Crisis of canceling the construction of the National Women's History Museum... Searching for a new site for Seoul's public housing plan

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hong Jun-seok = The National Museum of Women's History has been looking for a new site due to the influence of the public housing supply plan.

According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 20th, as the Seoul Metropolitan Government decided to build public housing in Bulgwang-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, the National Women's History Museum, which was scheduled to be built in the same location, was forced to find another site.

The Ministry of Gender Equality established the National Women's Dictionary Exhibition Hall in 2002. The exhibition hall was moved to Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do in 2014, but it has been criticized for its small space and poor exhibitions.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Gender Equality changed the exhibition hall to a museum in 2019 and has been pushing for expansion and relocation.

Construction began in earnest as the design cost was reflected in the 2021 budget, and the Eunpyeong-gu architectural review was completed in May of last year. Related organizations, including the Korea Women's Policy Institute and the Korea Gender Equality Education Promotion Agency, were already established here.

If all goes according to plan, the museum was scheduled to open in 2028.

However, as the Seoul Metropolitan Government established a plan to provide public housing on the museum site, the five-year museum construction project returned to square one.

An official from the Ministry of Gender Equality said, “We are in a situation where we have to relocate the museum site in accordance with the public housing supply plan,” and added, “There is absolutely nothing confirmed about how much the budget will be spent and where the site will be.”

Initially, it was expected that about 30 billion won would be invested to build the museum on the Bulgwang-dong site.