LIVING SEJONG, READING SEJONG: QUESTIONS AFTER ONE YEAR 5
Kim Ah-Yeon (professor, University of Seoul)
Park Sohyun (president, auri)
Lee Eunkyung (principal, EMA Architects & Associates)
Hahn Suh-Yung (professor, Hongik University)
Hong Bora (director, Gallery FACTORY)
Forming a City: From Concept to Realisation
Park Sohyun (Park) While running a series in SPACE, I felt that much of my thoughts related to knowing something about a city are, in fact, mistaken. It is also not easy to analyse urban phenomena and to define certain regulations, so in the previous series I pointed out many distinct characteristics, listing questions or certain things about which I was personally curious. Likewise, this roundtable was not intended to find an answer, but rather to ask various and complex questions of this city. First of all, we should take a look at the starting point for Sejong.
Hahn Suh-Yung (Hahn) The participatory government proposed a new vision of state affairs, such as moving away from centralisation, promoting balanced development, and transforming it into a system of a network economy in response to Globalism. In order to plan a new city accordingly, the promotion committee hosted an urban idea competition. It is important to note that the competition here is a ‘idea’ competition. The urban planners were against the competition as a whole, so the scope of the competition was reduced to a idea competition, rather than a design competition. When determining the range of participation for the prize-winner in the follow-up plan, it was only reviewed from a negative standpoint, such as the issues in communication, and the delays to the project. People who submit their works in the competition are mostly architects, but there are huge differences in attitudes between the architects and urban planners. Architects try to present new and idealistic ideas, while urban planners criticize them for lacking in realism. Under this circumstance, it would be difficult to build a new city if there is no communication between the two.
Park The main terms used in the competition were ‘de-centralised’, ‘naturefriendly’, and ‘cell’. In the process of constructing the urban concepts that are represented by these terms into a physical environment, what if the design drawn by the architect and the so-called practical techniques that the urban planner uses to actualise it were well-matched? Is that even possible?
Hahn Besides the issues in communication, the challenges when planning a new city are part of the practice. There are two types of customary practices that became permanent: apartment-based urban planning and the neighbourhood unit. Even if there are a great idea and planning to initiate, it is difficult to plan a new city when a single city block consists of an apartment. Because an apartment complex exists as an island in a city, breaking the flow of the city, and yet it still sticks to the concept of the neighbourhood unit proposed by Clarence Perry in the 1920s. No one questions whether the method of focusing on the community and school through a pedestrian path placed at the centre is still valid in contemporary Korean society. However, apartments are market-approved products, and it is difficult to do urban planning without any apartments. Under these circumstances, it was important to conduct serious research into how to integrate new ideas from the competition
