visitseoul.net

A walking space in the heart of the city

Amidst the warm sunlight, the gentle breeze, and the chirping of birds, your worries fade away, at least a little. Downtown Seoul has many parks, large and small, where you can enjoy a walk. Although these parks are set in nature, their meaning as a resting place comes alive when they are seen together with architecture. It is the job of architecture to contemplate how to create a space where people can rest freely alongside nature, or how to create a space that fully embraces nature. Today, let's take a tour of walking spaces that embody architectural concerns to heal members of the city.

Where Time Comes to a Halt

#SeonyudoPark #GardenOfTime

The Hangang River, spanning a width of over 1 km, runs through the city center of Seoul. The parks of the Hangang River located along the riverside are particularly popular among the various parks in Seoul. This is because it feeds of the energy being seated along the water. There are as many as 27 bridges that cross the Hangang River that connect the north and south regions of town. As you cross one of them, the long Yanghwa Bridge, you will find a secret space hidden by a thick forest surrounding the island. This island that branches off of Yanghwa Bridge is Seonyudo Park, which occupies the entire island.

Until 2000, the Seonyudo Park was used as a water purification plant to supply tap water to Seoul. Today, it has been reborn as an eco-friendly ecological park, but traces of the water purification plant still remain. The settling pond, which was once used to settle impurities mixed in the water, was reborn as a botanical garden and is now home to various aquatic plants; and the large barrel containing wastewater was transformed into a play area. Seonyudo Park, which reused the water purification plant that fulfilled its role without destroying the plant itself, is a museum that contains the history of the water purification plant and is a truly natural park in harmony with nature.

When you walk along the traces of the water purification plant, you encounter the ‘Garden of Time’ where time seems to have stopped. This place, which was once a settling pond, is dented and broken here and there, and it is quiet as if unsought by anyone. The rough surface of the bridge, which seems to have preserved the passage of time, and the thick vines; the serene atmosphere created by the sunlight shining through the gaps invites you to enjoy a walk in a mystical mood, not unlike a scene in a movie.

Address              343 Seonyu-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul

Operating Hours  Daily 06:00 ~ 24:00 KST (Confirmation required for Story of Seonyudo exhibition hall)

A Walkway alongside History

#NamsanYejangPark #JoseonGovernor #GeneralYuguSite

The Namsan Yejang Park is a geographically open space located on the road toward Namsan Mountain, but historically it was isolated for a long time. This place was a training ground for soldiers during the Joseon Dynasty, the residence of the Residency-General during the Japanese occupation, and the location of the Central Intelligence Agency, which conducted torture investigations during the military dictatorship. A place located in the middle of downtown Seoul, but not easily accessible in the past, has now become a park that embraces a painful chapter of Korea's modern and contemporary history.

The Namsan Yejang Park is a park with thick trees and a hidden, underground space that boasts architectural beauty. The underground space where the Yejang Madang and the Lee Hoi-young Memorial Hall are located is surrounded by gray concrete walls, creating a static and calm atmosphere. The high floor height and wide-open space make the underground space relatively less dark and stuffy. The long corridor leading from the Yejang Madang to the Lee Hoi-young Memorial Hall has an open ceiling, even giving the space a sense of openness. One of the pleasures of taking a walk here is watching the shadows of trees swaying in the light and wind on the outer wall, cast by the sunlight coming through the gaps in the building.

Unlike the underground space that is blocked on all sides, the natural space aboveground is open all around. Although the size of the park is relatively small, the winding trail with Namsan Mountain in the background is a good course for a leisurely stroll. The contrast between the busy cars on the main road adjacent to the park, and the citizens taking a stroll highlights the tranquility of the park. Historical spaces, such as Memory 6, which has reproduced the torture chamber of the Central Intelligence Agency in one corner of the park, and the Yugu Site^*, which has preserved the site of the residence of the Japanese Government-General of Korea as it is, reveals the time that the park has lived through.

*Remains : Traces of the structure and style of civil engineering in the past.

Address              5-22 Juja-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul

Operating Hours  Open 24 hours (Confirmation required for Lee Hoi-young Memorial Hall)

Embraces Sports, Culture and the Arts

#OlympicPark #SculpturePark #ArtGallery&Museum

Created for the 1986 Seoul Asian Games and the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, Olympic Park is equipped with a stadium, as well as various sports spaces for the public to enjoy their leisure time. Assuming the Olympic spirit of world harmony, Olympic Park aimed to contain not only sports but also the arts, such as performing arts, in one space. Thus, Olympic Park became a walking space where you can see, hear, and feel various forms of culture in a vast natural space.

As you walk through Olympic Park, artworks placed here and there catch your eye. From large sculptures that are similar in size to neighboring buildings to works that are shorter than a person's height, the variety of works created by domestic and foreign artists from 110 countries around the world blend in with the landscaping, providing a pleasant stroll. Groups of twos and threes relax on their picnic mats spread out next to the lawn sculptures, with a view of colorful things to see in the art park.

In addition to the sculpture park with sculptures placed outdoors, Olympic Park includes other spaces to enjoy works of art. For example, Soma Art Museum and Hanseong Baekje Museum. With wide glass windows, Soma Art Museum brings the nature of the park and outdoor sculptures into the interior space throughout the museum. The Hanseong Baekje Museum, which by embodying the earthen fortress of the Baekje Dynasty serves as an observatory and walkway, won the Excellence Award at the 2012 Korean Architecture Awards. Taking a walk in Olympic Park alongside an art space with outstanding architectural beauty, you can savor the atmosphere of culture and art.

Address              424 Olympic-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul

Operating Hours  Daily 05:00 ~ 22:00 KST (Vehicles can enter and exit daily from 06:00 to 22:00 KST)