The Valley: A Journey
This project* explores the future of the Korean DMZ. It does not establish a resolution on reunification; it is neither a cause nor a consequence of it. Rather, it envisions a peaceful open border through the normalization of relationships between north and south. It is a counter-space to the highly mediatic, politicized and militarized Joint Security Area in Panmunjom.
Millions of years of crustal deformation and basin development have shaped the Korean landscape of rugged mountain chains and intervening valleys that run Northeast-Southwes. Geology defines the valley as an alternative region to the DMZ allowing focus to pivot away from the south/north established geopolitical divide and constructed imaginary. The valley establishes a new orientation, simultaneously connecting a series of seemingly fixed dualities: the north and the south, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea, the west and the east, the Yellow Sea and The East Sea, Seoul and Wonsan, the sunrise and the sunset.
Using the existing infrastructure of the railway, a one-day train journey is proposed from Seoul to Wonsan or Wonsan to Seoul and back. The route is habilitated for KTX – the high-speed rail system in Korea – allowing the 274 km. to be traversed in 1hr and 45 minutes. The speed of travel in the valley turns the experience of the landscape in a sequence through geographical space that provides an alternative reading of nature. 50 minutes away from Seoul and 55 minutes away from Wonsan you will arrive at a new stop in this route, right in the heart of the DMZ. An open platform built in stone, an opportunity for encounter and dialogue where the landscape is subject to rediscovery.
*Developed in the studio “Korea Remade: Alternative Nature, DMZ, and Hinterlands led by Niall Kirkwood, Yoonjin Park, and Jungyoon Kim at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
This project* explores the future of the Korean DMZ. It does not establish a resolution on reunification; it is neither a cause nor a consequence of it. Rather, it envisions a peaceful open border through the normalization of relationships between north and south. It is a counter-space to the highly mediatic, politicized and militarized Joint Security Area in Panmunjom.
Millions of years of crustal deformation and basin development have shaped the Korean landscape of rugged mountain chains and intervening valleys that run Northeast-Southwes. Geology defines the valley as an alternative region to the DMZ allowing focus to pivot away from the south/north established geopolitical divide and constructed imaginary. The valley establishes a new orientation, simultaneously connecting a series of seemingly fixed dualities: the north and the south, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea, the west and the east, the Yellow Sea and The East Sea, Seoul and Wonsan, the sunrise and the sunset.
Using the existing infrastructure of the railway, a one-day train journey is proposed from Seoul to Wonsan or Wonsan to Seoul and back. The route is habilitated for KTX – the high-speed rail system in Korea – allowing the 274 km. to be traversed in 1hr and 45 minutes. The speed of travel in the valley turns the experience of the landscape in a sequence through geographical space that provides an alternative reading of nature. 50 minutes away from Seoul and 55 minutes away from Wonsan you will arrive at a new stop in this route, right in the heart of the DMZ. An open platform built in stone, an opportunity for encounter and dialogue where the landscape is subject to rediscovery.
*Developed in the studio “Korea Remade: Alternative Nature, DMZ, and Hinterlands led by Niall Kirkwood, Yoonjin Park, and Jungyoon Kim at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
2018 | Design
![Joint Security Area in Panmunjom]()
![Proposed station at Cheorwon Valley, the limit between South and North Korea]()
![Train line and stations across the valley]()
![Mountain chains, South Korea]()
![The valley in cross-sections]()
![A journey-ready box contains the drawings for the project]()
![New stop in the route, proposed station]()
![Landscape paintings as seen from a high-speed train (Original paintings by Unbo Kim Ki-Chang, Sea Hyun Lee, Sonam Jeong Hwang, Lee Bang-un, and Jong-sang Lee)]()
![Plan of the valley connecting Seoul and Wonsan]()
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![Proposed new station]()
![Mountain materiality, South Korea]()
![A journey-ready box contains the drawings for the project]()
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![The valley study model]()
