Park / Seonyudo Park

• In 2000, as part of the ‘New Seoul Woori Hangang Project’ to revive the Han River, the ‘Seonyudo Park Project’ was planned by demolishing the existing water purification plant. The SeoAhn Consortium (Landscape Design SeoAhn + Jo Seongryong Urban Architecture + Dasan Consultant) was selected in the competition and opened on April 26, 2002.
  
  Seonyudo was one of the few islands floating in the middle of the Han River. However, the high peak Seonyubong that appeared in a painting of the painter Gyeomje Jeongseon during the Joseon Dynasty was gradually cut down to make an airfield and a road after the 1920s, changing to a low island shape. After that, the Yanghwa Bridge passed over this place in 1965, and the water purification plant was built in 1978, transforming into a fortress with a substantial retaining wall.
  
  Accordingly, we started to think about the direction of the industrial facility demolition area to become a park. In particular, the methodology of 'how the environmental and ecological problems are combined on the countless traces of industrialization over the last century' was the core of the design. The Landschaftpark in Duisburg-Nord, which turned a huge smelter in the Ruhr region of Germany into a park, was a good precedent.
  
  In the design process, the concerns were about understanding the shape of the space and land created by the original facilities of the water purification plant and what parts to use and leave. And the central idea of the design was how to transform the space into a functional environment and educational space and predicting the area and landscape that will change over time. With this in mind, we divided Seonyudo into four main parts.
  
  The first is the lower part of the retaining wall surrounding Seonyudo Island, attempting to restore the ecology of the Han River. The second is the hillside around the retaining wall, a space for play, rest, and culture with a forest and a view. The third is gardens with the theme of environment and ecology developed along with water flow. The fourth is a space for information, exhibition, and management that supports and strengthens the park's environmental and ecological education functions.
  
  The most core facilities of Seonyudo Park spread out according to the water flow, just like the original Seonyu Water Purification Facility used to purify water.
  
  The water purification garden, which you first encounter at the visitor center, is a garden that uses aquatic plants to purify water by leaving the structure of the old water pump room intact, and it is the first facility to bring water from the Han River to flow into the park. Here, the purified water goes through the Environmental water playground and flows to the Sunken Spac, the core space of the park, and this was the central space of the Seonyu water purification plant where the old filter and settling plants were.
  
  Therefore, this sunken space was also created based on the traces of the past, starting from the green pillar garden at the back of the Hangang Exhibition Hall and continuing to the aquatic botanical garden and the garden of time. It is the center of the park, a place where you can enjoy the exciting scenery of the remains of industrial facilities and experience spatial experiences at various levels.
  
  And the sludge thickener and balancing tank, a large circular structure that reprocessed the waste from the water purification process, were reborn as an amphitheater, environmental play yard, ecological class, and toilet, and the water intake pump room along the Han River was transformed into a cafeteria. In addition, the upper part of the waterfront consists of a green space surrounding the park and a walking trail, where aspen and white birch trees are planted. The two trees play a role in resonating the solid straight line of the gardens formed according to the shape of the structure of the water purification plant.
  
  Finally, sediments are accumulated on the waterfront under the retaining wall during the monsoon season each year. In particular, the northern shores, where water flow slowed down, were actively sedimenting. Accordingly, the security blocks were removed to make the slope smooth, and willows and reeds were planted using palm fiber bags, nets, and natural stones. The sedimentary layer was formed naturally by the irregularities made by natural rocks and plants. This allows plants to grow more luxuriantly above the sedimentary layers, creating wetlands where the waterfront and shallow rivers gently meet.
   
  Making Seonyudo into a park presented a direction for the 21st century urban environment plan with bright hopes and symbolism for the natural restoration of urban spaces under the theme of 'environment and ecology,' with the innumerable 'time of traces' created during the industrialization process.

• Seonyudo Park
• Location | Yanghwa-dong, Yeondungpo-gu, Seoul
• Site Area | 89,917 ㎡  Completion | 2002  Scope | COMP, CD, CS