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Architects: Emer-sys
- Area: 80 m²
- Year: 2020
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Photographs:Kyungsub Shin, Gunyeop Lee
Text description provided by the architects. The Hannam overpass, which connects the center of Seoul and the southern Han River, divides Hannam-district in half, creating a completely different neighborhood on both sides. The streets of Itaewon, full of diverse culture and entertainment, may seem to have a lot of green space, but it lacks open public spaces for pedestrians to sit and enjoy themselves without paying money. It has become a desolate space that people do not visit much anymore.
Looking at the underside of the Hannam overpass, we thought about what was needed for this place beyond functional necessity and tried to create an environment that is exactly the opposite of the underpass. To create an experience like walking in the forest of Namsan mountain, which can only be viewed from a distance, and feeling the sunlight spill out, 9 petal-shaped structures were installed. By creating cafes and toilets close to Blue Square, and creating a lot of outside spaces where you can sit freely, we hoped that it would become a lively urban space once again.
The petal-shaped structure consisting of 6-meter-diameter wings is an abstract piece of “artificial nature” that draws nature into the underpass of a barren environment. The LED lights shining through the structures give people the feeling of walking in a forest where sunlight pours through the leaves during the day, and at night, it feels like walking in a field of starlight.
The café space, made of a hexagonal transparent glass box like the petal-shaped structure, provides a temporary resting space for pedestrians passing by or waiting for the bus and the steps at the bottom of the building can be used as a space for resting, meeting, chatting, waiting, or busking. The railing on the stairs, which resembles the railing of a ship, makes you feel as if you are alone on a ship that has just departed while watching the cars pass through Hannam-daero. The underpass, which has been abandoned for a long time, is expected to become a 'place' that gives the nature back to us.
