Awards

2009 Awards : Merit Award & Traveling Award for Innovative Excellence

Cultivating the Edge - Magok Waterfront Plan

Lee + Papa & Associates, Inc.

The Magok Waterfront, located in Seoul, South Korea, represents the final link in a chain of Han River Renaissance projects aimed to enhance the urban waterfront for tourists, merchants, and residents that will support the local economy. At 117 hectares (289-acres), it is Seoul’s last remaining large-scale piece of waterfront land within the floodplain. The diverse periphery of the site includes high-density development, the Seonam Wastewater Treatment Plant, and historic Mt. Gung. The Olympic Expressway stands as an 18m-high barrier preventing water flow between the Han River and the Magok site, creating on-site flood conditions.

‘Cultivating the edge’ of the Magok Waterfront transforms a disconnected plot of flooded land into a vision for a sustainable urban waterfront. This project uncovers the richness of local site conditions by exposing the floodplain’s ecological potential and building upon agricultural identities. Design objectives take advantage of low-lying land, proximity to the river, and existing infrastructure such as the treatment plant. Knowledge of local habitats, constructed wetland technologies, wetland restoration processes, lock/floodgate structure, combined heat/power processes, and solar energy were incorporated into the site’s evolving new identity. The Magok Waterfront emerges as an energy-independent urban model that provides a unique scaffold for human interaction with cultural and natural resources.

Jury Comments:

sensitive and innovative visioning for the use of the waterfront;
clearly articulated a program to clean-up, control and plan/design a healthy environment;
appropriate demarcation of upland vs wetland areas.