Imprinted Line - Retracing New History | INSITU

Firm： INSITU

Type： Landscape + Planning › Public Park Urban Green Space Masterplan Transport + Infrastructure › Highway

STATUS： Concept

SIZE： 100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft

BUDGET： $10M - 50M

Gukhoe Daero Park Masterplan Design Competition for Revitalization of Southwest Seoul (2nd Prize.) / Gukhoe Daero was a central boulevard toward the Gyeongin Expressway connecting Seoul and Incheon. Now, 'Future rewritten over the past' becomes a new paradigm for urban development projects. is to recover pedestrian activities back to a modernist's urban condition, creating a new green park in a road-like atmosphere. The park will resonate with old memories and our new present, like a palimpsest written between the 20s and 21s century.

The Gyeongin Expressway, the nation's first highway between Seoul and Incheon, has formed a fairly thick historical stratum in Korea's modern history. Gukhoe-Daero(the National Assembly - Boulevard) had been a driveway to the Gyeongin Expressway. This Park project above Gukhoe-Daero has two meanings. One is that as part of the "Pedestrian Friendly Seoul" movement, the road for the vehicle should change itself to a pedestrian park. The other can be seen as adding another layer to the already stacked stratum of time to the city of Seoul, which was at the center of the turbulent modern history. In other words, we attempt to add a new future on top of the past.

We saw the lanes of the boulevard as primary prints given to us and decide to overlay them with a new print of walking-park. To this end, the lanes of the boulevard should change into a new being. 1) a boundary between the floor and the vegetation; 2) a roadway lighting; 3) road furniture creating small and large spaces 4) small facilities for various events; and even to 5) a community center. The road should be felt 'as if it is still a road' and simultaneously 'as if it were not a boulevard anymore.'

Each area consists of different programs, including road-museum, waterfront, grass area, pocket spaces, garden, square, etc. To create seamless activity, we proposed specialized node designs. is placed in the middle of the park and under the Hwagock Overpass. This connecting node creates unrelenting experience between tranquil forest and festive event zone.

We believe that this project should not see the park as just a long green strip in the city center, or a passage with only walking connections, or anything that just aimed at restoring the surrounding ecosystem. Rather, as we seek to restore a walking body from a driving body, 'Imprinted Line' is both a respectful legacy and a joyful imagination, which can create a metaphor between driving and walking.