4.184
Architectural Design Workshop—Saemangeum, South Korea
Instructor: Nader Tehrani
Telephone: 617-252-2270
Office:
10-411M
Send e-mail: ntehrani@mit.edu
Units: 3-0-6
Level: H
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor
Background
Located in the southwestern coast of Jeollabukdo, South Korea, Saemangeum used to be widely known as one of the world's favorite spot for the bird-watchers. With its vast horizon of endless field with an eerie panoramic extension, 40,100 ha of shallow tidal wetland was an open ecological system with no interruption of any kind, until the largest reclamation project in the world has taken over and exploited the area that involved damming its estuaries with 33km-long concrete sea wall. Once the major feeding ground for the migratory birds, what Saemangeum has now are enormous hectares of land and a freshwater reservoir.
Despite the claim by the administration that the reclamation and its development would help the area with sufficient water control and insure more-than-enough square footage for the region to harbor its economic productions and urban possibilities, there has been intense and fierce controversy among many interests over the past decades. Some environmental activists, politicians, urban planners and the public represented their skepticism on Saemangeum’s sudden shift of its fate, not to mention that no clear decisions or vision on its future have been made yet. Main concern is the possibility that the area is about to stray its identity and lose its environmental value, since the construction looked to force the area to become something completely opposite of what Saemangeum used to be.
The focus, however, may not be limited to the question of preserving the environment or dealing with existing conditions in mere receptive ways. What is opportunistic about Saemangeum is that the rewriting of this area in fact can be manifested in much more diverse form of approach – like Dubai’s new urbanization strategy to interweave tourism, culture and commerce in a future-seeking urban tropicana, or purely economic-driven duty-free urban archipelago that can promote the site with a whole new identity. What is important is the novelty of thinking and its strikingness in devising the site’s potential to its full caliber. Regardless of its approach, what Saemangeum needs now is a visionary initiative that is strong and attractive enough to reach a consensus.
Thus vision for Saemangeum’s future is crucial for the sake of many interests. Its peculiar problems and significances in many respects represent increasing occasions for us to contemplate upon two bi-poles regarding our contemporary cities - sustaining what we are and where we want to be in the future. How can we achieve the rightful balance between development and conservation? How can we perceive the meaning of sustainable urban environment in much more broader realms that is rather about maintaining vitality and complexity of our quality of life? This project is an inquiry about corresponding with the complexity that Saemangeum has now and how it will sustain itself towards the future.
Introduction
The Province of Jeollabuk-do and the organizing committee is pleased to invite the group of schools and architects for the masterplan of Saemangeum region, Korea. Located along the southwestern coast, Saemangeum was estuary with bird-rich tidal flats and mud fields until the recent reclamation by the government that has transformed the area into 40,100ha of new land surface. The government intends to develop the new Saemangeum area into a sustainable region for the future, and is seeking for the innovative, environmental-friendly proposal that has a potential to be fully realized. The proposals will be evaluated upon the entry’s willingness and commitment to sustain the site’s ecological value, to establish imaginative use of the land, to demonstrate the possibility for construction, and to foresee the area’s value beneficial to the surrounding regions.
Objectives
The goal of this project is to find a creative and competitive masterplan for the Saemangeum region that can be developed into a realization. Some of the challenging issues for the participating groups include how to respond and engage the site’s unique complexity on environmental, physical, cultural, social, and political vectors. The project will require a range of diverse disciplines as each participating groups are expected to present their views and visions for the development of Saemangeum in thorough levels of conservation, management, settlement and anticipations for the future.
