Evoking the Past in a Landscape for the Future in the Cheonggyecheon Reconstruction in South Korea
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humanities Article The Historical Landscape: Evoking the Past in a Landscape for the Future in the Cheonggyecheon Reconstruction in South Korea Eyun Jennifer Kim Independent Researcher, PO Box 652, Edmonds, WA 98020, USA; [email protected] Received: 30 June 2020; Accepted: 12 September 2020; Published: 16 September 2020 Abstract: As cities become increasingly de-industrialized and emphasize building a sustainable future, we have seen an increase in the design of large-scale landscapes being incorporated into the urban fabric. The reconstruction of the Cheonggyecheon stream and park in Seoul, South Korea, is an example of this phenomenon. Since its completion in 2005, the city of Seoul has promoted the project as a restoration of its history and recreation of a collective memory of the site and historic stream from its geographic origins. However, this narrative of historic rebirth of a stream raises questions of authenticity, the selective emphasis of one history over another, and how this transformation of Seoul’s built environment may change the identity of the city’s culture and society. Using a mixture of direct observations of the park design, activities, and events held at the site, and interviews with project designers and former Seoul Metropolitan Government staff who worked on the project and Cheonggyecheon park visitors, this research examines the reconstruction of the Cheonggyecheon as simultaneously a recovery of and break with the past, and the representation of Seoul’s history, memory, and culture as performative functions of the design of the landscape and its activities. In the process, this new landscape offers a rewriting of the past and memory of the city as it redefines the identity of the city for its present and future. Keywords: stream reconstruction; urban renewal; revitalization; green spaces; post-industrial 1. Introduction The completion of the reconstruction of the Cheonggyecheon stream and park in Seoul, South Korea in 2005 was hailed by Lee Myung-bak, who was then mayor of Seoul, as the city’s return to what “Mother Nature intended it to be” (Kirk 2003). The project began with the demolition of an aging piece of infrastructure, a 5.8 km elevated highway, and replaced the site with a green space with a reconstruction of a historic stream at its center. The implication of Lee’s statement highlights two major assertions for the project in transforming the project site from a road with an aging overpass into a sunken pedestrian channel with a reconstructed stream. The first is that the project allowed a return of the site to its original, natural condition. The second is the suggestion that the intervening years of the site serving as a road and highway overpass were either contradictory to nature or were misguided interventions of city officials in building a road and highway and burying the stream during the country’s rapid modernization period (Lee 2011). These assertions illustrate the promotion of the reconstruction project as a symbol of the post-modern identity of Seoul as a city that blends the urban landscape with natural forms and forces. The project has helped promote and reinforce the image of the city as having an origin in the surrounding natural forms of mountains and streams, as well as a modern city that provides plentiful access for its people to engage with and enjoy the natural landscape that is intertwined with the urban landscape (Seoul Metropolitan Government 2006, 2009). 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Seoul, with the location of Cheonggyecheon in the box, north of the Han River. Figure 2. EnlargedEnlarged map map of Seoul with Cheonggycheon highlighted on Google Maps. Figure 2. Enlarged map of Seoul with Cheonggycheon highlighted on Google Maps. 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