Sejong, South Korea

Mac Korea

Jangnam Loopscape

João Gomes da Silva _ global, arquitectura paisagista

Loopscape is a ground where complex systems interact and manifest, may them be anthropic, biologic, entropic or telluric. In time, some systems will evolve, others will be maintained or adapt to new circumstances, and some will disappear while others will (re)surge. The landscape will be the symptom of the relations built between them, updated every year, month or day.

THE JANGNAM PLAIN AS A POWERFULL FOSSIL LANDSCAPE

The construction of a new city in Korea´s inner land brings the opportunity of reinterpreting the existing rural landscape and to observe the transformation dynamics that will influence the way people interact with this territory. The Central Open Space site is pre-determined by a geographical and topographical condition that establishes its main function: the plain as a vast retention basin that regulates the water cycle relation between the surrounding mountain system and the Geum-gang river. A landscape of hills and alluvium plains.

The acknowledgment of this condition by the inhabitants has led to the actual agricultural mosaic of grid shaped crop fields where the flooding of the plain regulates the rhythm of crop rotation and an irrigation channel network shapes and structures the landscape.

In the Jangnam loopscape, the city reshapes this ancient pattern in a sociological way. The ancient rural structure is maintained and the production is still one of the main functions of the new landscape, bringing agriculture to the urban environment and simultaneously assuring some degree of self-sufficiency to the new city.

This grid is now the support not only for water flowing and drainage, but for circulation, communication and infrastructure. The new city communicates with this ancient structure and refills its function with vitality.

Another decisive structural element of the plain landscape that remains with the same function and importance is the bank system that defines the perimeter of the plain and defends the surroundings from flooding. This barrier has a decisive role in the control of the river contribution for irrigation and also for protection of the human settlements around the plain.

STRUCTURE AND SYSTEMS AS LOOPSCAPE

Over this ancient structure the proposal defines a non linear new axis, that pretends to create a new upper structure that overlays the plain. This new ring shaped elevated corridor, has the capacity of concentrating the main flow of users trough the existence of a tram line, that coexists with a walkway and cycleway, providing different users the ability of circulating inside the park.

This distribution line adapts its height to the site and the proposed new city, creating links between the old and the new structure. The strongest points of it’s path are defined by three new buildings: The Design Museum, The Folk Museum and a third building created for receiving the park´s administrative and technical services. This buildings are intended to work simultaneously as institutional and cultural assets of the new city and as transportation hubs for the park’s users and workers.

The new and old structure work together to guarantee the functionality of the various systems of the new landscape, namely:.

Agricultural production Recreation areas Biomass production Sports fields Water retention basins Conservation areas Forest.

These different systems coexist in the complex dynamic pattern of the plain, the loopscape, where the uses assigned for each of the grid elements can change over time, whether because of the rhythm of the seasons whether because of a special event.

PARK MUTATIONS

The variation of the water cycle induced by heavy rain periods in the hot season and very low temperatures in the dry season permits a dynamic transformation of the park in response to weather conditions.

This extreme conditions are interpreted as opportunities rather than obstacles or constraints.

Flooding creates conditions for cultures that benefit from water abundance, permits the renewal of water in the marshlands, provides the park infrastructure with water for irrigation of recreational areas.

Ice becomes the opportunity for new functions in the plain. Water retention in some of the grid platforms permits the creation of recreational features associated with winter sports.

The changing weather establishes cycles of different food production, vegetation growth, ecosystem dynamics, resulting in different forms of interpretation by users. That constant renewal of the park gives the city the perfect interaction scenario with the natural elements, event when they assume more dramatic proportions.

PROGRAM

hydrology

The existing drainage/irrigation system of the agriculture plain was used as structural element of new park landscape and as reinterpretation of past agricultural pattern. This principle permits a coherent design of the hydrological cycle inside the park area assuring the correct capacity for the system to react when confronted with extreme weather conditions. Several gateways located in the principal bank that contains the plain permit a regulation of the water level inside the park area and in case of flooding prevent the uprise of the water level to endanger not only the park but also the MAC city border neighborhoods.

This system, very similar to the existing one, as proven its efficiency over the past century and therefore with little reconfigurations a certain increase in capacity can be used also for the park response in case of flooding and saturation of the hydrological capacity of the natural water streams.

Conservation

The conservation areas coincide with the most ecological sensitive areas namely:

the riparian channels the banks the marshlands

Addressing the conservation issues in an intensive urban context as led to integration of the main green corridors of the future MAC city into the park layout namely trough the creation of areas of riparian forest. Riparian vegetation is essential to protect the water quality, the habitat value of wetland areas and to dissipates floodwaters, during high stream flows. This regeneration process intends to install a native riparian woodland, providing a green boundary between the production surface and the city, in a short period of time. This will increment the park biodiversity and the landscape experience.

Using the banks of the plain´s perimetral limit as an opportunity for the creation of a woodland of Quercus acutissima permits at the same time controlling the erosion control of the embankments and the creation of large recreational areas for mixed use by the population. Quercus acutissima is a pioneer specie that colonizes gaps. It is a native and large deciduous tree of the hillsides of South Korea and occurs with other plant and animal communities. This regeneration process intends to install a biomass and habitat reserve, connecting the hilly woodland and the ecological corridors with the park.

The marshlands act as a fundamental ecosystem for bird life and water regeneration trough nitrogen fixing, while functioning as water retention basins in high rain seasons. This areas interact with the recreational program of the park while permitting the establishment of nature observation paths and other installations concerning the wetlands interpretation.

Production

The Park is seen as production unit within the new city. An area where cultivation permits not only food production but also energy production from biomass processing methods using species like Miscanthus x giganteus which provides good ratios of energy production even in contaminated soils.

The sustainability not only of the park but also of the city as a whole was envisaged as a central problem in the design giving a new logic to an existing agricultural system, using its structure for water management and assigning new relevant functions to the site within the new city context. Crop fields, greenhouses provide the city with vegetables, cereals and other goods and provide a sensation of citizen partnership in the welfare and equilibrium on the city while giving a liquid contribution for the material and energy cycles.

The proposal approaches the low density area referred in the design guidelines as one opportunity for agriculture while waiting for the construction of the future housing complex. This temporary occupation will permit also the gradual use of this land for more practical needs, like for example, the installation of the construction yards that will arrise during the park and city construction.

Circulation

One of the main characteristics of the proposed park is the existence of an upper level structure over the plain matrix that permits the users circulation and the connection of the three main buildings, assuring the functional efficiency of the whole.

The focus of this circulation axis is the light rail tram which provides high capacity fast transfers inside the park and with the exterior public transportation system. This line will be electrically powered and will use the energy obtained from the biomass production made within the park.

The upper level structure that supports the tram line also comprises a pedestrian walkway and a dedicated cycleway giving the park users multiplicity of choices for transportation.

The tram will have main stations within the three proposed buildings and several stops along the path for assuring the balanced access of the whole area of the park. Connections of this ring shaped internal line with the exterior public transportation network should be addressed in further studies with greater accuracy.

A second level circulation ring enhances the influence radius of the network, providing further pedestrian and cycleway paths, assuring for instance a correct interaction with the river waterfront and it´s use by the population, on both sides of the Geum-gang river.

The activation of this different levels changes with the time of year, achieving its maximum capacity in the dry winter months and being reduced to the inner ring in the summer monsoon period where the uprise of the water level in the Geum-gang river floods the waterfront.

Function

The park is interpreted as a multi functional landscape operating at different levels. With it´s capacity of adapting it´s form, the park becomes a reacting entity capable of creating different spaces depending on the functional program that responds to the momentaneous necessities of the city. The numerous functions the park can accommodate are displacable and become changing units in the complex whole. For instance, a cultivated dry crop field can became a informal sports platform after harvesting, or if the city needs space for a temporary event it also can become the place for installing an ephemerous construction.

For stability and functionality purposes three buildings arise from the linear circulation ring and give anchorage points to the volatile matrix of the plain. These three buildings, as proposed by the program, are materialized in three linear volumes distributed along the main circulation line that defines the upper structure layer. These buildings are always placed over the terrain over pilotis or sometimes using the banks as support platforms for their installation assuring safety from unexpected heavy rain and consequently flooding of the plain. The connection between the buildings lower level and the plain is done by stairs and ramp systems and the corridor shaped form they assume permits the creation of covered paths both on the inside but also on the edges where they relate directly with the exterior.

The Design Museum building is pretended to have a direct relation with the Performing Arts Complex and will be one of the main entrances to the park. This relation will be explicit with the use of the building rooftop as a major public space for receiving large quantities of visitors.

The History and Folk Museum building concentrates the exhibition areas on the upper level leaving the ground level with a park orientated program that connects physically the linear circulation system, the building and the transportation hub with the plain.

The Park Administrative Center and Library will accommodate the services associated with the park management and maintenance, sports and children care facilities, a coffee shop as well as a documentation center and library concerning the park´s history and characteristics. The rooftop will function as the main entrance in the building and also as a sightseeing esplanade when the weather permits its usebr>
Apart from these three nodes the proposal locates several scattered pavilions offering diffused activity for users. These elements are light structures made of wood , that can be used for the installation of a great diversity of uses, ranging from a singular restaurant to an observation tower related to the visitor´s experience of the plain or even depots of agricultural machinery. Their position is directly related to the circulation matrix of the loopscape pattern in order to strengthen, by tensioning, some of the structure´s nodes and also to facilitate access of persons and goods.

These pavilions can function also as backstage support for the museum exhibitions offering the possibility of outdoor activities. Several of this pavilions have a fixed program and a non permanent location, others function in a permanent spot and have a dynamic program, mimetizing the park in its plasticity.

Europaconcorsi Beta

Mac Korea