Design history: Constructing a Korean identity in New Gwanghwamun Square

Abstract

This study explores and critically discusses Korean “design history,” in terms of landscape designers' design strategies for constructing national identity using site history and memory. The achievements and limitations of the New Gwanghwamun Square (NGS) Project during 2016–2022 are scrutinized in this context. First, through a pilot case study, it examines the Seoul-specific socio-political contexts and categorizes the main approaches of design history, including imitation, materiality, form generation, and the function and principle of Korean tradition. Several strategies are observed in the main case of the NGS Project, such as the winning proposal of the NGS competition achieved to create a novel Korean identity through the restoration of a Korea-specific landscape, the reinterpretation of the structure and function of traditional Korean landscaping, form generation, and material exploration. The design history of the NGS Project included modifications during the post-design process for construction due to the opinions of different stakeholders, excavation and inspection of buried cultural heritage, and the election of a new Mayor of Seoul; thus, the initial design strategies were eventually not implemented. Instead, the constructed NGS renders the site's history as a static spectacle and does not embody the physical landscape design, thereby limiting visitors' experience to passive textual learning. Moreover, the picturesque visuals that represented the traditional Korean landscape in the proposal failed to be constructed and exclusively decorated long-existing statues with landscape elements, resulting in a Western-style indistinctive square. The present study can afford a case study for East Asian and international landscape and urban designers and administrators to construct their national and regional identities in open spaces.