INTERNATIONAL
challenge was to actually explore and find
that other side and that hidden gem which
allows you to really satisfy the brief. It is
obvious that horse racing is an exciting
thing but it is very prone to the argument
that the horses are being treated like
machines and then discarded following
that.
What we were trying to convey is
that they are not cars you can take to a
scrapheap but living creatures. That gives
the opportunity for visitors to craft that
relationship and connection with the
horses, and comes with a certain degree of
responsibly as well for people to take care
of the horses after their racing career ends.
I believe our design encourages that.
I noticed that there were cable cars
in the design to transport people
- how else did you consider public
transportation in your design?
Essentially this was supposed to be
another dynamic component, the main
way you can move through the site is by
horseback - that is why we created such
scenic routes weaving throughout the
entire landscape, but also the introduction
of these cable cars allows visitors to return
back to the grandstand. This returns
us to the control centre element that
binds the site as all the cable cars come
from different parts of the site but come
together at the top of the mountain. It
presents this idea of connectivity and unity
between the site which is also another
element of horsemanship.
How big was the team for your
design?
It was the entire studio at the time which
was around five people - I would like to
add we have grown since. The team’s
input came from many different aspects;
research, consultations, we had weekly
workshops to review our work and to
review the progress. The team did a lot of
sketches and diagrams as once we came up
with our idea with the theme of duality we
wanted to map it clearly onto the site so it
was a lot of technical work from the team.
Did you take the climate conditions
of the area into consideration in your
design?
Yes, we looked into the climate of South
Korea which is only slightly different
to that of the climate of the United
Kingdom, this meant that we were quite
comfortable when proposing a planting
YEONGCHEON HORSE PARK
palette. There were beautiful pine forests
surrounding the site so there was quite a
lot of precedence for us to draw inspiration
from.
So were its surroundings influential
in terms of how you decided the type
of plants you were going to use?
Yes to some extent we have filtered some
of that pine forest into the landscape but
we obviously wanted to make it special
and to feel like a prominent feature. We
allowed for some more deciduous trees
and different types of grasses in the
middle area of the park as it adds a lot
of dynamism and excitement when you
see the grass move in the wind amongst
the horses. With the number of horses
it was just reasonable to introduce such
a wide variety as well. We also tried to
vary the planting throughout the site,
we introduced a specific area in order to
create a feature landscape that you could
explore on horseback.
So how was your design received?
We received a honourable mention, which
for our practice which is quite small was a
very good result considering the number of
applicants in the competition.
April 2018 | Landscape Insight
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