Questions on the Typology of Park Architecture: Architecture as the Backdrop for Poplar Trees
Architecture as the Backdrop for Poplar Trees
Yeonui Ecological Park is a small detention basin park surrounded by apartment complexes. A detention basin is an eco-friendly urban planning facility designed to temporarily collect rainwater, preventing flooding in nearby areas. The water level fluctuates with time and seasons, creating a beautiful ecological environment. Within the park, decked pathways serve as daily walking trails for residents and educational spaces for observing wetland insects and vegetation. At the southern end of the park, the site designated for the ecological learning center was home to five large poplar trees. To preserve these existing trees, the building was designed to remain unobtrusive, maintaining the park's scenic beauty.
Typology of Park Architecture
Conventional buildings prioritize clear boundaries between interior and exterior spaces to enhance usability and comfort. However, given that this ecological learning center is situated within a park, it was essential for the architecture to harmonize with nature, encouraging observation, reflection, and learning. Therefore, the design focused on creating exterior spaces that engage directly with the park rather than solely emphasizing interior areas.
Instead of adopting an exclusive stance to maximize interior space, the building's circulation was arranged to allow the park's experiences and spaces to flow naturally into the interior. The three-story structure (ground floor, second floor, and rooftop) features external circulation paths that transform into walkways, learning spaces, and rooftop gardens, offering various vantage points to view the park. The aim was for visiting children to engage with the vibrant life of the park rather than static educational materials within the building. By increasing contact points with the park and blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior spaces, the design effectively embodies the program of a learning center within a park.
Yeonui Ecological Park, being a converted detention basin, is approximately seven meters lower than the main access road to the south. During heavy summer rains, much of the park is designed to flood, necessitating careful planning for the building's lower levels. To prevent the structure from appearing as a mere exposed civil engineering facility, the building was positioned to preserve the existing poplar trees. The vision was for the building to serve as a backdrop where citizens could gather around the poplars for various events and relaxation.
Rooms Placed on a Platform
The floor plan is organized around the concept of rooms scattered atop a platform. Considering the park's elevation differences, the linear landscape of the adjacent park, and the prominent poplar trees at the building's front, the design began with the idea of a broad, elevated platform. From this platform, visitors can leisurely observe the surrounding scenery, embodying the experience that park architecture should provide. Functional spaces are distributed as rooms atop this platform, allowing visitors' lines of sight and movement to flow naturally between them.
Internalized Park
The primary architectural form emphasizes pathways between rooms to extend the experience of walking through the park. To ensure the continuity of the park experience, it was crucial to incorporate natural elements within the facility. On the second floor, a greenhouse serves as an internalized park, housing a wetland ecology experience room. The greenhouse's design prioritizes pathways connected to the exterior, with the remaining space utilized for planting. Additionally, the greenhouse is visible from the rooftop, encouraging a three-dimensional circulation experience.
Simple Materials, Diverse Experiences
While concrete and glass are often seen as industrial materials, their simplicity can enrich the experience when harmonized with the vibrant, seasonal changes of nature. To avoid the typical application of bright colors and exaggerated decorations often used in children's facilities, the design employed embossed concrete formwork to add soft and engaging facade elements. Transparent glass windows, glass railings, and see-through metal railings were selectively used to bring the park's green hues into the interior.
The building's overall proportions are defined by horizontal railings and openings above them. Vertical elements such as concrete patterns, window frames, and round bar railings create a contrasting tension. A 600mm modular grid was applied to arrange floor patterns, column spacing, and lighting. To break the monotony of the rectangular building shape and square grid, semi-circular observation decks were incorporated on the first and second floors. To emphasize the expansive experience through views, slender columns were necessary. Instead of heavy reinforced concrete columns, 250mm diameter steel round columns support the concrete slabs, forming a hybrid structural system. The distinctive learning space represented by the greenhouse is constructed with steel frames and placed atop the roof in a pyramid shape. This approach utilizes geometric motifs—square, triangle, and circle—to create engaging architectural elements for children.
Multilayered Landscape
The layered platforms, utilizing the elevation differences with the park, offer unique perspectives. Viewing the park from the detention basin level, the ground-level entrance, the second-floor greenhouse, and the rooftop provides entirely different landscapes, overlapping with the poplar trees at the front of the ecological learning center.
The greenhouse and rooftop gardens serve as internalized extensions of the park. These landscaped areas are designed not merely as objects to be viewed but as interactive spaces for experience and participation. The landscape design firm, Livescape, incorporated elements that allow visitors to engage and interact with nature within these spaces.
