Seoul Biennale exhibition 2023

A Mirror: Bridging the past, present and future

The mirroring bridge, which will follow the previous site of the Nodeul Island, will give back to nature, and pay its due tribute to the past that shaped the present of the Nodeul island through the integration of human activities and a nurtured ecology. In 100 years, when the world will spin at a much faster pace via technological corridors, artificial intelligence will be our best friend and socialization will only take place virtually. This bridge will provide a break from contemporaries. In the future, this bridge will be the difference, and provide real interaction between souls and nature. Time will slow down here, and technology will only remain in the background. A bridge will no longer be a passage to the other side, but be a passage to a contrary feeling for its visitors.

A Tribute to the history of the Hangang bridge:

The Hangang Bridge has a strong root in Seoul’s history as it played a significant role in the Korean War. The South Korean army bombed the Hangang Bridge to slow down the invading force where nearly 500 to 1000 people died. The new Hangang bridge will be severed in the middle to represent that historical occurrence. The newly severed Hangang bridge remnant will be adapted into a pedestrian bridge that will serve as a cultural hub and house the existing and future festivals and events of the art Island Nodeulseom.

Mirroring the Nodeul Island to portray nature:

In an attempt to give back to nature that has been interrupted by heavy construction for 100 years, the Nodeul island, which was constructed in the center of Han River to support the existing bridge, merely structurally, would be dispersed into smaller marshlands to provide a natural habitat for the already existing diverse bio-organisms. A floating inflated bridge would pass these marshes, where people can have an immersive experience of nature without interrupting it. Visitors will walk through one of the two laterally joined aisles of the bridge and enter the inflated tunnel to experience nature. Both the north and south part of the bridge would provide this facility. These floating inflated tunnels will the anchored at the river banks.

The Skywalk: Platform of leisure

The second aisle of the bridge would connect the north and south ends of the severed bridge with an elliptical lightweight skywalk from which people can enjoy the harmony between nature and the built environment from an elevated level. The existing traffic of water vehicles would pass through the space previously occupied by man-made Nodeul Island. The design was inspired by the ideas of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities’, where the city of Berenice echoes "Hidden Cities", in which two opposing feelings or ideas coexist within a city, and “Labyrinth Cities”, where the spiraled human culture that runs as a suture between archaic and futuristic, history and fantastical and symbolism and utopia. Two Elliptical formations, one natural and one artificial coexist to bridge the two epochs of the history of Korea.

The skywalk bridge above the layer of marshland will be held in place by a tensile rods, pulling in the x and y directions, pivoted by two strengthened V columns at the two ends of the severed Hangang bridge. Structural elements are placed at the edges of the existing bridge near the banks. By placing these elements away from the marshland, the bridge will stand without penetrating and disrupting nature.