Seoul announced the transformation of the Gwanghwamun Plaza to a bigger, people-oriented public space by 2021. Mayor Park Won-soon had shared his idea to reshape the plaza since his campaign in 2011 but he prioritized other projects (Seoullo 7017 and Sewoon Sangga among others) until now. A final design and timeline for the transformation of the public space in front of the Gyeongbokgung Palace have been decided recently.
Development of the Gwanghwamun Plaza
The avenue towards the palace exists since Seoul became the capital of Korea. It was a large avenue for the king and his entourage traveling from the palace to other places. In the 20th century it remained a wide avenue but nearly all of the space was given to cars and motorized traffic.
Here you can see the recent development from 1974 to now and future plans:
In the modern Seoul the area in front of the palace had a 14-lane road. The Gwanghwamun Plaza turned in 2008-2009 to the current form with green space, a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin and Sejong the Great.
However, the Gwanghwamun Plaza in its current form doesn’t provide a great quality. The NGO Project for Public Spaces sees four characteristics necessary for a successful public space: access and linkage, sociability, uses and activities and comfort and image. The Gwanghwamun Plaza currently can’t fulfill many of the aspects as long it doesn’t close down temporarily a side (or even both sides) of the road. Currently, the plaza is very noisy due to the car traffic and doesn’t provide enough capacity for events of a city with 10 million inhabitants.
Starting point: car-free Sunday
In 2013, the first car-free Sundays have been held on the Sejongro, the road next to the Gwanghamun Plaza. The road left of the plaza was closed twice a month, every first and third Sunday between March and October. We at Kojects have reported about the events in detail. The Seoul Walk and Bike Festival was a great experience. From the beginning it was clear that these car-free Sundays are a way to examine how traffic will will be affected if the road is closed.
In 2018, Seoul shortly thought about building a tunnel and to move the traffic underground. Such a tunnel project would come with various issues and high costs. It would also be counterproductive in the long-term because Seoul has to find ways to reduce traffic in the inner-city.
Seoul declared the area within the four gates as a green transport promotion zone and there are plans for road diets and more people-oriented policies. Such measures are highly complementary and important elements of sustainable transport. The chart by the international organization Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) shows that car-free days and car-free streets are steps towards permanent large-scale car-free measures.
So the Gwanghwamun Plaza will become a place prioritizing people and public transport. It will accelerate development towards a less car-dependent city.
Future face of Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza
The final design of Gwanghwamun was recently published and it’s called ‘Deep Surface (Awaken the past and future)’. It was selected through a design competition where 70 teams from all around the world had submitted concepts. The construction is expected to begin in 2020 and to be completed by 2021.
It’s difficult to see in the first picture but not only the road leading south will be made smaller, the road in front of the palace will be moved south, giving the palace more space. The statues will be moved from the center of the road to the buildings on the left.
The gate Gwanghwamun to the palace will have a huge square for visitors. Historic structures will be rebuilt, providing tourists with more places for sightseeing and to learn about Korea’s history.
More green space is envisioned and trees will decorate parts of the plaza. The area above ground and underground will be connected at various spots.
Shadow between trees will give a place to rest and to socialize.
The new Gwanghwamun Plaza would be 3.7 times bigger than the current plaza. It isn’t yet clear what will be underground.
The design combines the elements of ’emptiness’ and ‘fullness’. Above ground the space is relatively empty and left free of any large constructions. Beyond the ground the plaza will have various facilities. For example, the underground will become a large transportation hub.
GTX as a part of the project
The announcement about the Gwanghwamun Plaza project included news about the largest urban transport project of Korea: the GTX (Great Train eXpress). It is envisioned that the GTX Line A (Paju, Seoul to Dongtan) will have a station at Gwanghwamun besides Samsung Station, Seoul Station and Yeonsinnae in Seoul. Such a station wasn’t included in any of the plans for GTX Line A before and it comes a big surprise.
In addition, there’s the idea of extending the Shinbundang Line to Samsong in northwestern Seoul. Then the Shinbundang Line would pass through Seoul Station and Gwanghwamun Station. But there is no timeline for the GTX and Shinbundang Line extension so far.
It would mean that Gwanghwamun Station becomes a major transport hub, connecting Seoul Metro Line 5, Shinbundang Line and GTX Line A, plus having underground tunnels to Seoul City Hall Station providing access to Line 1 and Line 2 as well as north to Gyeongbokgung Station with Line 3.
Sources: Seoul City | Joongang Ilbo | Seoulvillage
Always love reading the articles here. I am a business owner here in Korea and the information here is useful. Would love to see an article on the Gimhae airport situation. There are plans to rebuild, and some others from people who want to move it (along side Daegu, Ulsan, and of course keeping Gimhae itself open)