There are still eight months left until the Seoul Station 7017, Seoul’s newest and most innovative public space, is going to open in April 2017. Just recently, Seoul opened to the public a Seoul Station 7017 preview. There you can see and experience how Seoul’s skygarden is going to look like.
Current Status on the Seoul Station 7017
I didn’t write about the Seoul’s High Line project for a while because the constructions are currently on-going and no incidents happened (which is a good thing).
But now, a small piece of the Seoul’s skygarden was built and opened somewhere else. Seoul calls it ‘Infogarden’, but I like to call it a preview of the Seoul Station overpass. It functions as a way to inform citizen’s about the overpass project. It gives citizens a taste of how the new public space is going to look like. There will be various events from August 16 to November 30.
Construction Phase
The construction of the Infogarden began in April and it was completed in June. The Seoul Station 7017 preview was designed by Winy Maas. From my understanding, it shows a segment of the future Seoul Station Overpass. This plan shows the design of the Infogarden:
It is 218 square meters large and has a small exhibition room and an information desk. 10 different plants can be seen in the Infogarden.
On several occasions I passed by the construction site. I took the following picture on April 14:
They used the same cement that will be used for the Seoul Station Overpass. Thus, the preview gives you the full experience.
The area wasn’t closed permanently. A couple of weeks later, pedestrians were allowed to pass through the construction zone:
Here’s a picture from the other side with the Seoul Plaza Hotel in the background:
The two pictures above are taken on June 9th. Through this small-scale garden the city can learn about how to build the huge Seoul Station 7017. And even more than that, as plants and vegetation play an important role, the city can experience what it takes to grow flowers in these huge flower pots.
Seoul Station 7017 Preview
Winy Maas, the architect of the Seoul Station Overpass project, came to Seoul for the opening of the Infogarden on June 23. It improves the quality of the public space significantly. As Kojects presented once before, the Seoul Plaza doesn’t have any benches. This Infogarden adds finally an area to sit to the large plaza. The additional vegetation and plants are also very nice.
This is the exhibition facility which is also an oversized flower pot:
I was a little bit early. The exhibition room is open every day except Monday. On weekdays it operates from 11am to 8pm and on weekends it’s open from 10am to 7pm.
On the left, you can see the information facility that was closed, too. The thin column on the right illuminates the Seoul Station 7017 Preview in a blue light at night. The flower pots have also lights.
Each flower pot has a label with the name of the specific flower, a NFC spot and a QR-code. For example, a QR-code leads to this page: http://urbanforest.co.kr/FC272. There are pictures of the plant and information on the name, species, seasonal growth pattern, origin and so on.
I hope that Seoul proofreads all flower names before the opening of the overpass because there is a typo in the English name of that rose.
Temporarily or Permanently?
It isn’t clear what’s going to happen with the Infogarden after the Seoul Staton 7017 opens. Maybe Seoul will remove it as it won’t be needed anymore and every visitor can go to the overpass to see the real thing. I hope that they will leave this structure as it improves the public space quality of Seoul Plaza. It would be nice to have more Infogardens around Seoul. It is a real oasis that offers a great, modern public space.
How to get there?
The Infogarden is behind Exit 5 of City Hall Station (subway line no. 1 and 2). Or if you on foot, then walk to the main library of Seoul, right next to the city hall. You’ll see the Infogarden on the left side of the library.
