Design of Hyochang Park as a Holy Grounds

효창공원성역화 설계

In 1997, Yongsan-gu Office of Seoul held a design competition for 'Hyochang Park as a holy Grounds'. Although various shrines and monuments were located in it, Hyochang Park had lost its sense of pace as a 'holy grounds' mostly by its neighborhood-park-like atmosphere at its entrance area. Specific requirement for this competition was designing a 'symbolic object' to make this park more 'holy grounds' looking. However, it was very regretable that Yongsan-gu Office did emphasized on the 'object' rather than on the space or place in this design competition. Three points were emphasized in the winning scheme proposed by the author: where the object be located in the park, how the object be connected with the rest of the park, and how the object harmonized with some of traditional looking architectures and shrines. The purpose of this paper is to articulate the concept of the winning entry in detail and to describe how the concept actualized in reality.