GRAFTING SEOUL: COMPOSITE URBANISM AND THE HYBRID LANDSCAPE

Students in the Asian Architecture, Landscape, and Urbanism study abroad program participated in a joint workshop with students from Konkuk School of Architecture in Seoul, South Korea. Headed by USC professor Rebecca Choi and UCLA professor Eui Sung Yi, the 36-hour design workshop explored the possibility of scripting a democratic and sustainable narrative for Seoul through design. The workshop asked students to treat the infrastructure of bridges and highways as both a design and social opportunity. Using the paradox of estuaries—an ecological condition where new habitats not only develop but also thrive as a result of saltwater and freshwater colliding—as a conceptual framework; this workshop considered Donkjak Station and reconsidered the highly developed Seongsu Bridge and its complimentary highways as sites that are ripe and ready to grow as a Seoul-specific urban estuary.