Square, Infra / Cheonggye Plaza / Stream Restoration Section 1

• When the 3.1 Overpass, a symbol of modernization, was demolished in July 2003, the cover, which had been a sewer in the city for 50 years, was opened, revealing the original appearance of Cheonggyecheon. The 5.8km-long Cheonggyecheon Stream, which opens a new waterway, will be regenerated as a new open space in the stuffy city center and an important place to contain nature. But more importantly, it becomes a more exciting place to understand the history and culture that has been stored for a long time and think about the sincere life and culture of the citizens captured in the future.
  
  Cheonggyecheon has been maintained since the Joseon Dynasty when Seoul was the capital. In the Joseon Dynasty, it was a street of shops and markets, and a small river in the fashionable city of Hanyang where during the day of the first full moon of the lunar year, Dapgyonori (bridge crossing game) and the lantern event Jwibullori were held on Gwanggyo and at night where men and women had secret meetings at Supyo Bridge. During the Japanese colonial era, sewer repair work was carried out. After liberation, countless shanty towns, shops, and beggars' huts were lined up along the river, but it was a place of hope and dreams in the daily life of the poor and ordinary people.
  
  In 1958, however, the Cheonggye Stream was covered by the power of development and became a sewer rather than a river.
  After that, as the 3.1 Overpass, a group of high-rise buildings, and Seun Arcade were built, it was also symbolized as a rainbow of development achieved by the dryness and enormity of the mechanical civilization. As such, Cheonggyecheon is like a museum of life and culture lived among the people in Seoul for more than 500 years.
  
  Accordingly, the concept based on the understanding of Cheonggyecheon was to create an open museum where citizens can comfortably and closely approach the long linear space formed along the clear waterway and create their own culture. Accordingly, the goal was to create a green network of the city by restoring it to a healthy river along the wind path leading to the city center and to create a cultural space full of diverse landscapes and interesting stories.
  
  In particular, Cheonggye Plaza, the starting point of Cheonggyecheon, was left empty as a vast plaza with symbolic sculptures, Cheonggye miniatures, and fountains installed to create symbolism and open space for citizens. In addition, at the starting point of Cheonggyecheon, which faces the square, the water from the Han River was drawn in to create wall streams, and formatively designed stones from eight provinces across the country were installed in the reservoir lake.
  
  It is encouraging that the restoration of Cheonggyecheon has been successfully reproduced as a cultural space with nature as an important open space in the city beyond the meaning of simply restoring a river.

• Cheonggye Plaza / Stream Restoration Section 1
• Location | Seoul
• Site Area | 2 km  Completion | 2005  Scope | DD, CD