all that is solid melts into air

Matt over at gusts of popular feeling, documents the redevelopment around Hapjeong, Seoul, which is right next to the area around Hong Gik university, a popular destination for clubs, cafes and live music. The area is also perhaps one of the few neighbourhood undergoing a western-style gentrification in the sense of people revamping old buildings and turning them into up-market cafes, offices and living spaces. However, this sort of gentrification is not the preferred one in Seoul, where a more intensive bulldozer approach to urban redevelopment (just smashing everything and then building homogeneous apartments or slightly more varied condos) is favored. Anyways, as you can see from Matt's photos, such an approach to development certainly creates strange landscapes in the city, reminiscent almost of war or natural disasters.

The photo below seems to include one homeowner who has not settled for compensation.