London Metropolitan University’s Architecture Research Unit has proposed one of three schemes chosen for the next stage in the development of South Korea’s enormous new reclaimed city of Saemangeum. Images, Video and Story @ BD
i had been in disagreement with the design of the walls because of the value of ecosystem in the delta, the beauty of the landscape and the lives of fishermen. there were other developmental schemes which could have been in place. nonetheless, in spite of great deal of sacrifice, since the project is in progress, the focus has been shifted to designing of reclaimed lands; the pressure of percolating water is escalating beyond the technical issues because of the developement's impacts on the ecology of the whole western region of korea (if not global for migration of birds) as well as the economic and programatic developments. aru's scheme is well advanced with the details of urban forms and housing typologies in addition to the contemplation of landfill strategy. i think korea can benefit from having this kind of beautiful and livable european urban envirionments in this poor area. at this point of planning, since the model of development was zuiderzee and polders, i am sill tempted to make an inquiry if there is a room to consider more flexible, open-ended experimentations, in terms of agricultural land-use (reclaimed lands would be too fertile to zone for too much urban developments) and architectonic landscape, with inundating and percolating water because this is afterall where two major rivers flow downwards, and the ecological conditions including sedimentation will keep changing overtime to challenge rigid landfill developments. as pointed out in the article, the masterplan is very rigid to a point that i am terribly worried about the plan's ability to deal with foreseeable ecological challenges and to accomodate future growth. there is always a possibility that this development may turn out to be a meaningless sacrifice and a waste of the last valueless chance for the future of this region.
on a positive observation of the finalist projects for the competition, in addition to aru's project, if rather abstract, there were many interesting formal strategies and programatic ideas. also reading further about polders and what can be done environmentally makes me think there really is a potential for the site to be developed as an interesting urban/agricultural experimentation. instead of selling off the lands as industrial zones, for which korea has plenty of runner-ups, personally, i like the initial concept to keep the area as a bio-agricultural center with low rise, high density dwelling/industrial zones for research.
Dec 7, 08 9:03 pm ·
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i had been in disagreement with the design of the walls because of the value of ecosystem in the delta, the beauty of the landscape and the lives of fishermen. there were other developmental schemes which could have been in place. nonetheless, in spite of great deal of sacrifice, since the project is in progress, the focus has been shifted to designing of reclaimed lands; the pressure of percolating water is escalating beyond the technical issues because of the developement's impacts on the ecology of the whole western region of korea (if not global for migration of birds) as well as the economic and programatic developments. aru's scheme is well advanced with the details of urban forms and housing typologies in addition to the contemplation of landfill strategy. i think korea can benefit from having this kind of beautiful and livable european urban envirionments in this poor area. at this point of planning, since the model of development was zuiderzee and polders, i am sill tempted to make an inquiry if there is a room to consider more flexible, open-ended experimentations, in terms of agricultural land-use (reclaimed lands would be too fertile to zone for too much urban developments) and architectonic landscape, with inundating and percolating water because this is afterall where two major rivers flow downwards, and the ecological conditions including sedimentation will keep changing overtime to challenge rigid landfill developments. as pointed out in the article, the masterplan is very rigid to a point that i am terribly worried about the plan's ability to deal with foreseeable ecological challenges and to accomodate future growth. there is always a possibility that this development may turn out to be a meaningless sacrifice and a waste of the last valueless chance for the future of this region.
on a positive observation of the finalist projects for the competition, in addition to aru's project, if rather abstract, there were many interesting formal strategies and programatic ideas. also reading further about polders and what can be done environmentally makes me think there really is a potential for the site to be developed as an interesting urban/agricultural experimentation. instead of selling off the lands as industrial zones, for which korea has plenty of runner-ups, personally, i like the initial concept to keep the area as a bio-agricultural center with low rise, high density dwelling/industrial zones for research.
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