Here is my project our team is going to do slide

write your own word not ai

Group poster presentations: If you had to give a 15-min pitch to a group consisting of city planners, investors, and community reps, for a city that you want to build/adapt to serve the people for the next 100 years, what would your city be like? You can use any multimedia approach you find appropriate to do this. Disclose what ideas you adopted from the AI, and which are entirely yours, i.e. human, and where the AI did not match human needs, sensibilities, nor sensitivies. You can use any digital platform/tool of preference to create this poster. Create a multimedia presentation (slides, recorded video, poster, or web page) summarizing your findings and proposals from your AI collaborations. Each member should contribute equally and present a portion.

other team mates: Streets Public transport/bus lanes/hi-speed train weather/weather controlling (water)

Green space/community garden/ rooftop garden Safety

My part: Solar panels/renewable energy items plz do this part

• Each person presents for ~2 mins about their individual topic
• Pick a topic & thoroughly research
  • slide(s) with visuals made by AI for your topic
  • At least 1 connection to class concept/discussio
  • this was class activity concept: Class activity: What ethical concerns does every city administration/planner has to take into consideration? Does your AI plan contain those? How would you guide the AI into acquiring this essentially human perspective on things?
• also you can use source Turning over a new leaf

Sustainability and urban experimentation in Seoul

Sofia T. Shwayri

fter Songdo: Magok, the development of Korea's second

'Northeast Asian Hub'

'Sitting quietly does not lead to a miracle,' said Korean president Park Geun- hye in Seoul on 23 October 2014 at the groundbreaking ceremony for LG's pro- posed Science Park (Limb 2014). It was part of a speech in praise of the chaebol's (family-run conglomerate) commitment to a future of challenge in the fiercely competitive world of technology and telecommunications. She could well have been talking about the district in the capital - Magok - on which this new devel- opment is situated and for which a role has finally been identified. Construction plans were announced in December 2005 for the Magok District but there was a two-year wait before an area was designated for the development and a further two years before construction would commence. Thus began the 'Eco Energy Town of the Future' with an emphasis on energy efficiency. Heating and air- conditioning systems would need half as much fuel and energy with 40 per cent of the area's energy being recycled. New buildings would require only two-thirds of the energy used by the average building while 10MW of energy needs would be met by solar power, thus contributing to the city's reduction in greenhouse gases. Winter heating for 23,000 houses would be provided by energy derived from the River Han. And finally, the R&D centre in the development would explore further energy efficiencies in the area (The Korea Times 2008). Soon, however, the SMG decided to rebrand the Magok development, referring to it as a regional hub in the middle of Seoul or the 'Knowledge Industrial Green City Leading the Future of Northeast Asia'. The goal was to create a gateway city to Northeast Asia that was simultaneously an innovative base of the knowledge industry and a green city of the future. It would be open to everyone; a convergence site of cutting-edge tech- nology and industry, and would aim for sustainable value (SMG 2012).

In form and function, the Magok development contrasts starkly with the Songdo International Business District (IBD), part of the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), the northeast Korean business utopia. Figure 13.2 shows the contrasting cityscapes of the two projects. Magok is situated south of the River Han in west- ern Seoul in Gangseo-Gu and east of the Incheon Canal, the Airport Expressway and Banghwa-dong. To its southwest, less than three kilometres away and linked directly by road is Gimpo Airport (putting the district about two hours flying time away from major cities in China and Japan). Deungchon-dong lies to the east. Three rail lines pass through it (the Airport Express line that connects Seoul to Incheon International Airport and Seoul Metro lines 5 and 9). Separating it from the River Han is the Olympic Expressway to the north. Its location at the extreme western end of the city is also marked by the start of a more militarized area as the River Han, with barbed wire and watchtowers along its banks, flows northwest towards its mouth, close to the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea separating South and North Korea. Any maritime traffic that plans to use the waterway here has to obtain UN permission. The Incheon Canal acknowledges this fact, allowing shipping to take a safer and more direct path to the coastal port of Incheon and beyond.

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186Sofia T. Shwayri

Figure 13.2Songdo (left), the Compact Smart City, and Magok (right) (source: David Anderson).

Like Magok, Songdo IBD, 40 miles southwest of Seoul, is also under devel- opment but at a more advanced stage. It is situated on reclaimed land in Incheon on the northwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula, also in close proximity to the Northern Limit Line. A 15-minute trip over the newly built Incheon Bridge sepa- rates Songdo from Incheon International Airport, making it less than three hours from a quarter of the world's population and two of the largest economies, Japan and China. Its location and connectivity has been celebrated by some as 'an experi- mental prototype of the aerotropolis' (DiNardo 2013). As a high-tech or ubiquitous city, Songdo is planned around major industries (including biotechnologies) as well as being a hub for services, particularly educational (with the establishment of global campuses) and medical (through its international hospital) services.

Both developments have a longer history. Songdo goes back to 1988 while Magok has undergone more than ten iterations of planning from 1995. It was touted in 2007 by then Mayor Oh Se-hoon as part of a multi-year project that was to turn Seoul into 'an attractive waterfront city with high-level tourist and trans- portation facilities' (The Hankyoreh 2007). This Han River Renaissance project, consisting of 33 sub-plans including one for Magok, eventually foundered on the rocks of the 2008 financial crisis as well as resistance from environmentalists and serious project delays (The Hankyoreh 2007). Previously, Magok had been earmarked for several projects that were initiated, punctuated or halted by outside events writ large in the history of Korea - financial crises, inter-Korean crises, regional mega projects and international sporting events. In the decades leading up to its current incarnation, the district was, among other things, a candidate site for Seoul's World Cup stadium which was ultimately sited north of the Han River.

The influences on the Magok development are reflected in the built environ- ment, especially when contrasting the new city with its more famous predeces- sor, Songdo. In terms of land, Magok required no reclamation, no waterway connection but there is a central park feature, an essential requirement made by

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Sustainability and experimentation in Seoul187

the city in the International Design Competition. This is a Korean regional hub, as opposed to being global or international, so there is no need for enticements for foreign investment such as international university campuses, memoranda of understanding with international concerns or technology contracts with overseas corporations. The communication infrastructure already exists due to previously planned projects (e.g. subway stations on Seoul Metro Lines 5 and 9 as well as the Airport Express). Access to air transport is provided by Gimpo Airport, which is a regional rather than international airport like Incheon. Finally, housing reflects the Korean reality of a smaller family unit rather than the lavish international pent- house styles of Songdo's apartment structures. Songdo IBD's global aspirations were emphasized by aggressive media campaigns, mayoral tours of the United States and other high profile activities designed to attract foreign investment (Kim 2010, Shwayri 2013). Magok's focus has always been regional while the SMG's opportunity to attract international attention has not been overlooked. One such example was the presentation of the Magok development plans by the Mayor of Seoul at a pre-C40 summit meeting in May 2009 to an audience that included Bill Clinton, a key player in the Cities Climate Leadership Group. This led to an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Seoul City and the Clinton Founda- tion to implement a 'climate positive development program' (Clinton Foundation 2009). Magok was chosen as the site for the signing (Kwon 2009).

Magok's time has come. It is the last sizable area of land for development within the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Its previous competitors, including Mokpo, Jamsil, Yongsan, Yeoido and Gangnam are not immediately available for further development. In its new role, Magok benefits largely from lessons learned in other projects of a similar scale across Korea. These include the provision of housing that people need (as opposed to what urban plans provided), recognition of the nation's profitable or growth markets (emphasizing Korea's regional leadership) and the associated transportation hubs that connect these markets. Seoul, much like the rest of Korea, has experienced population decline and a growing demand for housing for singles or childless couples rather than the government supplied housing that continues to cater to nuclear families (Pressian 2004). Housing under development in Magok recognizes this reality with its planned supply of one- and two-bedroom apartments. In terms of markets and competition, these are much closer to home and more focused on Korean expertise than the hoped-for global playing fields catered to by developments such as Songdo out to the west. A highly educated workforce is, in reality, going to be predominantly Korean, with foreigners playing a role much below those in the reach and scope planned in Songdo and the other Free Enterprise Zones. Magok's scale is also cognizant of a new reality, touted by the current Mayor of Seoul as the 'paradigm shift' in urban development from the megalomaniacal new build projects to the more sustainable developments appreciative of Seoul's traditions (SMG 2014).

Sitting quietly may not have led to a miracle but in Magok's case, it has pro- duced reality, even after many attempts of experimenting with different forms and functions (Seoul Institute 2014). The lessons learned from previous experi- ments both on this site and elsewhere were put to good use in the Magok of today.

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188Sofia T. Shwayri

The district was part of the ill-fated River Han Renaissance Project (2007) as well as being a touted site for the Seoul 2002 World Cup Stadium (1996). Exper- iments elsewhere also provided valuable input. For example, Songdo IBD never got its expected foreign contingent and only thrived when housing was opened up to Koreans after 2010. Turning infrastructural failure into a positive outcome while at the same time enhancing the nation's competitive edge in tourism is the underlying theme of a distinctly different experiment taking place in downtown Seoul - the Seoul Overpass Park.

A park in the sky: repurposing of failed infrastructure

The Seoul Overpass Park, an elevated recreational area born out of defunct post- Korean War infrastructure, will soon join its older sibling, the hugely successful Cheonggyecheon Park, in downtown Seoul. Both are products of nearly identi- cal circumstances. They have been promoted in similar fashion politically and possess personas more modern than their admiring public believes. The litera- ture concerning the latter is long and voluminous (Cho 2010; Lee and Anderson 2013). Discussion about the former, however, mainly concerns its outward simi- larity in form, function and history to New York City's world famous High Line Park (Jung 2014; Kwaak 2014).

Loved during their heyday, promoted with God-like reverence as beacons of modernity and implemented gleefully by civic leaders more reminiscent of medi- eval warrior kings (Mesmer 2014), Seoul's network of overpasses criss-crossed the city. They were implemented at a fraction of the cost and construction time of extending the subway system. They funnelled workers from the rapidly grow- ing suburbs to their workplaces downtown. Within a generation, however, decay had set in and the overpasses required extensive repairs with maintenance costs increasing at an astronomic rate (Koh 2013). Additional safety measures saw mandated decreases in traffic flows of up to 50 per cent. The story of the Ahyeon Overpass is one example of more than 100 overpasses built at much the same time and that were, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, placing a tremendous repair and maintenance burden on the coffers of the SMG. The overpass at Ahyeon was the first to be built. One kilometre in length, erected in 1968 and planned to move 80,000 vehicles per day between central Seoul and Mapo, Chungjeongno and Sinchon, it had a lifespan of 36 years. In 2004, less than a decade after the Sampoong Department store collapse had begun to sow doubts about the safety of Seoul's crumbling infrastructure (World History Project 1995), US$7.19 million was spent on repairs and the weight capacity of the rotting structure was halved. By this time, maintenance costs were running at an annual rate of US$25 mil- lion. The Ahyeon overpass limped on for a further ten years until it was finally demolished in 2014 (McKeag 2014). Overpasses also suppressed commercial and residential development in a capital city becoming denser - not just around the Central Business District but elsewhere. The dangers their loads posed to air quality were well documented. Locals also reported that the spaces under over- passes were often used for illegal parking or for unloading construction materials.

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Sustainability and experimentation in Seoul189

Residents were averse to walking below them with little sunshine and few decent vistas (Koh 2013). Overpasses were no longer a sustainable feature of a modern, progressive metropolis. Furthermore, these older structures were physical barriers to growth in areas such as the capital's Central Business District, forcing lucra- tive commercial concerns, together with people and housing, out to suburbs like Gangnam. The environmental impacts of the rapid growth era, if known or fully understood at the time, featured very low on the government's list of priorities.

More famous is the story of the Cheong Gye overpass that was removed in 2002 and the project that replaced it: a four-kilometre-long inner city park whose central feature is the re-exposed Cheong Gye stream, significant in the history of Seoul but buried in the name of progress. Contrary to widespread belief, what has been 'uncovered' is not the original stream but one following the course of its predecessor, fed by very modern pumping stations and serving as a major com- ponent in Seoul's flood defences (Mesmer 2014). The environmental advantages it displays over the structure it replaced, while hugely relevant, are by-products of the original economic and financial benefits touted for its construction (Lee and Anderson 2013). The Seoul mayoral campaign of 2002, for which this was a key election issue, highlighted the project bringing economic vitality to the inner city. It was also a device by which the incoming mayor and future president, Lee Myung Bak, could expand his political influence into northern Seoul, where it was weak at the time (Cho 2010). In a similar manner, the stream's banks and restraining walls are largely contemporary in both materials and design, serving to open up access to the neighbouring businesses, as high-profile stages for the promotion of those concerns, as well as the more mundane functions served by a public park. In these respects, Cheonggyecheon (and as we will see later, the Seoul Overpass Park) is similar in nature to the Seoul Fortress walls - reconstruc- tions of an earlier reality.

Today, Seoul city officials recognize overpasses as relics of a bygone era that now restrict urban planning for the twenty-first century. Seoul Overpass Park, as well as the decade-older Cheonggyecheon, help mitigate the expensive solutions to problems of decay in the infrastructure that underpinned Seoul's rapid growth from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Around 16 overpasses have been torn down since 2002 with just 84 of the original number remaining. The cleared sites present opportunities for urban experiments that include dedicated bus median lanes, expansion of available development space, green spaces and tourism, as well as providing ecologically friendly areas. These benefits were quickly picked up by politicians with local, national and worldwide interests, and packaged, among other ways, as sources for improvements to the quality of life for Seoul's citizens through the provision of 'views and beauty of the city'. Soon after the Ahyeon overpass was finally removed, the SMG announced plans to develop 'twenty-five strategic tourist destinations that can present their historic resources and dynamism to tourists, as core parts of a city that has served as the nation's capital for 2,000 years' (SMG 2013). Seoul, with a relatively static population today of 10 million, sees growth in tourism as a major source of city revenue. Over 12 million people visited the city in 2013, up from 7 million just three years

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190Sofia T. Shwayri

earlier, making the Korean capital one of the most visited cities in the world (Lee 2014). Cheonggyecheon alone receives around 20 per cent of these visitors. In conjunction with the increase in real-estate values around the stream, the local economy has received a significant boost (City Clock Magazine 2014).

To maintain and encourage further tourism, in 2014 the SMG announced a New Urban Architecture Road Map for 2014-2018, with the slogan 'Walking City', aiming to reduce the number of roads and improve pedestrian environments (Yoon 2014). This new road map includes 25 core policies focusing on cutting back roadways to encourage pedestrian traffic, setting up the Urban Restoration headquarters and designing, among other projects, Gaepo Digital Innovation Park, Hongneung Smart Aging Cluster, Seoul Overpass Park and Magok Central Plaza. Roads around the four main gates of Seoul will be gradually removed for the benefit of pedestrian access and to create a public park, and bicycles are favoured over cars. The major urban restoration projects in the plan include the preserva- tion of the Seun Sangga and the remodelling of the vehicle-only Seoul Station overpass to create a linear urban park (Figure 13.3).

Since the landslide re-election of Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon in June 2014, policy is now focused on the process of restoring original form and preservation. The mayor stated: 'the paradigm of "good development" has shifted [from a pen- chant for the modern to respect of the past, and] the [Seoul Station overpass] pro- ject will be a good example of the paradigm change'. Furthermore 'it is better to rejuvenate the city instead of destroying its cultural heritage to build something new' (Jung 2014). In its safety inspection in 2008, Seoul Station overpass received

Figure 13.3The old Seoul Station (left) and its overpass (source: David Anderson).

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Sustainability and experimentation in Seoul191

a level D (only level E is worse). This will be transformed into an ecological citizen culture park. In fact, this experiment has already been prototyped. On 4 October 2014 the overpass was closed to traffic for four hours and the public were invited to stroll around the elevated space from access points in the commercial and tourist centric district of Namdaemun. This was repeated with a further four-hour pedestrian-only opening on 10 May 2015. In October 2014, an international design competition was held and construction will begin in 2015. It will preserve the original form but will largely be a reconstruction, introducing new content by replacing plates and repairing other weakened components in the name of safety.

Seoul's Overpass Park was announced in the Korean press on 1 September 2014. At Mayor Park Won-soon's suggestion, the 17-metre-high overpass will be closed to motorized vehicles and renovated as a park for pedestrians at an expected cost of US$37.5 million to be funded by the SMG (Jung 2014). Seoul was said to have been inspired by the High Line, the world famous urban-renewal project in New York's Lower West Side. A boon for tourism as well as real-estate values in the area, the one-mile-long linear park was opened in 2009 on a disused elevated rail line, itself modelled after the Promenade Plante??e in Paris. While in New York for the UN Climate Summit on the 23 September 2014 the mayor announced the Seoul Overpass Park project to the world. Inspiration may very well have come from New York but the drivers, motivation and opportunity for this and similar projects arose from the legacy of decay in the infrastructure of a city rapidly built to climb onto the world stage and which now needs to maintain that elevated posi- tion through reducing maintenance overheads, generating income from tourism and the ongoing support of the city's voters who require perceived improvement in the quality of their urban lives.