Park Ji-yoon, a student from the Department of Architecture, won the Grand Prize at the 42nd Korea Architecture Awards held on October 29th, hosted by the Korean Institute of Architects, with her work titled 'LOOP:TOPIA, Emptying City, Green Roof System'. 

The Korea Architecture Competition is a national architectural event to discover outstanding architects who will lead the future of architectural culture around the world. The 42nd competition, held in 2023, was themed 'Our Architecture and Cities in 2050, the Era of Hyper-Connected + Hyper-Convergence + Super-Intelligence'.

In the 1950s, there were only two megacities with populations exceeding 10 million people, New York and Tokyo. Over time, the number of megacities has increased, and Seoul joined the ranks of megacities in 1990. Today, approximately 18% of the world's population resides in megacities. Currently, 66% of global economic activity is centered around megacities, and it is estimated that by 2030, approximately 630 million of the world's population will live in about 40 megacities.

The unprecedented concentration of population and wealth growth in some urban areas is creating new challenges in terms of sustainable urban development and the built environment. Unlike current urbanization, which is characterized by urban sprawl, low productivity, fragmentation, and congestion, future cities are expected to be built with more efficient social infrastructure and transportation systems, fostering a more inclusive urban architectural environment.

These future cities will become hyper-connected, hyper-converged, and hyper-intelligent. In hyper-connected cities, with a seamless flow of information, logistics, and population between global megacities.  Cities that are hyper-converged with technology and industry will restructure existing elements to create new industries and opportunities.  In addition, cities will become hyper-intelligent, more efficient, and sustainable through machine learning using artificial intelligence and big data. 

The 42nd competition theme invites one to think about what our architecture and cities will look like in 2050. A total of 235 entries were received for the competition, with two grand prizes, three second class prizes, two third class special prizes and 23 honorable mentions.

The grand prize winning entry, LOOP:TOPIA, Emptying City, Green Roof System, by Park Jiyoon, is a design that utilises space that does not meet the needs of local urban centres.  The design incorporates wetlands and creates a self-sufficient urban ecosystem, aiming to make the entire nation into a sustainable commons space. We caught up with Park Jiyoon to learn more about the design and how it won the competition.  

'LOOP:TOPIA, Emptying City, Green Roof System’ 

What kind of work is LOOP:TOPIA, Emptying City, Green Roof System?

'LOOP:TOPIA, Emptying Cities, Green Roof System' is a new proposal for rural societies that have lost their value in the era of hyper-connectivity, hyper-convergence, and hyper-intelligence.  The Green Roof System is a future food system that strengthens the connection between rural and urban areas, producers and consumers.  It functions with the existing urban infrastructure by utilising idle spaces in declining regional cities and strengthening the connection with farmland for the sustainability of the Korean food system.

The future food system integrates six stages: production, processing, distribution, culture, dining, and healing into one food complex. The proposed site is four areas located between the Buyeo Intercity Bus Terminal and Jeongnimsaji Temple.  By utilizing unused buildings as green zones, river water and storm water is collected to pass through water purification wetland buildings twice, achieving over 90% purification for versatile use, with the remaining water supplied to aquaponics and production greenery.  The end result is a green zone in an empty building, where the production greenery and wetland building create and allow for an interaction between the production-processing-distribution, culture, dining, and healing phases.

These green roof systems can be replicated as clusters in other regions and will work in conjunction with each other in urban centers nationwide.  Additionally, by utilizing rivers that traverse through small to medium-sized cities nationwide, and by introducing wetlands into unused areas, it is expected to strengthen agriculture in local urban areas and transform the entire nation into a sustainable commons space.

The utilization of "urban centers in local areas" and "rivers” is impressive. What was the reason for utilizing these two as subjects?

While virtual data and technological advancements are limitless, the question of how to use real resources is left unexplored.  This situation is exacerbated by the unbalanced development of the city, and I believe is destroying the possibility of future development.

In a rapidly changing society, there are resources that remain unchanged, such as rivers that stretch across the nation like the blood vessels of the body.  These rivers are the most crucial elements and resources that have enabled the development of current urban centers.

In the era of hyper-intelligence, we can combine hidden resources within urban centers to form major hubs, and access these hidden resources nationwide regardless of location.

Currently, we are intensively using 1% of available water resources on 10% of the land, and recently, the value of water has surged by 35%.  This shows the importance of using rivers in urban centers and recycling water through wetland development. Wetlands hold about ten times the ecological value of rivers and lakes.  Establishing small-scale communities based on green roof systems through wetland development of vacant buildings can help alleviate water scarcity in the country.  I believe that by creating self-sufficient food complexes using rivers that run through small to medium-sized cities nationwide, the value of urban centers can be revitalized while also improving the food system.

Why did you choose a rural city in Gua-ri, Buyeo-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, rather than a metropolitan area?

There was a lot of deliberation in choosing the proposed area. Compared to Seoul or other metropolitan areas, local urban centers are often seen as places without any significant events.  Most people typically propose approaches to revitalize these areas, however rather than this, by accepting the characteristics of these local urban centers as they are, I thought about ways to utilize resources in these neglected cities to promote the development of metropolitan areas.

In that regard, the city of Buyeo is facing population decline and gradual disappearance, but I discovered it possesses production greenery spaces as its hinterland, and agriculture is a prominent industry in the city.  In addition, Buyeo is not only a tourist city with layers of history dating back to the Three Kingdoms period, but also the influence of primary industries there is increasing due to it’s leading agricultural brand 'Good Tterae' nationwide.  It is a city that requires efficient use of vacant spaces.  Therefore, I saw Buyeo as a suitable urban center to initiate a pilot green roof system, taking advantage of it's regionality, where both agriculture and tourism are intertwined.

The process of winning the competition

What inspired you to enter the competition?

Throughout the semester, I always did my best in regular design classes, but there was always a sense of personal dissatisfaction.  When I heard about the theme of the Architecture Competition, I wanted to develop the project that I was preparing for my graduation and complete a work that I was satisfied with.  I participated in this competition by supplementing and correcting the parts that I was disappointed with in my graduation project, and I am grateful for the unexpectedly good results.

I'm curious about the process from learning about the competition theme to designing your project.

The theme I first chose was "By 2050, are our cities and is our architecture effectively freeing up spaces that do not match demand?" My answer to this was 'not effectively.' The second question I thought was important in the hyper-connected world of 2050 was, "How can we use spaces efficiently and sustainably?" and I focused on those two questions.

Additionally, I thought about how in the hyper-connected era of 2050, the crucial question would be 'how can we use spaces efficiently and sustainably?' I focused and deliberated on these two questions.

We are in a time of great change and disruption. Advances in technology have created hyper-connected megacities, and the world is more interconnected than ever before. However, this connectivity has also created an imbalance between urban and rural areas, which is having a profound impact on rural societies. Rather than viewing the stagnation of rural cities as 'decline,' I accepted it as 'reduction,' and I pondered on how efficient utilization of idle urban infrastructure and vacant houses could meet the needs of cities, enabling small provincial towns to serve as hubs. and free up space that doesn't match any current demand.

Furthermore, I wanted to propose new ideas for rural communities that have lost their value in the age of hyper-connectivity, hyper-convergence, and hyper-intelligence. In 30 years, with advancements in technology, there will be no constraints of time and space, leading many people to gather in metropolitan areas.  Then, instead of leaving many resources in non-metropolitan areas idle, I came to the thought that through advanced technologies, effectively utilizing them could transform the entire Korean nation into a One-City-State.

I was concerned that the project might have deviated from the topic because it dealt with practical issues rather than being overly futuristic. However, I think it was precisely in addressing these practical aspects that helped me to come up with creative ideas.

Online Communications Reporter, Cho Kyeongeun