-myeon’s built environment. This methodological synthesis not only enhances the analytical rigour of the study but also foregrounds the entanglement of cultural meaning and spatial production in the context of rural transformation, marginalisation and post-industrial transition (Massey 2005; Soja 1996). This approach also resonates with broader debates in socially engaged art, which oscillate between ethical collaboration and aesthetic autonomy (see Bishop 2012: 11–40). While Kester (2011: 20–45) advocates for dialogical practices grounded in mutual understanding and long-term engagement, Bishop (2012: 13) critiques such approaches for potentially subordinating aesthetic complexity to instrumental social aims.
3. Transformations in the Landscape and Architecture of Fishing Villages
Historically, the villages of Yaksan-myeon developed along narrow coastal valleys, with densely clustered homes oriented around small harbours. Traditional residential typologies typically included munganche (gatehouses) (Figure 3) and compact domestic structures designed to support both habitation and proximity to marine labour. These spatial configurations reflected the rhythm of coastal livelihoods and the integration of dwelling and working environments (Kim 2005).
From the 1970s onwards, the widespread adoption of cement blocks and reinforced concrete roofs marked a material and aesthetic departure from earlier vernacular forms. The growth of aquaculture further transformed domestic architecture, as features such as drying racks, storage rooms and seafood processing areas were increasingly incorporated into residential spaces – effectively dissolving the boundary between home and workspace (Figure 4; Lee 2011).
In tandem with these material transformations, Woo’s (2020) analysis draws attention to the symbolic landscapes of faith and memory embedded within the village fabric: ancestral shrines and sacred groves in Dangmok-ri, the Samsong Ritual Monument in Eodu-ri and memorials to filial piety in Haedong-ri. These sites transcend their ritual functions to serve as spatial anchors of collective memory and cultural continuity, embodying local cosmologies and intergenerational values (Figure 5).
Since the early 2000s, state-led initiatives to modernise island infrastructure have introduced standardised ‘island-style’ senior welfare centres across the villages, typically built as uniformly designed red-brick structures (Ministry of the Interior and Safety [MOIS] 2003). While these centres were intended to improve accessibility to social services for ageing populations, such interventions have also contributed to the aesthetic homogenisation of village entryways – displacing local architectural variation and diminishing the expressive diversity of the built environment (Figure 6; Park 2019).
These cumulative architectural shifts provide the context for understanding how spatial vacancy and idle structures have emerged and materialised in Yaksan-myeon – both physically and socially – setting the stage for the analysis in the following section (Augé 1995).
4. Status and Structure of Idle Spaces
Drawing on two rounds of field surveys conducted in 2023 and 2025 across three fishing villages in Haedong-ri – Dangmok, Eodu and Haedong – this study identified that 22.2% of buildings with registered addresses (76 out of 343) qualified as idle spaces (Figures 7 & 8).5 Dangmok had the highest number of such sites (32), followed by Eodu (24) and Haedong (18). However, when measured proportionally, Eodu exhibited the highest idle rate at 27.9%, compared to 21.4% in Haedong and 19.2% in Dangmok.
A striking 64.5% of these idle spaces were not officially registered in the building registry, indicating a significant degree of informality and potential disconnect between physical structures and administrative regulation.6
In terms of typology:
- vacant residential houses constituted the majority (57.9%),
- followed by disused fisheries facilities (22.4%),
- empty plots (13.2%) and
- abandoned commercial buildings (6.6%).
Notably, 15.8% of vacant houses were repurposed on a seasonal basis during the kelp-harvesting period, serving as temporary housing or equipment storage for migrant labourers.7
Most idle spaces were relatively small in scale, with the majority measuring less than 300 square meters. They were frequently located adjacent to inhabited dwellings, revealing a spatial pattern that does not suggest wholesale desertion but rather a condition of spatial layering – where signs of habitation and neglect coexist. This study conceptualises this condition as ‘layered abandonment’, a term that captures the coexistence of vitality and disuse in close proximity.[ 8. This terminology draws on Prof. Woo’s (2021a) concept of spatial palimpsests.]
Although often associated with sanitation hazards, aesthetic degradation or public safety concerns, these idle spaces also reveal spatial potential (Figures 9–11). Their fragmented yet embedded nature within the everyday village fabric opens avenues for:
- incremental regeneration,
- resident-led interventions and
- creative reinterpretation through participatory spatial practices.
In reframing these spaces not merely as remnants of rural decline but as latent zones of micro-scale transformation, this study highlights their symbolic and practical significance. Idle spaces may thus be seen as material repositories of socio-economic shifts, cultural memory and evolving spatial norms – sites where new narratives, uses and imaginations may gradually emerge.
5. Interpretation and Future Possibilities8
Idle Spaces and Generational Frictions
Drawing from Professor Woo’s qualitative insights and spatial data compiled by Yeo-Ju Yi and Chang-hwi Je, idle spaces are reinterpreted not simply as symptoms of rural decline, but as residual landscapes shaped by shifting economic rationales, evolving everyday practices and accumulated layers of collective memory.9 These sites bear temporal imprints of labour, migration, faith and abandonment – constituting active palimpsests – fertile grounds for site-specific artistic intervention and community-based spatial reinvention.10
Fieldnote excerpt – Haedong Village, June 2025
Behind the collapsed roofline, a small shrine with a fishing net draped over it remains untouched. A plastic stool nearby seems recently used. The structure is empty, yet layered with signs of care and temporality.11
Seasonal Labor and Adaptive Reuse of Vacant Houses
During the peak kelp-harvesting season in May, some villages experience the temporary influx of approximately 300 seasonal migrant workers. Due to a shortage of appropriate accommodation, most workers commute daily from the nearby township.12 In one village, only three relatively intact vacant houses were repurposed as temporary lodging for these labourers.
Fieldnote excerpt – Dangmok Village, May 2023
At 6 a.m., I saw labourers exiting an old house – barely refurbished, but the only option close to the work site. The owner lives in Seoul. The neighbours say ‘it’s ‘good enough for kelp season’.
Informal Practices and Communal Memory
Although many vacant homes remain unused, their yards are often cultivated as small vegetable gardens by neighbours – an example of informal, community-based land use grounded in customary shared understandings (Figure 12).13 These practices reflect the persistence of local customs and collective negotiation over space, even in the absence of formal planning.
Fieldnote excerpt – Eodu Village, August 2022:
During kelp season, the village transforms. Green plastic nets are stretched not only across yards and roadsides, but climb all the way up the hillside. Every usable surface becomes part of the drying infrastructure. Ownership becomes irrelevant – what matters is sun and space.
Fieldnote excerpt – Eodu Village, 2022–2025:
The land and sea are both covered in plastic. Green nets stretch across rooftops, yards and even the foothills to dry kelp, while the sea is dense with white and blue buoys floating in tight, repetitive grids. From a distance, it looks like a synthetic topography – an everyday landscape redefined by seasonal labour and material necessity.
Latent Idle Spaces and Generational Frictions
Although not officially categorised as idle, several oversized public community facilities remain largely underutilised and are predominantly occupied by elderly residents.14 These may be understood as latent idle spaces: younger generations and aquaculture workers have expressed interest in transforming them into multi-purpose venues – for youth gatherings, shared kitchens or seasonal worker housing. However, generational differences in spatial perception and the closed management structures of these facilities have hindered broader communal access and adaptive repurposing.15
Fieldnote excerpt – Dangmok Village, January 2023:
In 2022, during field research for the Song of the Wind project, I asked the villagers whether the old community hall – now largely vacant, though occasionally used – could be made available as a space for artists to stay for one year, given that a newly built, larger community centre was already in use. Initially, the villagers accepted my proposal. However, in 2023, in the middle of the renovation process for the old hall, their position changed. Despite its infrequent use, the idea of handing the space over to outsiders was not easily accepted. Eventually, the villagers agreed to lend the old hall – but only the first floor, rather than both floors as originally discussed.
As I wrote in an article titled What May I Hope? (Oh 2023):
In moments like this, the question becomes not simply one of negotiation, but of temporality and trust: how future-oriented desires – for cohabitation, cultural exchange or imaginative use of idle space – are inevitably measured against communal memory, spatial ownership and unspoken anxieties about loss. The hall, though rarely used, retained a symbolic hold – an architecture of belonging not easily transferred, even temporarily, to others.
This reflection emerged during fieldwork when efforts to activate a disused community hall were met with hesitation. The space, though physically idle, was still affectively and symbolically occupied – a reminder that spatial interventions require not only practical arrangements but temporal attunement to collective sentiment.
Fieldnote excerpt – Community Centre, Haedong, July 2023:
The young man asked if he could use the empty room in the annex for their kelp worker meetings. The elders said it’s for senior yoga and ‘should be quiet.’ It hasn’t been used in weeks.
These frictions over latent idle spaces reveal more than intergenerational disagreement (Oh 2023) – they expose structural asymmetries in how communal resources are governed, accessed and symbolically valued. The reluctance to relinquish control over underused facilities often stems not from practical need, but from a deeper attachment to spatial authority and generational memory (Massey 2005). Spaces such as community halls or annex rooms, though materially dormant, remain charged with social significance: they act as vessels of past community labour, rituals and control structures that are difficult to renegotiate (Lefebvre 1991).
In this context, the question ‘What may I hope?’ is not rhetorical, but methodological. It challenges socially engaged practitioners to navigate the tension between the imaginative activation of space and the lived politics of ownership, belonging and local temporality. The creative reuse of idle spaces, then, cannot proceed solely through proposals or permissions – it must be grounded in long-term, situated dialogue that recognises resistance not as an obstacle, but as a repository of unresolved histories and collective fears.
Idle but Not Empty: Residual Power in Shared Infrastructure
Even when underused or vacant, public facilities such as village halls, annexes and welfare centres are rarely neutral or empty. They are saturated with the residues of prior use, institutional memory and local governance dynamics. In many rural contexts, access to such infrastructure is regulated not through formal policies, but through informal hierarchies sustained by elder committees or long-standing community leaders.
These residual power structures are often invisible to outsiders, yet they exert considerable influence over who is granted access, on what terms and for how long. In the case of Yaksan-myeon, even partially disused rooms carried a symbolic weight: to repurpose them without consensus from established figures was interpreted as a breach of custom, not merely a spatial proposal.
Thus, shared infrastructure must be understood not only in terms of spatial availability, but as a contested terrain shaped by generational politics, social memory and embedded authority. Proposals for adaptive reuse – no matter how community-oriented – must reckon with these layers of residual governance and the emotional geographies attached to space.
Private Ruins and the Limits of Community Governance
Along the road leading to Dangmok Port, one encounters a striking series of abandoned aquaculture facilities. These expansive ruins mark one of the most visible yet inaccessible idle spaces in the area. Once central to the village’s economy, these structures now stand as silent witnesses to industrial restructuring, left to deteriorate without intervention. Despite their prominent location and potential risk to public safety, the site remains untouched – locked in a legal status that privileges private ownership.
Fieldnote excerpt – Approaching Dangmok Port, April 2023:
Driving toward Dangmok Port, one passes a long stretch of abandoned aquaculture facilities – large-scale ruins that line both sides of the road for several hundred metres. The site is private property, and because the landowner has chosen to leave it untouched, neither the village nor local authorities are able to intervene. Despite its visibility and scale, it remains beyond the reach of community-based management.
This case illustrates the structural limitations of rural spatial governance, particularly when private property intersects with public concern. The abandoned aquaculture complex is not simply an eyesore; it is a material expression of policy vacuums – where land ownership, legal inertia and community aspirations remain misaligned. While residents express frustration, local authorities are often constrained by jurisdictional ambiguity or lack of enforcement power. This disconnect reveals a broader problem: in the absence of legal frameworks that enable collective or public claims over disused private land, even the most visibly problematic spaces may remain untouched.
Within the broader context of spatial justice and rural regeneration, such sites demand a rethinking of ownership, accountability and stewardship. Without legal or institutional mechanisms to support community negotiation or adaptive reuse, these ruins become frozen zones – physically prominent yet socially excluded from meaningful transformation. Addressing these challenges requires not only policy reform but also new forms of participatory governance that recognise the social dimensions of land beyond its legal boundaries.
Rethinking Ownership and Governance: Toward Policy Innovation
The case of the abandoned aquaculture facilities in Dangmok highlights a pressing need to reexamine the governance of disused private properties in rural contexts. Current land policies in South Korea, which prioritise the inviolability of private ownership, frequently lack the legal and procedural mechanisms necessary for community-based or public intervention when such properties are left neglected for extended periods. This legal vacuum has led to the emergence of spatial ‘dead zones’ – sites that are physically prominent and socially disruptive, yet politically and administratively untouchable.
To overcome these systemic constraints, policy innovation must proceed along two complementary paths. First, it is essential to develop legal frameworks that enable conditional community stewardship of long-term abandoned properties, particularly when such sites pose public safety risks or impede efforts toward spatial regeneration. Mechanisms such as temporary use rights, community land trusts or socially responsive zoning can serve as flexible tools to negotiate access and encourage adaptive reuse.
Second, local governance structures must be strengthened to facilitate inclusive spatial decision-making. This includes implementing procedural instruments for community consultation, enhancing intersectoral coordination and establishing funding mechanisms to support local initiatives. Such reforms would empower rural communities to collectively identify, assess and repurpose problematic sites in ways that reflect both local needs and evolving spatial imaginaries.
Crucially, integrating socially engaged artistic practices and context-sensitive design methodologies into these governance frameworks can further enrich spatial transformation – not only materially, but also symbolically and emotionally. These approaches support the repair of fragmented relationships between people and place, enabling disused sites to be reframed as collective cultural assets rather than administrative burdens.
Ultimately, achieving spatial justice in rural contexts requires more than mitigating decline; it necessitates a redistribution of agency – legal, cultural and institutional – so that residents are equipped to participate meaningfully in shaping the future of the spaces they inhabit. Without such shifts, the futures of these communities risk remaining stalled in landscapes of neglect and disempowerment.
6. Conclusion
Yaksan-myeon in Wando County, South Jeolla Province, presents a complex spatial condition in which physical decline and cultural resilience intersect. This study begins with the premise that idle spaces in such coastal fishing villages are not merely the result of abandonment or infrastructural failure, but the outcome of layered socio-economic transitions, institutional absences and embodied everyday responses to change. The case of Haedong-ri reveals how shifts in infrastructure, state-led standardisation, demographic aging and the transformation of the fisheries sector have restructured both the material landscape and spatial practices of local communities. Vacant houses, disused fisheries facilities and abandoned commercial buildings not only pose safety hazards and sanitation issues but also operate as latent cultural terrains embedded with memory, informal negotiation and adaptive reuse.
By combining qualitative landscape interpretation with empirical spatial data, this research reconceptualises idle spaces as more than remnants of failure. Instead, they are viewed as sites of historical layering, socio-material negotiation and everyday resilience. These are liminal spaces – where residual rhythms of the past meet the lived forms of present-day abandonment and where speculative futures may take root. In this context, socially engaged art, site-specific practice and context-responsive design interventions can function as catalysts to activate these fragmented landscapes as spaces of memory, experimentation and collective co-creation.
Ultimately, this study examines how spatial inequities and intra-community tensions in post-industrial rural contexts may be addressed through the reinterpretation and reclamation of idle spaces. In particular, the case of Yaksan-myeon shows that while the community increasingly relies on migrant labour due to population decline and aging, it lacks the housing infrastructure and social willingness to accommodate these workers as part of the local fabric. Although some residents recognise the inevitability of change, tensions persist around issues of access, usage and belonging.
Therefore, imagining more just, reflexive and resilient spatial futures in rural coastal regions requires public interventions that confront the uneven distribution of resources, labour precarity and ecological degradation. Policy must move beyond extractive, tourism-centred agendas to prioritise the interdependent livelihoods of both long-term residents and migrant workers. This calls for intersectional and transdisciplinary approaches that reframe idle spaces not as sites of abandonment, but as contested terrains where alternative modes of cohabitation, care and socio-ecological regeneration can take root.
Research Collaborators and Co-authors
Yeo-Ju Yi and Ju-Hee Nam: PhD candidates, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University, South Korea. Participated in the research from 2023 to 2025.
Yu-Ra Jin: PhD candidate, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University, South Korea. Participated in the 2025 phase of the research.
Hye-Won Kang: PhD, Pusan National University, South Korea. Completed fieldwork and dissertation relevant to the project in 2025.
Chang-Hwi Je, Noha Negmeldin Mohamed Hashem and Sai Bhanu Sreenidhi Konduri: Completed PhD coursework, Pusan National University, South Korea. Participated in the research during 2023.
Min-Gyeong Kim: Master’s degree completed at Pusan National University, South Korea. Participated in the 2023 phase of the research.
Yajun Wen: PhD, Pusan National University, South Korea. Contributed to the 2023 research activities.
Endnotes
- For a broader analysis of rural demographic decline and urbanisation’s spatial consequences in East Asia, see Champion and Hugo (2004). ↩
- Field research was conducted in 2023 and 2025 as part of the Song of the Wind project, with lead researchers Yeo-Ju Yi and Chang-Hwi Je based in Pusan National University’s architectural research programme. ↩
- For a conceptual foundation, see Lefebvre (1991) and Kinsella (2016). ↩
- The framing of peripheral territories as sites of latent cultural and ecological memory draws on Solà-Morales (1995). ↩
- Yeo-Ju Yi, field survey report, ‘Idle Structure Documentation in Haedong-ri’, August 2023 and June 2025. Unpublished data provided to the author. ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Interview with seasonal workers and local residents, conducted by Yeo-Ju Yi and research team, Dangmok-ri, May 2023. ↩
- The fieldnotes included here were compiled by the author, Dr Sunyoung Oh, over the course of sustained fieldwork between May 2022 and June 2025. ↩
- See also Woo, Shin-Koo’s landscape-oriented architectural framework (2016 – missing from bibliography), which emphasises the socio-material layering of spatial residue. ↩
- This idea of the ‘active palimpsest’ draws from Andreas Huyssen’s (2003) notion of urban palimpsests and the reactivation of forgotten places through memory work. ↩
- Research team fieldnotes, compiled by co-author Sunyoung Oh, Haedong Village (June 2025). ↩
- According to interviews with local administrative staff in 2023, no official housing scheme for seasonal labourers existed at the time. ↩
- The term ‘informal reuse’ here refers to shared but undocumented land-use customs, often based on long-standing neighbourly trust. ↩
- Community centre usage logs from 2023–2024 show that spaces were booked over 90% of the time by senior groups, with no formal process for youth or non-senior residents to request access. ↩
- Interviews with young aquaculture workers (2025) revealed a desire to adapt these underused spaces but frustration over rigid management norms and generational gatekeeping. ↩
Dr. Sunyoung Oh is an independent curator and researcher whose work explores socially collaborative and site-responsive artistic practices at the intersections of art, ecology, and ethics. As part of the Song of the Wind (2023–2025) project, she collaborated with Professor Woo Shin-Koo’s architectural team at Pusan National University to conduct a field study on idle spaces in Dangmok-ri and Eodu-ri, Yaksan-myeon, Wando. Building on this collaboration, Oh’s paper Layered Abandonment and the Futures of Fishing Villages expands the curatorial dialogue with architectural methodologies and socio-ecological spatial research.
Prof. Shin-Koo Woo is Professor in the Department of Architecture at Pusan National University and a research collaborator of the Song of the Wind project. In 2023 and 2025, he conducted field investigations with Dr. Sunyoung Oh in Yaksan-myeon, Wando, examining abandoned buildings and neglected houses as part of a study on spatial transformation in island communities. This research was carried out jointly with graduate researchers from the Research and Education Program for Living SOC Innovative Design Using Empty Spaces in Declining Cities, Department of Architecture, Pusan National University.
In November 2024, Prof. Woo was appointed as the third Chief Architect of Busan Metropolitan City, a role in which he is responsible for leading and coordinating the city’s architectural and urban design policies for the next two years.