levees constructed along the banks in
the 1970s to prevent flooding. A civil
engineering solution, the levees have
largely succeeded in reducing floods,
however, in denying the natural processes
of the river all sorts of other problems have
inevitably arisen. One of these is the issue of
silt deposits, which occur after floodwaters
subside. The cost of removing the deposits
in the Yanghwa area is around US$100,000
per annum, according to Kim. Mud has to
be cleared from the terraced banks quickly
before it dries out and hardens, at which
point it becomes a far more difficult and
expensive exercise.
Coined “mud infrastructure” by the
practice, Parkkim’s design for the riverfront
park is a high-performance landscape
principally focused on addressing the silt
problem. The park’s landform has been
conceptualized to drain mud deposits back
into the river as floodwaters subside, while
still providing topographic variation for a
range of programs, such as picnicking,
open-air events, fishing and spaces for
people to simply be alone – incredibly
important in a city of ten million.
Interestingly, Kim points out that their park
was the only design in the wider Han River
Renaissance Project that did away with the
terraced condition.
To K im’s fr ust rat ion, we f ind t hat t rees have
recently been planted by the client [the river
authority] in the very areas that should be
kept clear for easy silt drainage, highlighting
the often-tenuous relationship between
design intent and a project’s post-handover
maintenance. Parkkim, however, is known
to take matters into its own hands. A former
employee now working in Australia,
Hong-In Lee, recounted a time when Park
ca lled t he off ice dow n to t he Ya ng hwa
Riverside Park early on a Sunday morning to
rip out shrubs, guerrilla style, as they would
have grown up to block an important view.
Kim blames the typical discontinuation
between design concept and post-
construction management. “The city needs
to understand that landscape architectural
pract ice goes fa r beyond just pla nt ing a s
ma ny t rees a s possible,” says K im.
The next day at Parkkim’s Gangnam office
we discuss the firm’s more recent work,
which includes a mix of commercial and
public projects, and even a few residential
projects. Senior staff members have just
returned from presenting a proposal to
redesign the plaza of a regional civic centre
in the Gyeonggi province. South Korea
suffers from a lot of poor air quality, much of
it due to pollution drifting across the Yellow
Sea from China. The design for the plaza
responds to the site’s atmospheric
conditions by proposing “lungs” in the form
of a dense forest, ephemeral ponds and
vertical misting jets on the western edge,
intended to capture fine dust particles from
the air and bring them back to the soil.In stark contrast to the landscape
architecture profession in Australia, the
pract ice’s com mercia l work is a lso some of
its most innovative, which reflects the
power and wealth of South Korea’s chaebols
and their emerging understanding that
good design equals good branding.In South Korea’s second-largest city, Busan,
the office has recently completed a rooftop
garden for low-cost airline Air Busan. A
deep soil profile wasn’t possible, so Parkkim
developed a lightweight tensile roofing
structure in the airline’s corporate colours
to provide a shady place for staff to sit and
meet that wouldn’t violate weight
restrictions.Back in Seou l, t he tea m is developing a
preca st concrete pav ing modu le on a public
pedestrian link project. The city mandates
that permeable pavers must now be used in
all streetscape projects, which is impressive
public policy. However, the pavers currently
on t he ma rket a re “too ug ly,” says K im, a nd
after six months the city pollution clogs the
pores, making them no more permeable
than regular pavers. So Parkkim challenged
the city’s preference for permeable pavers,
convincing it to try precast concrete
modules instead. When the project is
complete, it will be the first time that a
public path in Seoul is made with precast
concrete pavers. Parkkim believes that
excellent drainage is not just about the
permeability of surfaces, but more about
the grading of the site and careful
construction of the design. It was no easy
feat, they assure me.“It’s extremely difficult to convince [the
city] to try new ideas ... they always want us
to present design precedents,” says Kim.But difficulty rarely seems to sway them.
Across Parkkim’s oeuvre an intimate
engagement with materials and detailing
is ev ident; nea r enoug h is not good enoug h
and off-the-shelf options rarely suffice.
T his is made possible by cheap fabr icat ion
costs in South Korea, relative to Western
countries, and potentially the country’s
intense work culture.Parkkim’s interest in material ingenuity
and innovation also highlights an
interesting relationship between the local
landscape architecture culture and the
capability of South Korea’s manufacturing
industry. The manufacturing industries in
Australia and the USA are in long-term
structural decline, whereas countries like
South Korea, Japan and China are
manufacturing hubs and costs are therefore
considerably lower than in the West. Many
Asian countries, including South Korea,
have a much stronger sense of fabrication
and material practice than Australia (Japan
would be at the top of the list). All this
means that it is generally cheaper and
easier to fabricate something new and
interesting in South Korea than it is in
Australia, and the attention to detail and
degree of perfection are far greater.Parkkim doesn’t have any international
projects as yet, but the directors say they are
open to them. “Practising overseas brings
its challenges, and you must be prepared to
lose a lot of control over the outcome,” says
Kim. “Particularly in China.” For Park, the
focus shou ld a lways be on deliver ing a good
project, wherever it may be.Jungyoon Kim is speaking at the Landscape
Australia Conference on 5 May 2018 in
Sydney.END NOTES- Hyunjoo Jin, Se Young Lee, Nichola Saminather,
“Chaebol reform at forefront of South Korea
presidential campaign – again,” Reuters website,
https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-southkorea-politics-business/chaebol-reform-at-
forefront-of-south-korea-presidential-campaign-
again-idUSKBN16Z0AU (accessed 26 October 2017). - Data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government (2016),
taken from infographic in Brand Documentary
Magazine, issue 50, 2017, 132–133. - John Hong, “No Progress,” in Yoonjin Park and
Jungyoon Kim (eds.), Alternative Nature (Seoul:
Mediabus, 2016), xix–xxiv. - Hong, “No Progress,” xix–xxiv.
LANDSCAPE ISSUE 157 068 — 069AN ASIAN PRACTICE