Chapter 4: Landscape Urbanism
4.4 The Projects of ‘Landscape Urbanism’ in South Korea
4.4.2 Projects Highlighting a Culturally-based Approach Dongdaemun Stadium Competition Projects (2007)
On 13th August 2007 it was announced as major news that Zaha Hadid had won the competition for a project to transform Dongdaemun Stadium into a new park. Hadid's design, which was presented in various media under the theme of
"Seoul's new landmark," seemed to provide a blueprint for the Seoul
Metropolitan Government to establish a world-class park and design centre.
This competition had included eight domestic and foreign architectural practices, namely Zaha Hadid, MVRDV, Foreign Office Architects, Steven Holl, Seung H-sang, Joh Sung-yong, Yoo Kerl and Choi Moon-gyu.
123 Image source: http://aru.londonmet.ac.uk/. Architecture Research Unit, London.
174 Figure 4.10: Architect - MVRDV – The Flex Park.124
Figure 4.11: Architect - Choi Moon-gyu.125
The entries for the competition simply reconfirmed the fact that ‘landscape
124 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 22. This project is not going to be built.
125 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 23. This project is not going to be built.
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urbanism’ had become a major topic of concern for contemporary architects in South Korea, and it also raised many issues such as the evocation of the sense of placeness of Dongdaemun Stadium, a site where many development
planning and concept projects have been conducted over the past ten years, all with high expectations for the so-called ‘Bilbao effect’ that would generate tourism, but which hasn’t yet happened. The project won by Hadid required the use of the 61,585 m² site from the old stadium to create a new park, restore cultural assets including castle walls, construct a design plaza, provide usable underground space, car parking, etc.
Figure 4.12: Architect - Foreign Office Architects.126
Dongdaemun Design Plaza (2007-2014)127
126 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 25. This project is not going to be built.
127 Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects. Local Architect: Samoo Architects & Engineers (Seoul,
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In explaining why Hadid was chosen as the winner, a panel of judges that included Jonathan Barnett stated: ‘Zaha Hadid's work shows a successful combination between the park and other constructions, sophisticated plastic forms, and strong & consistent images from various viewpoints.’ However, it did not prove that easy to proceed with Hadid’s project. Dongdaemun Stadium first needed to be removed; the Cultural Heritage Administration had to be consulted regarding the restoration of the Dongdaemun old castle walls; the merchants in the existing folk market needed to be relocated to other areas; and an
alternative stadium had to be built. Hence plans for a (smaller) baseball field and the Cheonggyecheon Flea Market (its provisional name) were drawn up to show how the uses could be transferred to a site at Sinseol-dong.
Figure 4.13: Dongdaemun Design Plaza design (2007).128
Korea). Location: Seoul, South Korea. Area: 89574.0 sqm. Design: 2007. Completion: 2014.
128 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 114.
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Figure 4.14: Dongdaemun Design Plaza completion (2014).129
One example of the strong local opposition to the project was a signature campaign to oppose the removal of Dongdaemun Stadium, right after Zaha Hadid was announced as a winner. The Joint Association to Oppose the Dongdaemun Stadium Removal and Preserve the Dongdaemun Stadium declared: ‘It is not that we are totally against this project. Rather, what we are proposing is to preserve Dongdaemun Stadium for renovation and reusage.’
However, given that the project has been already designed to include the removal of the stadium, and indeed to complete the project in 2014, the decision was already made: how to agree on what should happen to
Dongdaemun Stadium remains the biggest dilemma for the project, although not one that Hadid is involved in.
129 Source: http://www.archdaily.com/489604/dongdaemun-design-plaza-zaha-hadid-architects/.
178
Figure 4.15: Dongdaemun Design Plaza level 1st floor plan.130
Figure 4.16: Dongdaemun Design Plaza East elevation.131
130 Source: http://www.archdaily.com/489604/dongdaemun-design-plaza-zaha-hadid-architects/.
131 Source: http://www.archdaily.com/489604/dongdaemun-design-plaza-zaha-hadid-architects/.
179 Figure 4.17: Dongdaemun Design Plaza section A-A’.132
Figure 4.18: Dongdaemun Design Plaza section C-C’.133
Asian Culture Complex (2006)134
Figure 4.19: Asian Culture Complex perspective view.135
132 Source: http://www.archdaily.com/489604/dongdaemun-design-plaza-zaha-hadid-architects/.
133 Source: http://www.archdaily.com/489604/dongdaemun-design-plaza-zaha-hadid-architects/.
134 Architect: Kerl Yoo, iARC architects. Aian culture complex competition project participation.
Location: Gwangju, South Korea. Design: 2006. This project is not going to be built.
135 Source: Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 113.
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Elsewhere in South Korea, in the city of Gwangju, there is also the example of the Asian Culture Complex by Kerl Yoo. This competition brief called for contestants to design a complex that could ‘manufacture’ culture. The project entries hence started from the problems of this kind of brief. The Asian Culture Complex needed to be a place where new culture would emerge ‘organically’, rather than just being given to people by institutions. Emergence can only be achieved by maximizing the amount of social contacts: in other words, through a embrace of network complexity.
Two distinct network organizations get emerged out of it; programmatic network (shopping, eating & drinking, learning, conferencing, showing & playing, working and living) and ecological network (park, water and wind). The interest is in generating urban capability of producing a flexible system that is dynamically adaptable, a creative system that can adjust itself freely to temporal events and urban challenges.136
As an urban strategy, the differentiation of the whole site into smaller parts has been executed by continuing the existing and neighbouring urban fabric, with these further being transformed by new programmatic insertions. The idea is that the parts will then later be connected with each other according to specific relationships between sub- programs, forming a complex 3D environment of
136 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 114. The differentiated connectivity of each network plays a vital role in modulating its emergent system. The question of what is culture and what is Asian will be constantly redefined and regenerated by means of this new urban system.
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‘nested’ networks.
Figure 4.20: Asian Culture Complex plan.137
Jeongok Prehistory Museum (2006)138
Again, a different point of view is offered by the design for the Jeongok
Prehistory Museum in Jeongok, by Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazieres.
As the designers of this scheme proclaim:
We wished to honor the riverside landscape that saw the birth of the first inhabitants of Korea, and acknowledge the beauty of the curves of the two hills
137 Source: Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 116.
138 Architects: Anouk Legendre, Nicolas Desmazieres, X-TU Architects. Location: Gyeonggi-Do, South Korea. Design: 2006. This project is not going to be built.
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echoing the meandering river. How can such a pre-existent form and its geological underground chasm be enhanced? The precipice acts as a natural threshold and the emotion thus it induces suggest a symbolic threshold into the prehistoric era that will also give access to the prehistory park. Then Anouk Legendre and Nicolas Desmazieres create many paths around the curves of the project and of the cliffs, because the paths, which were made by nature, belonged to the landscape of the first human beings.139
Figure 4.21: View from the foot of hill.140
139 Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 58. The project appears like a bridge stretched between two cliffs that can be seen from the distant motorway.
140 Source: Sang-leem Lee, Consilient Mapping:Nine Probes for Architecture Korea (Seoul, Space Publishing Co, 2007) p 59. This project is not going to be built.
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Figure 4.22: Inserting the site museum into an archaeological site of Palaeolithic era in Korea.141
4.4.3 Projects Highlighting an Arts-based Approach