Imun Botanical Garden City-Metro Station at the Edge of Seoul

Imun area had been coal depot which was the main sources of energy in 1960s. As the coal industry had closed with energy changes, this area has become the expanse railway vehicle base. After this, this area was left as a no man’s land as urban edge. For this social problem, this project suggests a new type subway station as a socio-cultural garden platform.

So this project is aim to reinterpret new program for this site base on repressed history and relationship to local area and derive architectural intervention to make continuity and relationship between this area and urban area. The process is as follows. 1. site After 1950s, Imun-area had been constructed as mountain-education-history- residential areas-infrastructure facilities. Specially, Imun railway vehicle base that was a riverside in the past became the edge as railway was built. Since then, expansive briquette depot and factories have been built and converted to railway vehicle bases, serving as modern energy repository. However, the covered concrete terrain and the boundaries caused by the railroad repress the history. Namely, its functional identity and thoughtless form make a void of which placeness disconnected and disappearing.\n2. concept The concrete terrain are intentionally "ruined" by the sectional transformation. Through this, the local area patterns are extended to the site and physical dismantling is been, and programs are rearranged. The ground surface is transformed into an open land with a pattern change similar to the local, thereby alleviating the border condition by creating horizontal connectivity with the local. In addition, the upper and lower modified sectional spaces constitute a program to accommodate the social and cultural demands of the local. And make a circulation connecting each area so that the entire site can be linked with each other.\n4. program As a result of the above definition and analysis, the site transforms into a metro-station park with a mix of railway station and urban parks. This is a new type infrastructure built on the ground that makes the community an open platform. On the other hand, the program - energy research institute, rare botanical garden, coal museum, etc. - which is derived from the memory of the site, which was a riverside-coal depot- railway car base, was constructed at the upper and lower parts of the ground. It constitutes a dialectical image of the site's memory and experiences a new perception of site and local community.