Flow Obstructions 흐름 장애물

Promenade in Section 섹션에서 프롬나드

Promenade in Plan 산책로의 계획

Site Model_1:500

Below are some images of a site model that I  made last week. I am determined to get in my suitcase when I return in two weeks. Partly in section the model shows the underground spaces for car parking. Massing exercises are to follow which hope to explore the physical notion of connecting through emulsifying.

Heukseok An Abrupt Dislocation 돌발 전위를 흑석

Looking to test a strategy, I felt I needed a location to test it in. This led me back to the River Han. Seoul has over the last decade reconnected physically and psychologically with the Waters edge. There are still places where a dislocation occurs. I will concentrate on an area called Heukseok which is located on the southern bank of the Han. A number of layers disconnect the city communities from the waters edge.
A figure ground plan helps illustrate these different layers. Modern Apatu complexes and six lanes of traffic visually and physically disconnect the traditional housing area from the rivers edge. A section will clearly show the apartment complexes as a series of disconnecting walls. My strategy will be to blur the boundaries between these obstructive layers.

3| Infrastructural Edges

A work in progress, my aim is to look patterns and layering that become defined by the transport infrastructures at the river Han's water front. The section below is a quick look at the Hangang Park space and flood zone and looking at the ways the rivers water connects to the landscape, city and its citizens at this threshold.

2| A Unique Condition 고유 조건

The edge condition as I described in an earlier post is unique in many ways. In many other cultures spaces below and close to vast transport infrastructure are usually intimidating. The Han Renaissance is successful only due to the cultural mindset of Seoul's citizens. I feel that Korean culture is guided on solid moral principles in which respect of each other and the public realm enables the spaces at the rivers edge to be inhabited positively. I carried out a photographic study of an area close to Oksu subway station. I find this part of Seoul fascinating and the photos below try to study peoples activities, infrastructural connections, spatial characteristics and water relationships at first glance.

Fishing with filligree rods a place of escape and contemplation with the city left behind above.

Quiet place for a Korean siesta.

Infrastructure soars above shading the spaces below, see if you can spot the guy. The table of photos below look at four areas of interest, Activity on the bank, activity at the rivers edge, infrastructure that helps define the space and the assortment of views and perspectives across the river and the city.

The Host 괴물

'Monster' A Korean classic horror film (Director Bong joon-ju) set on the Han River depicts a creature terrorising and inhabiting the dark bleak spaces of the city's underworld at the rivers edge. The architecture is inhuman and menacing and the director has clearly used the infrastructure to explore the unknown and underused spaces of the city. The Han Renaissance project has allowed these spaces to be revitalised and tamed and as outlined before helped it become a successful city park. It seems that the citizens perceive the rivers edge as a feared no longer. Below are series of stills from the film that illustrate the dark infrastructural spaces explored by the director.

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)

Maximised Edge Condition

New York City map circa 1900

Namhangang 남한

It is time I turned my attention to the city of Seoul where I will carry out research for the next ten weeks. I will continue to add to the 'Projects' page on the side menu my developing direction for the year. The post entries will continue to be an ad-hoc collection of ideas and thoughts with some coherence coming later in time. 


The Han River (Namhangang 남한) fourth largest in Korea is a politically charged entity that connects the North to the South. It is a vast space that seperates Seoul in two. Nearing an average of 900m in width at the city centre. Its charactor is such that the ratio between max and min amounts of flow (river regime) is extremely high resulting in a consistant water level with drastic tides changing the rivers state. I would like to use The River Thames as a comparison on a number of levels. Firstly the river regime for the Han is 1:390 and for the Thames is 1:8 a clear difference in the flow ratio. In London this can be seen with the vast change in water level and beachy outcrops of the river bed revealed at low tide. Secondly the Han River is no longer used actively for navigation, this lack of use is a symbol of the political tensions between the North and South. This is due to the estuary's location on the border with the North, thus the fear of attack via the water way creates a landscape where civilians are barred from entering. This is a sad situation and I look forward to seeing exactly how the river is present in the psyche of Seoul's' citizens. 

Seoul fears the river for its connection to the North, I would like to see whether this vulnerability changes the way the water is used at the urban edge condition. The River Han is a feared piece of territory, in 1986 there was 'water panic' where South Korea feared that the North would attack Seoul by releasing a flood from a North Korean up-stream Dam. 


The kilometre wide entity allows the metropolis to breathe. A quick study looking at river infrastructure and activity for both rivers reveals the obvious potential the river Han has. It could play a major role and provide so much in Seoul's civic life. The mapping exercise below looks at an activity comparison with the Thames, the black elements illustrate river based activity or infrastructure. An on going question that I would like to tackle is how a place can strengthen its relationship with key contextual entities? such as rivers and oceans. London here acts as a good example with its leisure, flood defenses, and industries.