Planning Feature "Yeonmu Village's Transformation is Blameless"... Reborn as a Smart Happy Living Space!

[News S=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] A declining village plagued by outdated infrastructure and rising elderly population is undergoing a major transformation into a happy living space for residents. Yeonmu-dong in Jangan-gu, which Suwon City revitalized over seven years through the urban regeneration new deal project, is the protagonist of this change. We examine the changes in Yeonmu Village outside the East Gate, where the city has expanded necessary infrastructure, established a safe living environment, and supported residents' community activities, resulting in a healthier and happier community.

◇'Yeonmu Village Eoulim Space', a living hub for village elderly

Inside Yeonmu Village, which encircles Donggongwon Park and Tungssobawi Park in Jangan-gu, Suwon City in an 'ㅅ' shape, a neat four-story building was recently constructed.

The new building, whose name is 'Yeonmu Village Eoulim Space', stands out distinctly with its three-dimensional exterior resembling stacked boxes of different sizes on each floor and its height towering above low-rise houses.

Yeonmu Village Eoulim Space was built at 257-17 Yeonmu-dong with one basement level and four above-ground floors, totaling 1,496㎡.

It is a citizen-oriented living hub providing essential community services to Yeonmu-dong residents.

The first floor features a village café and village workshop, while the second floor has a smart farm with applied smart technology and an extended reality (MR) sports facility, helping neighbors communicate and engage in activities nearby without weather concerns.

The most special space is the 'small bathhouse'. It is the only bathhouse facility in this neighborhood.

Though modest in size, the men's and women's sections—the core of the bathhouse—are exceptionally clean. Each equipped with hot baths, saunas, showers, and powder rooms, they rival high-end apartment community facilities. Designed so that while the front entrance leads to the basement level, the rear entrance with a level difference allows access as if entering a first-floor space.

The spacious entrance hall is open for use as a rest area anytime.

Yeonmu-dong residents pay 6,000 won, elderly and children pay 3,000 won, and residents from other areas pay 8,000 won for unlimited use.

Another resident hub reflecting Yeonmu Village's unique character is the 'Eoulim Healthy Living Support Center' on the third and fourth floors of the same building.

Reflecting Yeonmu-dong's characteristic of high elderly population, the Jangan-gu Health Center operates this as a specialized regional health care institution focusing on dementia prevention and health management.

The third floor offers integrated health screening of five basic items including blood pressure and blood sugar, and body composition analysis using smart equipment.

Subsequently, services like posture correction checks with customized exercise prescriptions are gaining popularity.

The exercise room equipped with elderly-specialized exercise equipment also attracts participation in circulation exercise programs led by exercise physiologists, leading to residents' voluntary club activities.

The fourth-floor program room provides dementia prevention services.

Elderly can enjoy artificial intelligence-based health management and dementia prevention programs. From body measurements to daily exercise, singing exercise, and cognitive improvement, everything can be enjoyed like games.

Special devices are installed allowing the elderly to exercise like games or engage in brain training using activities they enjoy anytime.

Jung Jin-gyu, the chairperson of the Yeonmu-dong Urban Regeneration New Deal Resident Council who led the project, said, "Thanks to the small bathhouse and Eoulim Healthy Living Support Center, residents unanimously praise how Yeonmu-dong has become a better place to live."

◇Safe and convenient Yeonmu Village where children and elderly coexist

Going down about 50 meters along an alley from the small bathhouse entrance at Eoulim Space toward Suwon Stream, another new building appears next to the park.

The 'Intergenerational Eoulim Center' features a distinctive exterior characterized by arched windows connecting two to three levels, creating an openness greater than its actual size.

The first and second floors function as an elderly community center, while the third and fourth floors serve as a multi-purpose care center where elderly residents and children of Yeonmu-dong coexist.

The elderly center in the lower section fulfilled a long-standing neighborhood wish. Though the area had many elderly residents, the original elderly center was so deteriorated that renovation was difficult, and even restroom use was inconvenient.

To establish a hub where all generations could gather, Suwon City applied experienced administrative expertise to pursue land plot restructuring, continuing the elderly center's legacy while alleviating user inconveniences.

The upper section operates the Multi-Purpose Care Center No. 13.

It helps about 20 students from nearby Yeonmu and Changyong elementary schools spend safe after-school hours.

Equipped with desks, play spaces, and kitchens, the center provides careful services ensuring children needing care remain comfortable.

Beyond these two hubs, infrastructure improvements enhancing living convenience were implemented throughout Yeonmu Village.

As the neighborhood becomes cleaner, parking becomes orderly, and the living environment becomes safer, Yeonmu Village residents increasingly experience positive changes.

Ssalbak Mountain Children's Park directly beside Eoulim Center was remodeled with state-of-the-art facilities in 2022.

New facilities and newly created rest areas within the park were developed as smart pagotas with wireless charging stations accessible to all.

A village parking lot was established around the perimeter of Tungssobawi Park, the village center.

While preserving the original topography, the city maximized existing space by converting horizontal parking to vertical parking.

This doubled parking spaces from the previous 21 to 41. Deck pedestrian paths installed around the park also addressed inconvenience and safety issues from illegal parking—a two-pronged effect.

The winding village alleys were also cleaned up.

Slippery slopes threatening pedestrian safety received anti-slip paving, while wall and street lamp improvements enhanced aesthetics.

Traffic calming techniques including vehicle speed reduction facilities were applied to create a safe pedestrian environment.

The Suwon Stream area bordering the village exterior improved its greenspace and access points, becoming cleaner and safer.

With decks, benches, and rest areas placed throughout, waterfront space utilization improved.

◇Turning point for declining village, Yeonmu-dong urban regeneration new deal project

The origin of Yeonmu Village's transformation traces back to 2019 when Suwon City's Yeonmu-dong Urban Regeneration New Deal Project began.

Yeonmu-dong, a natural settlement area outside Suwon Hwaseong Fortress's East Gate, was divided into north and south sections when Gyeongsu Boulevard opened in the 1980s, with the northern village particularly having a very high elderly population ratio.

As of 2018, among 5,179 residents, 1,082 elderly over 65 accounted for 20.9%—more than double Suwon City's elderly population ratio of 9.3% at the time.

The village's decline was dramatic. Population and business decreases met urban regeneration basic policy decline standards.

Multi-family and single-family houses exceeded 75%, with six of every ten buildings over 30 years old in deteriorated condition.

Moreover, among basic living infrastructure facilities, elementary schools, elderly centers, and public parking lots failed to meet minimum standards.

Suwon City initiated the urban regeneration new deal project for Yeonmu-dong's revival.

Investing 40.7 billion won across 97,000㎡ of Yeonmu-dong, the goal was creating 'Happy Living Space Outside the East Gate, Yeonmu-dong'.

The city operated the urban regeneration project on two axes: integrated community care for Yeonmu-dong elderly and resident-based smart urban regeneration.

Particularly, Suwon City synthesized resident opinions from explanation meetings, public hearings, surveys, and urban regeneration universities to improve residential areas as residents desired, specialize regional characteristics, and foster community. Developing this further, a village economic community with about ten resident participants was launched, currently operating a village café, workshop, and small bathhouse while building self-sufficiency.

◇Village upgrade through smart infrastructure and life support

Yeonmu-dong's urban regeneration new deal project transcended external neighborhood improvements to establish a turning point for advanced system construction.

Adding smart city-type projects introduced intelligent infrastructure comprehensively, transforming Yeonmu Village—with its high elderly population ratio—into a youthful space.

Consequently, Yeonmu Village became a high-tech concentrated village where smart facilities are easily discovered everywhere.

Suwon City concentrated smart facilities and systems in Yeonmu Village.

Beginning with constructing a remote meter reading system collecting and analyzing water meter data in real-time in 2021, the city installed mobile closed-circuit televisions monitoring illegal dumping.

It also created four fine dust signal lights informing air pollution information, two smart bus stops for comfortable bus waiting, and four smart pagotas with advanced technology rest spaces.

Additionally, intelligent infrastructure including intersection alerts, connected street lights, river access barriers, high-output lighting, smart crosswalks, public Wi-Fi, intelligent closed-circuit televisions, and artificial intelligence traffic safety systems was constructed.

With diverse smart facilities applied, Yeonmu Village with better urban infrastructure could be comfortably and conveniently utilized, becoming a safe neighborhood.

A Suwon City official stated, "With the village bathhouse, care center, and healthy living support center established in Yeonmu-dong, we expect a warm welfare community to be completed," adding, "We will do our best through completion so all residents can enjoy safe and healthy lives."