“Give Me the Old House, I’ll Give You a New One”: A Bamboo Forest for 1,000 Households

Every morning, Lee Tong-gwa leaves home at 8:20 and walks less than 10 minutes to the reconstruction association office in a shopping center. The 48-year-old, a former office worker, leads the redevelopment of an apartment complex with more than 1,000 households in an undisclosed area south of the Han River.

When Lee was first elected association chief two years ago, he arrived around 7:30, following the habits of his previous office job. Older association leaders generally arrived at about 10, making the difference seem like a generational change in the role. But Lee learned that standing out was not always helpful on a reconstruction site where interests are tangled, so he began arriving later. His commute remains unusually comfortable: a short walk from home.

After reaching the office, he searches the news, paying particular attention to property markets, reconstruction and rapidly changing government policy. Meetings then fill much of the day. The whiteboard in the office is packed with schedules because the project involves urban planning, environmental impact, eco-friendly assessments, traffic and education assessments, design, maintenance and construction companies, as well as numerous permits and negotiations.

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There are so many companies involved. Reconstruction starts with all kinds of permits and conflicting interests.

Lee’s own office is modest, with an ordinary desk and a six-person reception table in a room of about three pyeong. The wider association office includes a large meeting room for dozens of residents. A construction company recently selected for the project sent rice cakes to the association office and nearby real estate agencies, a customary gesture that did not extend to every association member.

Residents visit in groups of four or five teams a day. They ask how to arrange relocation funds, whether they qualify for exceptions allowing the transfer of association membership, whether they can give property to their children, and how tax issues work. Lee says many questions fall outside what he can safely advise on, so he recommends professional tax counseling. In that role, he describes himself as a bamboo forest, a place where residents can speak freely while they work out their own decisions.

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I suppose my role is like a bamboo forest, simply listening.