I think, on the whole, most people take consistent and sequential house numbering for granted. Knowing that 176 Pitt St lies only a few doors down from 170 Pitt St is something we don’t even think twice about.
In South Korea, however, this address system has only very recently been adopted.
Previous to the switch, and since 1910, South Korea has used addresses that identify houses in lots, rather than by street and number. A typical Seoul house address would be: Seoul City, a gu (ward), a dong (neighbourhood), and the number of the lot where the house stands.
To further complicate this, the lot number is often assigned in the order that the buildings were erected, rather than in street order.
So, on July 29, all 5.68 million houses, apartments and buildings in South Korea were given new legal addresses to replace the old addresses in all official documents. The new addresses are based on the international standard of named streets and consecutively numbered buildings.
Anyone can see that, from a logical or user perspective, that the new address system makes sense. The old system, more often than not, required that invitations to social or business events include an accompanying map, so that attendees could have a hope of finding the place. However, like with any change, the new system has its critics.
Switching to the new system has meant that some 36,000 traditional names of ri (villages) and 3,400 names of dong (neighbourhoods) will be phased out.
“Traditional addresses are not mere names and numbers. They have their own story to tell and unique history,” Jung Woo-Sik, president of the Korea Young Buddhists Association, told AFP.
Hwang Pyung-Woo, director of the Korea Cultural Heritage Policy Research Institute, said greater convenience in finding addresses was a main reason for the new system. But critics say this advantage has lost its justification since the widespread introduction of navigation-equipped mobile phones.
Homeowners in expensive areas are also concerned that the new addresses may remove some known associations to ‘good’ areas, and affect house prices.
Despite the critics, however, the new system is moving forward. Authorities have been working since 1996 on new road names and numbers for 158,000 streets and roads nationwide.
The new addresses will be used alongside the old ones for the next two years, with the new addresses being dominant in 2014.
