In Tokyo and Seoul a new type of space has emerged: dividual space. This space consists of commercial
venues offering easy access to a surplus of contents and experiences with the private comforts and convenience
associated with domesticity. These venues proliferate in Japanese and Korean cities as, for example,
the Karaoke Box (small Karaoke rooms) and DVD Bang (rooms for watching DVDs). Anonymous multi-tenant
buildings encapsulating dividual space facilitate its accessibility and infiltration of the city. More than ordinary
entertainment or compensation for deficient homes, dividual space has become an integral part of everyday life and
expanded the possibilities of city dwelling. Dividual space challenges accepted theoretical categories for understanding
the city: It blurs distinctions between the home and the city into gradations of domesticity in urban space.
Modes of socialization occurring in dividual space cannot be understood as private or public, but instead as intermediate
liminal zones where individuals behave in a private mode in public settings. Domesticity and liminality
characterize dividual space not only as an East-Asian phenomenon, but also as a broadly urban condition of
density and mobility. An examination of dividual space therefore contributes to the literatures of Architecture and
Urban Studies seeking to understand cities undergoing similar processes.
Keywords: content architecture; dividual space; domesticity; liminality; public space
Introduction
Background
The idea of nomadism as a liberative force that
subverts the fixed, bounded world of ‘home’ has
been a recurrent topic among architects. The idea
can be traced back to Benjamin’s flâneur, the Situationists’
drift (Debord, 2006) and their urban visions
– represented by Constant’s New Babylon (1959–
1974), a city for a nomadic population dedicated to
creative play, de Certeau and, most explicitly,
Deleuze and Guattari (Cresswell, 2006, pp. 49–54).
Careri (2014 [2002]) connects nomadic lifestyles
with a lineage of art movements from Dada to Land
Art. This lineage expands the ‘nomadic’ to public
spaces that move and transform in response to
institutional impositions of order.
In architecture, Archigram imagined nomadic
dwelling in ‘Cushicle mobile environment’ (1966),
‘Suitaloon’ (1967) and ‘Moving Cities’ (1964). Toyo
Ito revisited the idea in ‘Pao for a Nomad Girl’
(c. 1985), a shelter connected to the information
networks of Tokyo. Ever since, the image of a
‘nomadic’ life supported by media technology and
publicly accessible facilities has construed a common
interpretation of Tokyo (Hageneder, 2000).
Different degrees of urban nomadism occur in
the dividual space of Tokyo and Seoul. Most users
occupy these spaces as temporary, hourly or
URBAN DESIGN International (2016) 21, 298–316. doi:10.1057/udi.2016.10;

• The extended home: Dividual space and liminal domesticity in Tokyo and Seoul