Seun Sangga: Seoul’s Artificial Sierra

Location: Seoul, South Korea

Client:  Seoul Metropolitan Government

Date:  2015 Competition

Area:  43,575m2

Budget: Undisclosed

Team credits:

AZPML: Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Maider Llaguno-Munitxa, Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Policarpo del Canto, Manuel Eijo, Lidia Martinez, Alfredo Roccia, Ivaylo Nachev

Renders: Poliedro

Structural engineer: Format, Stephen Melville

Our proposal for Seun Sangga aims to contribute to the greening policy of Seoul city by creating a new green corridor for downtown Seoul, amongst a series of opportunities to transform linear obsolete infrastructures into a network of dense green spaces.

The Seun Sangga is reconceived here as a linear park, associated to the elevated walkway which never was, but that is now being retrieved from Kim Swoo Geun original project. Because of its volumetric specificity, the Seun Sangga opens an alternative green corridor typology: the green linear block, developing a three-dimensional green envelope where the existing buildings are transformed into an environmental filter, contributing to reduce pollution and carbon monoxide.

The Seun Sangga green corridor will not only serve as an urban promenade and a carbon trap, but enhance plant pollination and fauna across the city centre of Seoul. The surfaces of the walkway will be provided with linear planters, carrying organic matter through the walkway. The new ecological envelopes that are proposed for Seun Sangga, will also contribute to reduce the energy loads in buildings. The vertical planting with deciduous plants will project shadows on the building surfaces in summer while enabling the access of direct sunlight to the facades in winter. The creepers will behave as organic brise-soleils for exterior and interior microclimate mediation.