BANPO-HANGANG RIVER CONNECTION PARK AND CULTURAL FACILITIES
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
date 2024
client Seoul Metropolitan Government
program Urban Park, Cultural Facilities
surface 45,000m²
status Competition, Finalist 3rd prize
design team Studio Akkerhuis + Archiworkshop + Lola Landscape Architects + Arup International
Alessandra Taddei, Amata Boucsein, Blanche Granet, Carlos Mena Porras, Christian Johansson, Damien Charpentier, Daniela Rovario, Gounaud Chung, Pierre-Henri Baudart
Studio Akkerhuis + Archiworkshop + Lola Landscape + Arup international have won 3rd prize in the International Design Competition for Banpo-Hangang River connection Park and Cultural Facilities
We conceived the Banpo-Hangang Connection Park as an opportunity to revive the memory of the lost landscape of Han River. What once used to be a soft riverscape fed by the water flowing down the mountains, conveying soil and sand, carving out islands and carrying them away, has become a disconnected piece of land bordered by concrete.
Taking inspiration from the Korean garden tradition, often “described as being natural, informal, simple and unforced, seeking to merge with the natural world”, we imagined this park as a natural gradient sequence expressing the former ecological continuity.
In one continuous flow, from the bustling city street to the wide river, the visitor enters an immersive forest landscape which clears progressively to become a wetland scenery opening up on the river.
Above, various programmatic islands form an inviting park for all citizens to gather, stroll, rest and contemplate the river and its skyline. Below, the organic structure, flexible enough to smoothly adapt to the many constraints of the site, creates a unique groundscape embarrassing the cultural program within it.
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