Namdo History Museum
| Location: | Namdo, South Korea |
|---|---|
| Status: | Competition Finalist |
| Date: | 2022 | With: | HLD Landscape, SAC |
The Namdo Righteous Army History Museum will commemorate the civilian militias who, throughout Korean history, volunteered to stand up to protect their land when it was under threat. They were the grassroots of Korean society, ordinary working class people including peasants, butchers and other labourers.
The museum is to be located on a heavily damaged hill, the site of a soon to be decommissioned historical recreation complex used for movies and TV shows. With our project, we ask: how can we memorialize the Righteous Armies while learning from their history to address contemporary challenges which are now largely social and ecological? What does it mean to protect the land and stand up for justice? How can an integrated landscape and architecture project both practice and memorialize the fundamental ethos of the Righteous Armies?
Site design matrix
Embody the Spirit of the Righteous Army
In order to embody the spirit of the Jeollanam-do Righteous Armies, the museum park must reflect the unique, historical nature of ordinary people taking up arms to protect their country. It must combine the diverse layers that made up the lives of Righteous Army members, and symbolically embody the transformative nature of their historic actions.
The project combines three layers of life on one site: the fighting life of the Jeollanam-do Righteous Armies, the everyday life of Jeollanam-do peasants, butchers, soldiers, and scholars who became Righteous Army soldiers, and the lives of diverse contemporary visitors to the site who will come here to learn, think, and rest. These three layers haveunique purposes, landscapes, temporalities, and design languages.
Fighting Life
The purpose of the fighting life is to stand up to invaders. Its landscapes are mountain encampments, hideouts, and battlefields. Its time-scale is centuries of history. It is embodied in the design language of rugged rock-like figures jutting out of the mountain terrain, as if the hills of Jeollanam-do are themselves rebelling against invaders.
Ordinary Life
The purpose of ordinary life is to take care of the land and its people. Its landscapes are villages, farms, and orchards. Its time-scale is that of the seasons. It is embodied in the intervention of ecological restoration, soil stabilization, reforestation, and re-introduction of productive landscapes on an ecologically damaged site.
Life of a Visitor
The purpose of contemporary visitors is to learn, reflect, and take a break from their daily routine. Their landscape is a memorial park. Their time-scale is that of a short visit. The design intervention for them is the accessible paths through the site, as well as visitor facilities and parking.
The design evolves through following steps:
First, the terrain is restored to a stable and healthy condition and the existing ecosystem is strengthened. Tending to the wellbeing of the land and all of its multispecies inhabitants is itself an act of land protection. This recreates two zones which were historically on the site: the forest and the fields.
Second, the landscape is differentiated into several zones: arrival zone by the Sa-am Reservoir; wetlands; fields growing crops for crafts; village; agricultural area; and finally the museum in the forest. Each landscape is guarded by rugged masonry monuments that memorialize the members of the Righteous Armies.
Third, these zones are inhabited with life. This requires their subdivision into plots, and addition of necessary infrastructure to support the activities of each. The life of the site should reflect the diversity of the ordinary lives of the Righteous Army members.
Finally, a series of pathways for visitors is added, with a main, accessible pathway that meanders through all zones. The museum park commemorating the Righteous Armies should be accessible to everyone.
Slope Restoration
The construction of Naju Image Theme Park has damaged the landscape of the site, creating erosion risks, cutting back its forests, and erasing its historic agricultural fields. The memorial park of Jeollanam-do Righteous Army Museum must have regenerative properties, creating landscapes and buildings that become integral and beneficial parts of the local ecosystems and the local cultural identity.
The project recreates gentle slopes in strategic portions of the site through an on-site cut and fill process, and creates terraces that support slope stability necessary for ecological revitalization. These interventions protect the hill and help manage water runoffs to reduce erosion.
Forest Rehabilitation
The forest around the Naju Theme Park ends at an abrupt edge. This limits the wildlife movement across the site, reducing its value as a habitat. Revitalizing the ecology of the site requires restoration of a healthy forest edge.
The project expands the forest into the site. It creates a healthy forest edge by gradually transitioning from an evergreen pine forest, to deciduous tree species, and finally lower shrubs. The length of the forest edge is significantly increased by extending "fingers" of forest into the site. The length of the transition zone, and its gradual nature maximizes habitat range and ecological complexity of the site.
Inviting Local Communities
Righteous Armies came from diverse backgrounds. They were farmers, soldiers,butchers, craftsmen, and scholars. Inviting local communities to inhabit the park embodies the spirit of the Righteous Armies in two ways: by recreating through the diversity of users of the site the diverse membership of Righteous Armies, and by fostering a connection to the local community much like the Righteous Armies experienced.
In addition to the Museum program, the park creates zones dedicated for crafts, food production, research, and art. By diversifying its stakeholder base, the park will be used beyond Museum hours, and will become an integral part of the local community.
Slope restoration, forest rehabilitation and inviting local communities
Morning cotton harvest in the fields. Visitors are immersed in an ancestral, productive landscape, allowing them to consider the Righteous Armies in the context of everyday life. Rice, indigo, cotton, and hemp fields can be rented out by local farmers. Productive life is brought back to the site.
In Times of Peace: A Fall Day in the Village. The site houses an artist residency for people in different fields. Craftsmen, using traditional materials grown on site, as well as artists and scholars can stay at the local hostel and make use of the flexible village square, which serves as a space for performance and gatherings, as well as for seasonal agricultural events like drying of persimmons and processing of plum fruit.
Reaching the summit, visitors arrive at the museum as one would have reached a righteous army encampment in the forest, and on the mountain. Overlooking the Yeongsan river, the monuments come into clear view, each with a relationship to its surrounding landscape.
This exhibition space tells the story of the 1592-1598 lmjin War. The space is only open on one side, where a long clerestory window provides a view into the under canopy of the forest above. The exhibition is a continuation of the forest into the museum. There are as many soldiers as trees in the forest, many anonymous, but each with a story to tell. Personas are recreated through artifacts. Stories are told in clearings within the exhibition space.
Overlooking the Joellanam-do landscape, the story of local Righteous Armies can be told within their regional context.
