Every Monday and Thursday this apartment complex in southwestern Seoul is filled with the sweet sounds of a chorus. The harmony may not be pitch-perfect, but it still sounds like the members have been singing together for quite some time. What kind of choir is it?

Purumi Chorus was founded voluntarily by the residents of this 2,200-unit apartment complex who love to sing. Our conductor is volunteering his talent for free and we practice two days a week for two hours each.

That was chorus secretary Lee Young-ae introducing the apartment residents’ choir. Purumi Chorus is a group of song-loving apartment residents who wanted to get together to build community spirit and fulfill their desires to sing.

The group currently has 35 members. Since the chorus’s founding two years ago, it has held two concerts and has been invited to numerous events. Here’s chorus secretary Lee Young-ae once more.



We’ve had two annual concerts so far. The group was invited to a municipal event where our apartment complex was voted as the housing group with the best residential community programs. We’ve also sang at senior welfare centers. Our next goal is to enter a real chorus contest and win a prize.

This residents’ chorus appears to be well on its way toward that goal. The chorus members would have never known each other if they had just lived their own lives in this sprawling compound of 2,200 households. But thanks to this group activity, the members now share their lives, their concerns, and a common goal. To these chorus members, apartment living is no longer isolated and lonely, but filled with neighborly spirit.

Apartments account for 58% of all housing types in Seoul and over 60% nationwide. Apartment living has indeed become the most common form of housing for Koreans. An exhibition is underway at the Seoul Museum of History that shows how these communal residences have developed in step with Seoul’s growth. Here’s the museum’s resident scholar Jung Su-in정수인 to tell us more about the history of apartments.

The exhibition deals with the subject of apartment living from three aspects. First, we show the stories of the middle class, which led the demands for apartments. Then the stories of those who were displaced by apartment development projects and Seoul residents who were born after 1980, many of whom grew up in apartment complexes. They probably think of apartments not as hard, concrete structures, but as loving homes with nostalgic memories. They are called “apartment kids.” We tell the stories of apartment development in Seoul from the aspects of these three groups.

Apartment development in Korea coincided with the nation’s industrialization. The government’s economic development plans drew jobs and people to cities, which needed to be restructured to accommodate the influx. Here’s the museum’s resident scholar Jung Su-in정수인 once again.

People began coming to Seoul after Korea’s liberalization. Seoul’s population exploded, but there was not enough housing to accommodate them all. Slums with tiny, rundown shacks mushroomed all over the city. One of the solutions to the housing shortage was apartments which could satisfy the growing housing demand. Jongam종암 Apartment was Korea’s first apartment built after the nation’s independence. It wasn’t a big complex compared to today’s standards – it had only three buildings with no community facilities. So it wasn’t exactly an apartment complex.

Completed in 1958, Jongam Apartment in northern Seoul was Korea’s first apartment. There were three buildings in all, with 152 units. At the time of its opening, the apartment attracted the upper crust of society, such as politicians, artists, and college professors. One of the most notable novelties in the apartment was its modern indoor plumbing. With Jongam Apartment, the growth of this new type of housing took off. Here’s the museum’s resident scholar Jung Su-in정수인 to tell us more.

Mapo Apartment built in 1962 was Korea’s first apartment complex. Apartments have steadily sprouted all over the nation for over 50 years since then. In the sixties most of the apartments were targeted for working Koreans, but since the tragic collapse of Wawu와우 Apartment in 1970, apartments were designed for the middle class. Hangang Mansion Apartment and Yeouido Apartment, which opened in 1971, represented middle-class apartment living. Hangang Mansion Apartment featured a standing kitchen sink and Yeouido Apartment stood 12 stories tall and had central heating and elevators. These two apartments exemplified modern apartment living in Korea. Then a new Koreanized apartment style emerged, which combined Korean traditional lifestyles and western apartment layouts.

Apartment development gained speed with the construction of Mapo Apartment in 1962 and Banpo Apartment Complex in the 1970s. The Gangnam region became one of the most expensive residential areas in Seoul, as large apartment complexes began to sprout up in Bangpo, Yeongdong, Jamsil, and Apgujeong. The 1980s and 90s were when apartment construction reached its peak, thanks to Korea’s new suburban development projects.

Then Korea was hit with the financial crisis of 1998. Real estate prices plunged and construction companies nearly stopped building apartments. With supply and demand out of whack, the housing shortage recurred and drove up apartment prices in the 2000s. Soaring apartment prices were justified by an emergence of luxury apartments. In 2002 Korea’s first soaring residential-commercial building, Tower Palace, was erected in southern Seoul, followed by I-Park in Samseong-dong, Hyperion in Mok-dong and Parkview in Bundang, heralding the golden age of luxury residential-commercial buildings. The Seoul Museum of History’s exhibition shows that apartments have grown taller and fancier over the years. Now the latest housing trend is eco-friendly apartments. Here’s Director Byeon Yeong-su변영수 of the Apartment Community Culture Institute for more.

Nowon District Office bought an empty lot in the district and is currently building an energy-efficient apartment complex there. The housing is for people with low-income and college students. The buildings will use solar and geothermal power and recycle waste. The aim is to make a truly eco-friendly apartment complex with zero CO2 emission.

Apartment living certainly has become more convenient and comfortable, but at the same time more isolated. There are no longer occasions for neighbors to get acquainted, let alone build friendships. Here’s Director Byeon Yeong-su of the Apartment Community Culture Institute to tell us more.

Outward appearances of Korean apartments have certainly improved, but not the quality of life for apartment residents. They are extremely individualized and isolated from their community, and many social problems stem from apartment living, such as disputes over apartment management fees or troubles with noisy neighbors.

There was a need for a space in which apartment residents could get together and become friends. Apartment builders met that need by providing communal facilities.

Apartment complexes should have provided cultural and educational facilities, but such communal spaces were provided only in the 2000s. Newly built apartments feature playgrounds, libraries, gyms, swimming pools, saunas, and even movie theaters and shopping centers to satisfy the residents’ many needs.

This table tennis room set up in an apartment complex in western Seoul is always packed with apartment residents playing the sport. Here’s the apartment’s table tennis club president Kim Ji-hwan.



This table tennis club was founded three years ago. The playing room was old at first, but the club members fixed it up and now it’s really nice. There are about 60 members in our club, 20 men and 40 women, ranging in age from the 40s to 70s. The club is open all week long.

Members can even get lessons three times a week. Membership is less than 20 dollars a month, quite affordable considering all the fun and camaraderie you get from playing ping pong together.

(Woman) I hated table tennis, but my husband practically dragged me here. I just sat around for a month or two, but other members encouraged me to play and now I love it. It helps me de-stress and gives me more energy to do chores around the house. I’m happy when I’m playing ping pong.

This table tennis club is friendlier than other ping pong centers, because we are all residents of the same apartment complex. We welcome everyone, asking in which building they live. We are all like family. I bring snacks for everyone to share and come to play whenever I have time. Sometimes I come several times a day.

This apartment complex has a chorus program that binds residents together. Chorus members meet two nights a week, but don’t have to worry about getting home late because they all live nearby. Here’s chorus member Kim Bo-bae to tell us more about the club.

We all greet each other when we meet on the streets and help out when there’s a big chore to be done. It’s more like living in a small village than in an apartment complex. The chorus practice starts at 8 in the evening, so I clean up after dinner and rush over here. I don’t have to put any makeup or dress up, and I don’t have to worry about getting home late or having to spend money on transportation.

A retired musician is volunteering as a conductor and another resident donated a piano. Every day is filled with music and laughter for these chorus members. Here’s conductor Sohn Myeong-hee손명희.

I saw an ad for a conductor and I volunteered. I’m over 60, but still wanted to enjoy life. I wanted to teach fellow apartment dwellers how to live in joy. I’m having fun and helping others. In today’s society no one really cares who lives next door, but by joining this chorus, I came to be friends with my neighbors and feel less lonely.

There are more than twenty clubs in this apartment complex. Residents have many options, including yoga, square dancing, table tennis, chorus, and flute. These clubs are all run energetically by the apartment residents association and if you want to set up a new one, all you have to do is get approved by the association and recruit a volunteer instructor. Here’s the apartment residents association secretary Lee Young-hee이영희.

We received subsidy from the Seoul government, which we used to remodel this center. Now we have a place where we can hold classes and rehearsals. As for instructors, we get volunteers if we can, but if not, we ask outside instructors to hold classes at discounted rates. Some residents even participate in several clubs.

Apartments are becoming more cutting-edge and ultra chic, but the people who live in them are growing more neighborly through these community clubs, adding human warmth to the glass and steel residential environment.