Square, Infra / Gwanghwamun Square

• Gwanghwamun Square, which originated from the 'Gwanghwamun Restoration Project', a part of the Gyeongbokgung Palace Restoration Project, started from a competition from the Seoul city to create a 'symbolic plaza of 600-year-old Seoul' in the front section of Gwanghwamun on Sejong-ro, the center of politics, administration, and business.
   
  Ideas were first gathered through the Gwanghwamun Plaza construction project competition. Afterward, SeoAhn was selected for the TK project.
  The TK project was developed in the basis of the concept 'a place of memory and prospect_ Gwanghwamun', the initial concept we proposed in the first winning competition.
   
  Gwanghwamun Square is the place where the dream of 600 years of the Joseon dynasty resides, so we focused on restoration of history, securing the right to view, and creating a cultural space under the themes of Gyeongbokgung history zone, view zone, culture zone, and city square zone.
   
  The plan was divided into a plaza that restores the history of Gwanghwamun from north to south, a plaza that reproduces the scenery of Yukjo Street, a representative plaza of Korea, an urban culture plaza where citizens participate, and a plaza in the city center.
  
  To restore the history of Gwanghwamun, Yukjo street and Woldae were reproduced in the 130m section of the front of Gwanghwamun, which connects Bukhansan and Gwanaksan containing the national symbol axis and the life axis of Gyeongbokgung. Haetae statue was restored to its original position and a headstone was placed to reproduce the life axis of Gyeongbokgung as a differentiated space. While emphasizing the meaning of the national symbolic street, it is designed to display pavements and traces that represent the area of Yukjo street, realizing a space for reproducing old landscapes and experiencing history and culture.
  
  
  The middle area of the square, located in front of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, is designed with the concept of ‘leaving it empty' as much as possible because it is a section that can best digest the cultural activities of citizens and exert the original function of the square. In particular, convenience facilities and culture galleries were created in Sunken Space by connecting it to subway line 5, the main flow of citizens, and ramps and stands leading to the square to make an urban culture plaza where citizens can participate. The ramp was designed with the concept of a vital sequence where you can see the scenery of Gwanghwamun and Bukaksan in various ways depending on the height.
  
  The statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin at the entrance of the square, which was controversial at the beginning of the plan, was planned to preserve as it was recognized as part of the ‘city memory’ of the modern Korean era. Therefore, a fountain was introduced on the floor to improve the hard image. It was proposed to move the statue of King Sejong the Great in the center of the square to Sejong Square, but the relevant organization concluded to install a new statue and installed it after the square was built, which was a disappointment.
  
  To overcome the poor locational situation in the center of the driveway in the process of the square construction plan, the design was detailed to minimize the step difference between the plaza and the road, and the same stone pavement was planned to consider the utilization and operation of the plaza to close the road near the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts and expand the plaza on weekends or during major periods.

• Gwanghwamun Square
• Location | Seoul
• Site Area | 94,000 ㎡  Completion | 2007  Scope | COMPT, T/K, CD