Following liberation, Seoul experienced a rapid expansion of its urban areas due to industrialization and population growth.
1963
Extension of the municipal boundary
Before its urbanization, the Han River was a natural river with many hidden islands and sandbars.
1986
However, due to the risk of flooding, the natural form of the Han River was given a man-made shape based on rational logic through the placement of arterial roads.
As a result, the Han River now has a uniform width of approximately 1 kilometer with very limited waterfront space
due to the arterial roads running along the perimeter of the river from east to west.
The functional transformations that the Han River has undergone have caused it
to become an increasingly homogeneous and restricted waterfront space.
The isolating Han River has further exacerbated the social and economic disconnect between Gangnam and Gangbuk.
Rather than serving as a unifying element, the Han River has become a symbol of division, separating Seoul into the south and north.
It is difficult to find another metropolitan city in the world that benefits from having a river with a width close to 1 kilometer.
For the few similar cases that do exist, many of the cities have developed along the river’s axis, resulting in different and divided urban environments on either side.
In contrast, rivers like the Seine in Paris and the Copenhagen Harbor have widths below 100-200 meters and have become beloved urban waterfront spaces.
In cases such as this, not only do waterfront areas not disrupt the city but they also serve as integrated spaces for a variety of urban programming and events.
Returning to Seoul, we decided to focus on the area between the Cheongdam Bridge and Jamsil Bridge as the first step towards proposing a new vision for the Han River.
Cheongdam Bridge
Recently, Jamsil and Samseong-dong have seen multiple large-scale urban park development plans, while the opposite side of the river has not.
For example, to access some of the new public facilities in Gangbuk, one must mitigate the struggles of road traffic congestion and parking when using a private vehicle.
And going by public transportation takes even more time.
However, if walking, jogging, or cycling were an option, it would not only be more direct, but a much healthier and more efficient way to cross the Han River.
Seoul envisions becoming a people-centered city in the near future with projects such as the underground transformation of Han River’s arterial roads.
If this vision is realized, the urban fabric will directly extend to the edge of the Han River, opening up new possibilities for the river’s development.
Against this backdrop, we propose more proactive ideas for using the river as a means of better connecting Gangnam and Gangbuk socially and urbanistically, disrupting the current vacuum state of the Han River.
To promote more convenient movement for urban residents, we propose a multi-layered and complex urban connector
- that will be accessible from multiple points within the city, as opposed to a traditional linear pedestrian bridge connecting only two points.
The multiple protruding urban connections will be linked together,
establishing new access routes running north and south as well as east and west along the Han River.
The urban connector is solely established for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, while being wide enough to accommodate on rare occasions management vehicles.
With this new connector, the city is able to expand into the previously vacant interior of the Han River,
creating new development opportunities for a multitude of urban organizations and initiatives.
Following an analysis of the surrounding area’s urban programs, we identified and allocated a variety of corresponding public programs to be situated in the water.
The new city programs are planned on diverse floating island structures adjacent and attached to the urban connector.
Through this multi-layered intervention, a new waterfront environment is created.
The 1-kilometer-wide Han River is broken down into smaller sections, offering new perspectives of the waterfront environment and of the surrounding Seoul.
The addition of the new urban connector and the collection of floating city programs enables the expansion of Seoul’s urban fabric into the interior of the Han River.
The previous isolating and vacuum state of the river gains a new public identity and density, establishing new and dynamic connections between Gangbuk and Gangnam.
Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
