Master Plan:

Towers|Golde designed the 275 acres of open space and canals that will define the quality of life in this new world-class ‘intelligent’ city, a new Free Economic Zone being constructed just a five mile bridge away from the second largest airport in the world.

A 120-acre central park links the city’s governmental, cultural and convention facilities. Its highly articulated forms are an abstracted distillation of the natural Korean landscape and represent its varied ecological systems and native flora from mountain ridge to seashore. The two perimeter parks, by contrast, are more pastoral and romantic.

The urban fabric is interwoven with a hierarchical system of canals and streetscapes which serve ecological as well as aesthetic and social purpose. The canals were conceived as an integral part of both storm and gray water infrastructure systems.

New Songdo City is a pilot project for the LEED for Neighborhood Development program.

First World Towers:

New Songdo City’s Residential Block 125 is a community for 7,000 residents in the new International Business District. The mixed-use program includes 1,600 residential units, 1,000 live/work spaces, retail, and community facilities. The guiding architectural intention was the re-evaluation of the modernist typologies of the tower, slab, and superblock within a specific cultural context, one which included the traditional Korean reverence for nature and the site planning precepts of feng shui.

Towers|Golde’s scope of work included site planning and landscape design of this 27 acre superblock, all of it a roof deck development over a below-grade parking garage. The design divided the block into four quadrants, each with distinctive qualities reflecting the symbols and materials that Koreans traditionally associate with one of the four seasons. The whole was unified by the use of water elements, a central pedestrian ‘canal’ zone culminating in a spillway projecting into the surrounding streetscape.

Central Park:

Songdo City is a new world class ‘intelligent’ city, a Free Economic zone constructed just a five mile bridge away from the second largest airport in the world. It is also a pilot project for the LEED Neighborhood Development program.

The centerpiece of the city’s network of canals and 275 acres of open space, all master planned by Towers|Golde, is its Central Park which links the city’s governmental, cultural and convention facilities. The park’s highly articulated forms are an abstracted distillation of the natural Korean landscape and represent its varied ecological systems and native flora from mountain ridge to seashore. Architectural elements also reference Korean cultural attitudes and uses of the landscape. The organizing feature of the park is a seawater canal with water taxis to ferry guests from the convention center at one end to the various museums and attractions sited throughout the park.

Towers|Golde led the design of the landscape through Advanced Preliminary Design before turning the project over to the architects and the local design-build contractors to complete implementation.