MVRDV completed Skygarden Seoullo 7017 in Seoul

On Saturday 20 May 2017 MVRDV has opened officially the new public park in Seoul, Skygarden Seoullo 7017. The transformation of a 983 metres long motorway viaduct into a lush botanical garden with more than 200 local plant species has been greeted with joy and participation by the citizens.


MVRDV has completed the reconversion of an existing urban infrastructure into a new and shared green space in Seoul. The Dutch studio from Rotterdam were appointed in 2015 with the transformation of a 1970 motorway flyover not corresponding to the latest security standards in its very opposite: Skygarden Seoullo 7017 is a now real urban pedestrian park overpassing the streets of Seoul and connected by multiple stairs, lifts, bridges and escalators to the very centre of the city.
Similar to the transformation of a former elevated railway track, the High Line in New York into an urban park, MVRDV has been working together with the municipality, local NGO’s, landscape teams and city advisers to transform the existing overpass into a public garden, overlaying a matrix of Korean flora onto the 16m elevated steel and concrete structure, in the central district of Seoul. An important step in a bigger strategy followed by Won-Soon Park, mayor of Seoul, to foster the overall urban sustainability.
A transformation the citizens highly appreciate. Since Saturday 20 May they enjoy what once was one of the most classical non-places like defined by Marc Augé, converted by MVRDV from an infrastructure up to now inaccessible to pedestrians providing them a totally new perspective on their city. Besides the tree pots - Skygarden is a new habitat for over 24,000 plants (trees, shrubs and flowers) that are newly planted many of which will grow to their final heights in the next decade -  there are playgrounds for children, peep-holes in the floor to watch the traffic beneath the flyover, benches to sit down and a colourful illumination by night as Seoullo 7017 is open 24 hours.
Winy Maas, MVRDV co-founder, said in his introduction speech on Saturday, living the emotional moment when the citizens started to explore Seoullo 7017, “Skygarden offers a living dictionary of plants which are part of the natural heritage of South Korea.”
A walk on the 983 metres long pedestrianised viaduct Skygarden Seoullo 7017 by MVRDV becomes an occasion to delve deeper into the green soul of South Korea and it's a meaningful evidence that the transformation of congested urban centres can be done with great elegance and empathy without spending a fortune thanks to the conversion of existing infrastructures giving them a second life. 

Christiane Bürklein

Project: MVRDV
Location: Seoul, Corea del Sud
Year: 2017 Images: © Ossip van Duivenbode