• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.2 s.115
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• pp.57-71
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to find common characteristics in everyday landscape cognition that the residents share and to restore the resulting characteristics through citizen-participatory town design. Through the residents participatory workshop supported by the Gwangju Buk-gu District Autonomy and Citizen Academy of Gwangju YMCA, 304 people from eight administrative districts participated in three programs. In each program, photographed landscape images representing everyday conditions of the townscape were presented in several ways: in program 1, the residents' mental map was studied; in program 2, landscape images of real places were matched to locations on a map; and in program 3, the landscapes were scored on a scale from 1 to 5 according to five descriptive categories. The elements that were recognized as common landscape features were public facilities, pedestrian spaces, school areas, and parks and natural green spaces. Additional results including recognition of the participants affection for the village and a common landscape image shared by the people, as inhabitants looked around at the space of their own lives. It seems possible that more creative townscapes can be created by residents through participatory programs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.78-89
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• 2003

This paper presents a community participatory small-park design. It proposes that environmental planning and design can be understood as a communicative action that aims to achieve consensus among stakeholders through communication with the local residents. By studying the communicative action theory and communicative planning theory, three strategies were set for practicing small-park design as a communicative action: (1) stakeholders should how what data and actions are needed; (2) citizens should have access to the data and participate in the process; (3) the community's concerns should be consulted and their opinions heard. In applying the three strategies to the small-Park design, a council composed of experts, community members, and NGO's was established. All processes were then executed after careful deliberation. From interviews, the town-touring program and surveys, the design of the site was determined among the stakeholders. The site was subsequently designed based on the needs of the community and revised according to their suggestions. Finally, the small park was constructed. Even though the researchers experienced many limitations because the site is very small, the significance of this study can be outlined as follows: (1) the need to construct the park was suggested by the community rather than by the administration; (2) experts, members of the community, and NGO's constituted the council; (3) the design process involved deliberation among the members of council rather than a method previously established by experts; (4) the administration supported rather than led the entire process: (5) citizens discussed and reached a consensus by themselves.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture International Edition
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• no.1
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• pp.102-110
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• 2001

A townscape has both aspects of seeing and living. However, the main streams of townscape making have been mostly focused on the former perspective so far. Such trends are apt to lack the realities of urban living. In this view, a prerequisite to complement the existing formalistic view with this realistic one is needed in order to accomplish the holistic characteristics of a townscape. Many city governments of Korea are currently trying to improve the quality of living quarters by providing diverse kinds of open spaces such as vest-pocket parks, pedestrian-friendly streets, and supporting the residents participatory village making. In this context, this paper will review the possibilities of the realistic approaches in townscape making by examining some current cases being tried in Korea cities. In conclusion some main issues to be solved in future can be listed as the conflict between general citizen′s view and the residents′ view", the conflict between social aspects and aesthetical aspects" and the conflict between the tradition and the vernacular reality in design".

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.34 no.6 s.119
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• pp.54-65
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• 2007

There is little research on the exterior spaces or gardens of single detached urban dwellings in Korea because apartments are the general housing type of most inhabitants. However there is an increasing demand for idyllic houses in the urban fringe and for environmentally friendly dwellings or healthy houses that is represented in urban residents gardening activities. The purpose of this research is to analyze residents' preferences and problems in gardening and management of single detached urban dwellings, and to evaluate the possibility of gardens as biotopes. It also addresses the issue of providing public amenities in the urban landscape. One hundred thirty-six dwellings were selected in residential areas of the city of Gwangju. The layout and plant composition, residents' evaluation and understanding of their own gardens, and maintenance and management were investigated. The results indicated that residents associate gardening with mental health and recognized a lack of space as one environmental restriction. Watering was seen as a primary difficulty for maintaining gardens. This research suggests that providing space for gardening could be a tool for participatory community making. When considering the important aspects of gardening, residents responded that gardens offer naturalness, scenic beauty, and practicality and also felt that gardens provide a buffer from environmental pollution and relief from mental duress. Results from the factor analysis using 15 semantic differential variables showed that 'spatial openness', 'natural variety' and 'familiarity' were representative factors. Although a garden is mainly considered as a space for the appreciation of nature with plant material, our results suggest that meaning and environmental symbolism are important elements.