Urban Thicket

During the Korean War, refugees crowded into Busan, building homes on the steep slopes wherever space could be found. In the years that followed, these hillside settlements became a central concern for a city trying to rebuild and expand. From the 1960s onward, many residents were moved to large housing districts on the outskirts, while redevelopment reshaped the old neighborhoods.

The new districts grew quickly, but the infrastructure did not always keep pace. Electricity and communications reached the expanding neighborhoods in layers, added as needs arose. Over time, cables crossed and gathered above the streets, forming the dense mesh that now hangs between houses and utility poles.

The tangled lines hold the shape of a city that grew through displacement, urgency, and uneven attention. They remain above everyday streets as a visible record of Busan’s postwar expansion, gathered gradually at the city’s edges.