Every corner of downtown Seoul is transformed into a garden.
On the 24th, Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the idea of ’Garden City, Seoul’ to empty the gray structures in the center of the city and turn it into a green ecological space.
“We will make it possible to reach green areas from anywhere in Seoul within 5 minutes,” is Mayor Oh’s plan. In Seoul, the area of green areas such as forests is large, but there are not enough parks where citizens can enjoy recreation in their daily lives.
In fact, the area of parks in Seoul increased from 168.16 km2 in 2009 to 172.68 km2 last year, but the area of ’walking zone parks’ excluding forest areas such as national parks is only 5.65 m2 per capita.
First of all, the city of Seoul will make the most of empty land in the city center to create green spaces. Instead of building buildings on vacant land, it will be left as a free space for citizens to enjoy their leisure life.
On the site in Songhyeon-dong, Jongno-gu, where the Lee Kun-hee Museum will be located, no additional buildings will be built, and an urban garden will be decorated. A garden will also be created in Yongsan Park. He plans to start the process of proposing specific measures to the government, such as recreating famous gardens from around the world in Yongsan Park. Seasonal wildflowers are planted in association with the Seoul Botanical Garden at the site of cultural facilities in Magok District 3.
New green areas will be created on roads, sidewalks, and squares in the city center that have not had green areas before. The upper part of Yeongdong-daero, National Assembly-daero, and Gyeongbu Expressway, which promotes underground construction, will be decorated with a garden with a rest area. A pine forest will also be created in Seoul Plaza, where it was difficult for citizens to wait for a long time due to lack of shade. A grass road is also made on one side of Deoksugung Stonewall Road.
In addition, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that it would reorganize existing green areas such as paths and parks to make them more accessible. The Dulle-gil course in Seoul is subdivided and connected to the subway station by foot to increase public transport connectivity. In addition, the ‘Seoul Greenway’, which connects green areas across Seoul, will be seriously promoted from the second half of this year, and a total of 2063 km of pedestrian roads will be completed by 2026.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to increase the size of the annual garden fair to make it an international event and to make gardens one of Seoul’s representative tourism products. In the case of previous years, the Seoul Garden Expo, which lasted for only one week in the North Seoul Dream Forest, will be held for two months this year in the World Cup Park and Haneul Park. From next year, the scale will increase and the ‘Seoul International Garden Exhibition’ will be held at Ttukseom Hangang Park for 6 months. He plans to expand it into an international exhibition by inviting foreign artists and holding a competition.
