1| Hangang City Park 하천 도시 공원

Our first day in Seoul began with a cycle ride along the Hangang (River). A huge entity that powers through the city. The edge condition is mind blowing... transport infrastructure passes along the bank and is pierced every now and then by the sweeping bridges. The monolithic character speaks of a cold and brutal urban reality, but the Han Renaissance project has worked wonders with the sheltered spaces below providing a park the length of the city. Planting, outdoor gyms, cycle and hiking lanes create a complex space where the citizens can escape. The Hangang park is an underworld with the noise, pollution and congestion left elevated above. A strange utilitarian beauty is embodied in the concrete forms and provide a tectonic ensemble of vertical columns and sweeping horizontal platforms. A calmness has been created in these spaces through planting which helps soften the menacing infrastructure. 

Bike rental was 'service', which was the stewards way of saying free, this meant that anyone could enjoy the entire rivers edge. We cycled a few kilometres in 3 hours coming across many activities, which included fishing, sailing, power walking, basketball, amphitheaters of varying sizes, badminton courts, picnic zones demarcated on the concrete floor, gym machines, volleyball courts and football pitches. River activities were prevalent, with people wind-surfing, sailing and catching small water ferries, which embark from a floating station. The park also included a boat yard where pleasure craft and fishing boats were stored. The amount of activity surprised and excited me, as it showed that the river is beginning to be loved and enjoyed. The renaissance project has created a unique environment a park the length of the city, which the citizens are taking full advantage of.

The Han River Renaissance Project
(Source: Seoul Met Gov, 2008a, 57,93)

'The Han River now belongs largely to the Republic of Korea, or South Korea, with its effluence in the Yellow Sea a few nautical miles from North Korea (though some of the river's tributaries are in North Korea). During the first few decades of South Korea's existence the Han River became a byword for pollution, as burgeoning industry and an impoverished populace used it as a convenient spillway for industrial and urban refuse. Though it no longer plays a central role in commerce or transportation it is a prime fixture in the life of the South Korean capital and in the last decade has become the focus of government sponsored environmental efforts to clean it up and transform it into an ecological jewel of the capital. During the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, the Han River was the site of the Olympic rowing regatta.' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_River_(Korea)