"Even Small Plots..." Seoul Districts Ignite Competition for Garden Cities

Yeongdeungpo-gu Declares 'Garden City Yeongdeungpo'
Seongdong-gu Creates '5-Minute Daily Garden City Seongdong'
Jongno-gu Adds Gardens to Roadside and Park Green Spaces
Songpa-gu Develops 'Walkable Garden' on Songpa-daero

The charming garden of 'Stream of Seoul' in front of Jongno Tower, Jongno-gu. Provided by Jongno-gu.

Responding to Mayor Oh Se-hoon's policy to transform Seoul into a vast garden city, Seoul's autonomous districts are competing to create garden cities.

They are increasing projects to create gardens on idle land within the city and to cultivate gardens in spaces that have been underutilized, such as along streets. Ideas to secure green spaces are pouring in, including modifying existing development projects to add gardens and creating shared gardens using publicly accessible spaces.

Yeongdeungpo District recently declared ‘Garden City Yeongdeungpo’ with the district mayor personally leading the initiative, actively hosting a garden festival at Yeongdeungpo Park until the 26th. The district plans to create oasis-like spaces not only in parks but also along streets, alleys, riversides, and small leftover plots throughout the neighborhood.

Choi Ho-kwon, the mayor of Yeongdeungpo District, said, “Yeongdeungpo is the only district among Seoul’s 25 autonomous districts without a mountain, but we have focused on securing park green spaces, increasing the per capita park green area from 9.5㎡ in 2022 to 10.2㎡ as of this year,” adding, “We will continue to pursue four major strategies to create Garden City Yeongdeungpo.”

The four major strategies proposed by Yeongdeungpo District are street garden projects such as the National Assembly Boulevard park project, life-close gardens like alley gardens, waterfront ecological gardens such as those along the Anyangcheon Stream, and the spread of garden leisure culture. Earlier this month, they opened the 5,950㎡ (1,800 pyeong) Mullae-dong Flower Garden, and remodeling of Mullae Neighborhood Park and the opening of the Water Garden in Yeouido Ankara Park are also upcoming. Seoul City is sparing no budget, providing 2.3 billion KRW to support the creation of the Mullae-dong Flower Garden.

Yeongdeungpo-gu opened the Mullae-dong Flower Garden, covering an area of 5,950㎡ (1,800 pyeong), on the 8th of this month. Provided by Yeongdeungpo-gu.

Seongdong District created an 80m section of a publicly accessible space in front of the Hyundai Terra Tower, a knowledge industry center in Seongsu-dong, into a shared garden rest area last month. The shared garden, named ‘The Forest Terrace,’ was promoted as a ‘public-private cooperation project for creating shared gardens in publicly accessible spaces’ in collaboration with the knowledge industry center management.

Publicly accessible spaces are areas where private building owners receive benefits such as floor area ratio incentives in exchange for providing part of their land for public use by citizens. As of the first quarter of this year, there are 95 publicly accessible spaces in Seongdong District, with 76 of them concentrated in Seongsu-dong, where new buildings are actively being constructed.

Seongdong District is aiming to create ‘5-Minute Daily Garden City Seongdong’ (a city where gardens can be reached within a 5-minute walk) by securing green rest areas using publicly accessible spaces.

Jung Won-oh, mayor of Seongdong District, said, “If the public and private sectors cooperate to improve publicly accessible spaces into green areas, they will become enjoyable places where people gather and spots where people want to stop while walking.”

In Jongno District, where office buildings and cultural assets are densely located, gardens have recently been created along major roads and park green spaces. The area in front of Jongno Tower, which was planted with Metasequoia and boxwood, was transformed into an attractive garden called Stream of Seoul. Seoul City contributed 100 million KRW to this project as well.

‘Donghaeng Garden’ was created in the Samcheong Park Children’s Forest Experience Center, and ‘specialized gardens’ focusing on native Korean tree species were established along Hyoja-ro (the green belt along the western wall of Gyeongbokgung Palace) and Saemunan-ro (entrance to Gyeonghuigung Park). The purpose is to introduce gardens embodying Korea’s unique beauty to domestic and international tourists. Jongno District plans to create gardens in Daehak-ro, Jongno, and Wolam Park in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education within this year.

Songpa District plans to transform Songpa-daero, a 10-lane road, into a ‘walkable garden’. Among these, the 1.5km section from Seokchon Lake to Garak Market Intersection will be developed as the ‘Songpa Avenue’ project, widening pedestrian paths and planting cherry trees to create an urban resting space.

Shared garden in Seongdong-gu utilizing public notices. Provided by Seongdong-gu.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.