Visitors to Ihwa Village usually notice the paintings first. The houses beneath the art tell an older story. In 1958, a National Housing complex of 104 homes was built on the Naksan slope. After the Korean War, returnees, displaced families, and migrants from other regions intensified Seoul's already severe housing shortage. The government and public housing bodies attempted to supply standardized homes that could accommodate many households with limited land, money, and building materials.
“National Housing” did not yet mean a modern high-rise apartment estate
Postwar National Housing often took the form of small detached or row houses. On Naksan, the buildings were fitted closely into narrow plots and sloping ground, with lanes and stairs serving as the circulation network. Exterior cladding, windows, extensions, and commercial renovations seen today are not all original to 1958. Look instead at roof orientation, lot width, and the relationship between each entrance and the lane.
A small public home was both a policy achievement and evidence of scarcity
The housing program offered an alternative to severe overcrowding and unauthorized shacks, but the homes were modest and their facilities limited. As families grew, residents extended kitchens and rooms and upgraded water, heating, and toilets. If every alteration is described only as damage to the original architecture, the work residents did to create safer and more adequate homes disappears from view.
Distinguish converted visitor spaces from homes where people still live
Some former housing units became cafés, workshops, exhibition rooms, or small museums. Others remain private residences. A building without a public sign and an open entrance is not a tourist facility. Do not look through windows or stand at a front door for photographs. Reading Ihwa Village as part of Seoul's postwar housing history, rather than only as an outdoor gallery, gives the neighborhood a deeper chronology.