Gift project: a potential site?

Plan diagrams l-r: building heights, current routes, main circulation through (retaining wall in yellow)

A typical example of city meeting landscape, Hongjie is not dissimilar to many neighbourhoods in Seoul. As mentioned in the post when I first visited area, as one emerges from the tube station to street level, a bustling shopping street is revealed with mountains lurking on the horizon behind.

I am interested primarily in the long retaining wall which now acts as a barrier between neighbourhoods just off the main street. Currently, retaining walls guide us around the city but are there alternative ways of moving around them? This returns to the idea of ‘one-sidedness’. At Hongjie the retaining wall divides an older low/mid-rise residential area from a new Apatu development which cuts off the mountain from the city.

Site section: main road, retail, mid-rise, apatu, mountain

How is the wall traversed? How have circulation routes changed since its construction? How does city meet landscape?

Hongjie: A revisit

A long retaining wall, dividing two communities

A typical scenario in Seoul, Hongjie reveals the layers of the edges of the city. As we begin to consider a site for the gift project, I have decided to return to the place where I first starting looking for retaining walls.

Plan diagram drawn during visit

The apatu development behind the long retaining wall disconnects the older mid-rise buildings from the mountain. Routes through to the landscape are almost non-existent.

Apatu meets mountain

Understanding the ground conditions at Inwangsan

Axonometrics: Retaining walls in APT development, retaining walls in Inwangsan village - representing materiality, integration and hierarchy of circulation routes

As mentioned in previous blogposts, Inwangsan presents two clear distinctions of types of retaining walls. The first can found around the APT development, and the second in the village. It is important to consider the positive aspects of the village in order to understand why the retaining walls at the APT’s have such a negative impact on the streetscape. Three observations:

1 Materiality and construction of retaining walls

Apatu: Tall and long concrete walls with textured concrete surfaces. Monogamous and blank vertical screens cut of new developments from existing urban fabric. From discussions, this is a problem for developers who often employ artists to try and improve the appearance, but is this enough?

Village: Variety of materials and construction give clues about the process and order of development of the village. They give a sense of time and richness here. Materials include stone bare-faced concrete, and rendered concrete

2 Integration of retaining walls into buildings

Apatu: The buildings and walls tend to be entirely separate entities, creating a series of barriers – from road, over wall, to stark apatu facades.

Village: The walls are almost always a part of the village buildings, the use of materials give clues to where building begin and wall ends but they are very much a part of each other, as if one couldn’t exist without the other.

3 Hierarchy of circulation routes

Apatu: Main vehicular routes around the edges of the apartments are wide with narrow pathways, not inviting for pedestrians. The private streets within the residential developments are cut off from the public routes. The retaining walls cause a ’one-sidedness’ – public verses private are disconnected domains.

Village: The streets weave around following the contours of the steep hillside slope, widening and narrowing a various points. The main route up to the mountain beyond is wide with steps and a slope, secondary  smaller routes lead of this main path. 

Site visits: Day 2

As part of our group visits, as mentioned in the previous post, Alpa showed us a small alleyway near Jongno where many dignitaries used to pass. This small alleyway was built alongside the main road during the Joseon period for commoners to walk and not be seen.

I decided to take the group to Inwangsan mountain because this is place that I have felt most engaged with since arriving in Seoul. As explained in a previous blogpost, walking away from the retail street, and through older mid-rise residential buildings, apatu and finally the village, a series of layers begin to reveal themselves. We walked past several retaining walls and finally reached the small village. A Shamanist ceremony was taking place when we arrived consisting of the Shaman (female leader who connects spirits with earth) dancing and making eerie sounds, a whole dead pig and free rice cake for us.

I asked the group to draw something they could see which they felt related to my project:

Clockwise from top left: Jon, Catrina, Robert, Tomi, Rosa, Alpa, Beni

The sketches are mostly of tall retaining walls which guide the paths that weave their way around the village lanes and of rooftops seen as you look back over the village from above. It was interesting to see how others perceived the village. It would be useful to go back for a third time a draw just the walls which dictate the routes around the village.

L-r: Alleyway near Jongo - Alpa's visit, Namdaemun market - Beni's visit

For Beni’s site visit we went to Namdaemun market and ate noodles in a tightly packed noodle alley between two buildings. Rosa took us to Seoul Station, a popular area for the homeless to congregate. The following day, Amanda took us to a show apartment in a new residential development. It was interesting to see behind the one of the concrete facades and have a glimpse into what life might be like inside one of these apartments. The flat felt to me much like the equivalent in England, only more spacious and fully equipped with a Kimchi maker!

Inwangsan: The issue of scale

The diagrammatic site plan and section illustrate the differences in building typology and how this translates to the issue of scale. The new Apatu developments totally disregard the scale of the existing urban fabric.

Inwangsan: Mountain revealing the layers of the edge of the city

From Inwangsan to Namsan: Apatu, city, mountains

A series of layers revealed themselves as I made my towards the mountain. Leaving a bustling shopping street, and walking through an older residential area, I could see the apatu looming behind. Past several retaining walls (they really are everywhere), it was a relief walking up the steep path towards a brightly decorated gateway. Behind is hidden a modest village nestled in the hillside of Inwangsan. Its imperfections, steep jagged lanes, terrible and beautiful buildings, and temples, just feel like they’re meant to be here.

In the village, looking down a steep slope (sketch and photo)

Standing at the back of the village, you can look back over the rooftops towards the modern blocks and mountains beyond. Walking further up around the mountain, past the shrines and the men and woman reciting verses in front of the statues, a true inhabitation of the landscape can be understood.

Regardless of religious beliefs, there is a soul to this place. It is one of the most significant sacred mountains in Seoul, serving as the most active center of Shamanism and folk-religious traditions. Guksadang, the most famous shamanist shrine is located here. The shrine was originally built on the Namsan but in 1925 Guksadang was demolished by the Japanese so Korean Shamanists secretly rebuilt it on Inwangsan In the 1970s the authorities designated the entire cluster of Shamanic shrines here and a single Buddhist temple called Inwangsa with its own single one pillar entrance gate and a central bell in a pavilion.

Sketch plans: Plan 01 (above) Plan 00 (below), photo of external stair

Lastly, this is a building I came across which begins to use the steep topography in a different way; turning roof into floorplate.

Hongje and Gireum: On the hunt for retaining walls

Up towards the Apatu

Hongje and Gireum are two areas in the north of Seoul where buildings are eroding the landscape, literally building into the slopes of the mountains. This, of course, isn’t out of the ordinary in Seoul. As demand for more space continues to the rises, the more demand there is to build. As my sketches from ‘Sketching Through the Haze from Namsan Mountain’ (211010) observed, the city is gradually weaving its way around the mountains. However when outward sprawl is exhausted, upwards sprawl offers an alternative. This is now reality in Seoul.

The point where city meets landscape is changing. Putting aside, for a moment, the moral question of corrosive expansion, it is important to understand how this edge condition is currently being dealt with. After Ryul’s tip off and a wander round two such areas in Seoul, the answer is retaining wall, after retaining wall. 

1 Retaining curved 2 End of the street 3 Steps up and up

As I reached street level from Hongjie station below, the view revealed the topography immediately. Mountains loom in the background behind proud Apatu apartments with shops and cafes in front. Alleyways lead off the main street rising up along steep slopes with low rise housing to either side. At the end, looking up, a giant Apatu rises from the ground utterly out of scale from anything that exists (apart from the mountains perhaps). What ensures it doesn’t tumble down the street? A hefty concrete retaining wall which residents of the older building have to look out on to. An unsightly necessity?