Seoul Dynamics

청계천시점부 광장설계 현상설계 당선작

2004

Location: seoul korea

The process of designing Cheonggyecheon Entrance Plaza began with researching four keywords: plaza, restoration, modernity and icon. The outcome of the research was reinterpreted into and informed the design. An urban plaza must not only be a stage for civic life but should also be a portrait of the city to which it belongs. Many Korean plazas, however, are treated as if they are parks. Yeouido Park, which was originally a vast urban void, and Seoul Plaza, recently paved with grass, are good examples. The strong “green myth” can hinder socio-political activities. Cheonggyecheon cannot be said to have been ‘restored’, since it is still disconnected from its origin and upper streams, and the water is circulated by electricity. So it is better understood as an artificial urban waterfront, rather than an ecologically restored stream. This fact might diminish its ecological value, but not its recreational one. The entrance plaza therefore should reflect that the new stream brings back an ‘experience’, not only water itself. At the same time, the catch phrase of this restoration project was ‘post-modern’. The demolished Cheonggye Expressway represents the ‘economy drive’ of the 1970s, so the newly opened Cheonggyecheon serves as a perfect counterpart to it. But modernity in Korea is the spirit that made many of the good things, not only its shortcomings, we have now. And from the philosophy of this restoration project, we can see that it is still an ongoing attitude in a way. Remnant of Cheonggye Expressway can evoke our nostalgia for the era. There are plenty of symbols in Seoul, both as architecture and objects. But none of them provide citizens with experience, other than the experience of looking at them.