South Korea’s capital is the next city to hop on the public linear park bandwagon. Rotterdam, Netherlands-based MVRDV won a design competition to repurpose an elevated highway known as the Seoul Station Overpass. The repurposed urban land, located next to Seoul’s Central Station, the city’s main train hub, will reduce the walk around the station from 25 minutes to just 11. Originally built in the 1970s, the Seoul Station Overpass was meant to provide vehicles a route to Namdaemun Market (the area’s largest traditional market​) to the East, crossing the station area to the the West.
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Due to the sheer scale of the existing overpass, this project aims to be more than a mere pedestrian pathway so ubiquitous in Asian cities. MVRDV’s designs intend to restructure the overpass into a green, plant-filled functional walkway which can also be used for leisure. Shops, cafes, and street markets will accompany the vegetation to render the Skygarden as a legitimate destination for locals and visitors alike. The developers’ completion date is set for 2017.
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