Downtown office location dynamics and transformation of central Seoul, Korea

In recent years, central Seoul has been experiencing a dynamic transformation. In the process of reorganization of the urban industrial structure including tertiarization and quaternarization of the economic base of Seoul, business services are growing very rapidly and large scale urban renewal projects are quickly implemented. Downtown office activities become a nucleus for economic performance of Seoul and high-rise office buildings steer the landscape transformation of central Seoul. Even though there appears to exist some evidence that office districts have dispersed to several subcenters, major office activities are still concentrated in central Seoul. This paper redefines office industry in a narrow sense comprising only relevant economic sectors and office buildings as office activity-functioning units. It then explores the industrial networking and territorial specialization of office activities focusing on the dual process of concentration and dispersion in Seoul. The changing characteristics of the downtown linkages of office activities in this post-industrial era transforms the spatial economy of central Seoul into a more flexible and volatile system, while territorial concentration of power and control functions are fortified at the same time. Finally, the paper addresses the development of manufacturing- tertiary-quaternary industrial complexes, which can be regarded as emerging industrial clusters, producing the cultural economy of urban space and images for clients and customers, in relation to urban competitiveness and territorial specialization of large metropolitan areas.