Dr. Nayon Sung

Assistant Professor

Seoul National University

Nayon Sung is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Hongik University. Trained in architectural design practice in Seoul (2006–2007), she expanded her interest in the interaction between space, technology, and community during three years in Tokyo with NHN (now LY Corporation), where she worked on online platforms and community service design. After returning to Korea, she introduced Japan’s shared housing model and contributed to Tonguidong House, one of Korea’s pioneering co-living projects. Her professional and research trajectory examines how technological environments reshape collective spatial experience across physical and digital domains. Since 2016, her work has explored how postwar Seoul was shaped by the tension between technological visions of the future, enabled by new infrastructures, and enduring ideas of place and community, interpreting the city as a dynamic outcome of these intersecting forces.

Sung’s dissertation, Building Postwar Seoul, 1952–1986: Civil Engineers, Urban Planners, Architects, and Recreating an Ideal City, examines the formation of postwar Seoul from 1952 to 1986, focusing on the actors and processes that shaped the city. It demonstrates that the city did not develop according to a single logic or consistent leadership, but emerged through negotiation, competition, and collaboration among planners with differing visions of an ideal city. Previous histories of Korean urban planning have often emphasized plans, institutions, and outcomes, overlooking the reasons for shifting development paths and the lack of coherence. In particular, the contributions of civil engineers and architects—whose approaches and priorities differed from those of professional urban planners—have been marginalized. This research addresses this gap by reconstructing the roles of these diverse actors and analyzing their interactions as part of the city’s internal planning dynamics. Covering three periods, from the start of postwar reconstruction in 1952 to the completion of Seoul’s municipal expansion and Han River development in 1986, it traces how actors’ strategies shaped the formation and transformation of urban space. The study reconceptualizes urban planning as a dynamic arena in which social knowledge, technological innovation, and power relations intersect.

Her current research extends this inquiry by tracing the international trajectories of Korean planners, engineers, and architects who studied or trained abroad in the mid-20th century. By examining how their transnational experiences informed local planning ideas, she aims to situate the urban and architectural history of modern Seoul within the broader currents of global architectural thought.