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Inside Seoul’s ‘closet’ homes: YouTube tour reveals reality of gosiwon living
YouTuber Drew Binsky tours Seoul’s US$250-a-month micro-flats, sparking conversation on urban housing and South Korea’s hidden pressures
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When Drew Binsky stepped into a gosiwon in Seoul, the doorway alone offered a clue to the life inside. The entrance measured barely 61cm (24 inches) across – narrow enough to require a slight turn of the shoulders to pass through.
Binsky, an American travel YouTuber with millions of subscribers, documented his experience in his video “Inside Korea’s smallest apartment,” posted on February 1. The video tours several gosiwon facilities across Seoul and drew more than 1.9 million views within days of its release, bringing renewed international attention to one of the city’s least visible forms of housing.
“Behind the bright lights and advanced technology, many people are building their lives in rooms smaller than a closet,” Binsky said in the video after visiting a tour guide living in a gosiwon in Seoul’s Eunpyeong district.
Gosiwon – among Seoul’s cheapest and smallest housing options – were initially occupied mainly by students preparing for the highly competitive gosi law exams, before gradually becoming homes for people from a wide range of backgrounds.
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