Hyunjoon Yoo Architects have shared with us their proposal for the new Seoul Yongsan Urban Park. Their design is one of the top six proposals. All six of them will be combined as one scheme for the new park. More images and architect’s description after the break.
DHZ (De-Humanization Zone)
Life can and will go on without human Sometimes we ask ourselves “what is going to happen on Earth if all humans disappear?” If you go to Seoul Yongsan National Urban Park, you will meet the answer.
A Chance in 2000 years The site is most popular location through out the Korean history. It was the place the strongest nation occupied in the early Korean Three Nations era. During the Japanese occupation period, Japanese military base was located here. After the Korean War, US military base has occupied this area. Now the US base will move to other site and the Korean people now have a change to use this land by themselves.
Yield to the offspring of 2060 I propose to yield this land to Nature for 50 years. Let’s turn the most popular land in Korean history into the land without human for the first time in history. We can still use the parameter area by making circular urban park. The empted central area will be recovered gradually by Nature in slow natural mode. We can speculate the changes Nature makes and learn a lesson from Nature. We still have a chance to decide what we are going to do in this land in 50 years.
DHZ(De-Humanized Zone): DMZ in Seoul For now, DMZ area between North Korea and South Korea is very special tourist attraction. However due to the DMZ location and dangerous condition it has not been developed much. The new DHZ of Seoul Yongsan Urban Park will become a DMZ at the center of city of Seoul. It will be a great tourist attraction not only domestically but also globally.
Architectural Planning 60% of the total land (153,880 m2) will be de-humanized, but 40% of the land will be turn into the linear park programmed according to the acquainted area. The de-humanized area will be surveyed by the camera; and visitors will see the real-time condition of the DHZ. The moat between DHZ and linear park prevent the animals inside of the DHZ escaping into the Seoul.
Palimpsest The moat location is designed to follow one of the existing roads at the US military base. Therefore the late 20th century history of the site can be delivered to the next generation.
Tunnel Type Visiting Center The only access to the DHZ is the tunnel through the mound at the east of the site. This 200 meter long tunnel will be an exhibition hall for displaying all the process of the “Naturalization”. Each years documentation photos will be exhibited from the entrance of the tunnel. When the visitor reaches to the end point of the tunnel, they can see the current condition of the DHZ in live.
Architect: Hyunjoon Yoo Architects Location: Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea Client: Republic of Korea Size: 2,516,498.1 sqm
