The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea recently announced that West 8 + IROJE has won International Competition for Master Plan of Yongsan Park, Korea.



The International Competition for the Master Plan of Yongsan Park, Korea was an two-stage competition with Stage 2 (conceptual design) invited 9 contestants to including:

• James Corner Field Operations (U.S.) + Samsung Everland (Korea)

• GroupHan Associate (Korea) + Turenscape (China)

• Dongsimwon Landscape Design + OIKOS DESIGN (the Netherlands)

• Synhwa Consulting (Korea) + SeoAn R&D Landscape Design (Korea)

• Seo-Ahn Total Landscape (Korea) + M.A.R.U. (Korea)

• CA Landscape Design (Korea) + WEISS / MANFREDI (U.S.)

• CTOPOS (Korea) + SWA (U.S.)

and the competition winners West 8 urban design & landscape architecture(the Netherlands) + Iroje (Korea)

The design competition site is a large area in the centre of Seoul with a total area of circa 243 ha that has been in use as a military base for an extensive period both during the Japanese occupation and under post-War American protection. The vision of the competition, as described in the brief, is to create a park in which nature, culture, history and the future are in harmony. It will be a park which restores, sublimates, and expands upon the history and local characteristics of the area. This park shall regain the respect for nature and reclaims the lost and damaged ecological system. It will eventually become a park of new urban culture for the preservation of green spaces and a sustainable future.

The new Master Plan for Yongsan National Park proposed by West 8 + IROJE has been developed through an interactive process that has consistently returned to the fundamental concept of healing. The act of healing is a process that transforms the existing site through an awareness of its history into a world-class park that inspires illusions of nature, ecological restoration and a wide ranging urban park culture.

Landscape architect WEST 8 in Rotterdam, together with local architect IROJE architects & partners, Prof. Kim, Nam-choon, botanist and professor of Dankook University, Prof. Kim, Bong-ryol, Professor of Korean Architectural History at National University of Arts, and DONG IL Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd. are now given the chance to lead the design development of the Master Plan for the creation and structuring of the park. The construction of the park is scheduled to start in 2017 after the evacuation of the American military base from the project site.

An award ceremony will take place at the National Museum of Korea on the 25th of May, 2012.

IMAGES & TEXT: West 8

team

Adriaan Geuze, Edzo Bindels, Hyeyoung Choi, Martin Biewenga, Daniel Vasini, Eva Recio, Gaspard Estourgie, Joris Weijts, Juan Figueroa Calero, Karsten Buchholz, Kenya Endo, Marco Garcia, Maria Castrillo, Mart Reiling, Matthew Skjonsberg, Perry Maas, Pieter Hoen, Shane Fagan, Winnie Poon, Marco Medrano and Igor Saitov.

partners: IROJE architects & planners, DONG IL Engineering Consultants, Prof. Kim, Bong-ryol (Korea National University of Arts) and Prof. Kim, Nam-choon (botanist and professor of Dankook University)