Abandoned schools become community lifelines as towns battle population decline
Construction is underway at the National Mountaineering School at the site of the former Beopju Branch School in Boeun, North Chungcheong Province. Korea Times file
7 community-led projects honored for converting shuttered classrooms into eco-parks, cat shelters and media art hubs
Declining birth rates and rapid rural depopulation across Korea have left hundreds of neighborhood schools standing empty, silent monuments to a shifting demographic landscape. But instead of leaving these idle facilities to decay into local eyesores, regional authorities are increasingly turning closed campuses into vital community lifelines.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Education on Monday jointly announced the winners of the government's inaugural contest recognizing outstanding repurposing of abandoned schools. Out of 62 submissions nationwide, seven projects were selected for financial grants and national recognition, highlighting how creative adaptive reuse can help rural communities combat population decline while offering urban centers new cultural infrastructure.
The top award, the Prime Minister’s Award, went to the Tongyeong Board of Education in South Gyeongsang Province for converting the former Yongho Branch of Hansan Elementary School into a public cat protection and adoption center. Originally proposed by island residents, the project transformed a long-abandoned remote island school into a sanctuary for feline care and adoption that seamlessly blends animal welfare, ecological preservation and island tourism. Since its opening, the center has cared for 173 cats and drawn more than 11,800 visitors, breathing fresh economic energy into a remote coastal village.
Other winning initiatives demonstrated similar resourcefulness.
In Ganghwa, an island county northwest of Seoul, local officials turned a former elementary school into the Ganghwa Astronomical Science Museum, creating a stargazing destination that has already attracted over 50,000 visitors. In Danyang, North Chungcheong Province, a closed mountain school was outfitted with artificial intelligence and extended-reality technology to showcase traditional folk tales through interactive media art.
Even densely populated Seoul found new purpose for shuttered facilities. Following the relocation and closure of two schools in the city's western Gangseo District, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education redeveloped the site into a multi-use hub featuring a specialized school for students with disabilities, a public library branch and an eco-learning center.
To ensure these local solutions inspire broader national action, the central government plans to distribute a comprehensive casebook and provide special financial support to help municipal governments replicate successful models nationwide.
"The core of school repurposing goes far beyond filling vacant rooms in closed buildings," said Choi Eun-ok, vice minister of education. "It is about reconnecting those spaces to the essential functions a region needs, turning unused infrastructure from a local burden into a valuable asset for the future."
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.