A garden in the Machine
A Proposal on Development of a City Park as Social Platform by Transforming urban Industrial Heritage
Remained in the district of Young Deung Po that used to be on the outskirts of Seoul during the period of industrialization, a so called‘industrial heritages’ are currently converted to be new centers containing art and cultural contents.
The area surrounding the site has already undergone the development of a large-scale commercial complex , and the continuous development is under-way to the west side. What is problematic is that, first of all, the milling factory has become stopped, completely isolated from all the peripheral circumstances by the railroad and the elevated roadway, and that the absence of open spaces and green area around the developed. Mediating the conflicts created by the changes in the surrounding context, therefore, it is needed to regenerate the land of the milling factory into a park and to meet the shortage of green space, to make the park work as a social platform which include local identity.
This project attempted to verify that it is hard to maintain regional identity though conventional way of urban renewal depending simply on contents development in art and culture, to disclose that urban gentrification caused by such approaches prevents communication to lead another social controversy in the city, and to confirm that it is needed to generate a certain common ground for sharing. Furthermore, the design project intended to shows that the recovery of the lost landscape through modernization and industrialization satisfies the new urban space required by the post industrial society, and to suggest a concept of ‘a garden in the machine’in the previous Yeongdeungpo industrial park. The study recognized that proposing a particular open space linked by composite green network mediates urban space densified by buildings, population, and disparate programs. Emphasizing the importance of individuals residing in the city, in conclusion, the study attempted to meet the needs of the city residents in today’s post industrial society, to provide place for many people to be able to share and to be connected with various surrounding contexts, and to assert the need of social platforms instead of physical renewal of urban circumstances. The thesis eventually exhibited a city park regenerated from the abandoned infrastructure and industrial relics can link present urban circumstances with programs reflecting the times and society.
