Gift reflection and looking forward: A proposition and an insight

Veil, fluid, invisible, carved, banal

My gift project suggests both an insight about retaining walls, and a proposition on a site in Seoul. I was keen to engage with a specific area of the city. This has been useful but has resulted in a gift that has moved away from earlier observations I made. The gift proposition concentrated on circulation, moving between changes in level, which is only one small aspect of what the walls mean for the city. Therefore, in some ways the gift has not said (or given) what it had potential to. Instead it responded to one small part of my overall research. Therefore, I see the gift as two parts, an insight and a proposition. The insight considers the repercussions of the walls on the city as a whole. They:

- disregard the traditional Korean relationship to landscape, where views and connection to landscape are prioritised. They form a veil between landscape and city.

- run counter to more formal systems, and are allied to landscape because although they alter the topography, they follow the contours of the natural landscape. They create not just a physical condition but also a social condition for the city. They create a fluidity and anarchic quality, they are continuous. They guide and frame. Their material qualities and scale transform traditional small narrow winding streets into expansive repetitive spaces. They are not a new phenomenon but the city’s demands are changing the nature of the walls.

- are invisible (blind) yet present, important. The surfaces seem ignored, uncelebrated, but their physical scale is apparent. Older walls are more usually integrated into buildings resulting in much richer surfaces. Each wall has its own character form by their material, structure and context.

- alter topography (landscript), hiding the true strata of land. This is lasting. The pressure of the earth is carved, excavated and folded by the walls.

- are banal and essential, a piece of city infrastructure. They offer a level of permanence which is more akin to landscape than the fast-changing (built) city. City uses may change, but the pattern of the walls will remain imprinted on the urban fabric.