LANDSCAPE, Nature in Cities 

Landscaping is a way to invite nature into architecture and cities. Amid fast evolutions of technologies, cities, and architecture, nature must also be incorporated in artificial ways. The atrium and public gardens of Brickwell, a project in Tongui-dong (architecture by SoA, landscape design by studio loci, 2020), was planned to include a lacebark pine tree site nearby. What does nature mean for residents, architects, and landscape designers in contemporary architecture scene? How does it function? In what form does it exist? What possibilities can we explore to expand nature? 

Lacebark Pine Tree Site and the Alleys 

The lacebark pine tree site, adjacent to the west side of 35- 17, Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, was where a beautiful, magnificent pine tree stood. Once known as the biggest among its kind in Korea, the tree had been designated as a natural monument until it died in 1991. What’s left of the past are its stump and a few more lacebark trees that were planted afterwards. Three stumps of two-year-old lacebark pine trees stand next to the old stump to bring a serendipitous pleasure for those who walk along the narrow alleys, maximizing the walking experience unique to the Seochon district. 

Brickwell stretches over the site of 35-17, Tongui-dong, and wholly embraces the old resting area which has witnessed the history of city’s construction for nearly 200 years. Attached to the tree site, a garden was created to naturally connect the alleys, and the garden joins a courtyard layered over a pond in the center of the rounded building. 

Shared Landscape, INFORMAL GARDEN COLLECTIVE

The Tongui-dong lacebark pine tree site suggests an interesting vision of what a shared landscape can be. During the construction of Brickwell, a resident was about to file a furious civil complaint about the construction when outdoor units of air-conditioner were being installed. But after finding out that there was going to be a garden, the resident changed the attitude and brought energy drinks for construction workers. The urban community of various walks of life—architects, landscape designers, residents—voluntarily joined in a collective effort to protect the lacebark pine tree from their respective positions. Architects designed an atrium, landscape designers planned a shared garden, and residents handed over energy drinks instead of filing a complaint. 

The garden collective pays a close attention to shared landscapes in city architecture scene. Shared offices, kitchens, and spaces ensure people’s access to essential functions of daily lives in highly dense urban surroundings. With shared landscapes, people regain the right to own a piece of nature, neglected amid the city’s development that counter nature, and encourage them to face the ecoclimatic environment crisis. 

Protected Tree in Low-Rise Residential Area, INFORMAL GARDEN COLLECTIVE

In urban environment, scale is one of the important elements that decide the feasibility of execution and people’s usability. Due to its nature of creating intangible values, shared landscapes must find a way to naturally blend into preexisting environment without having to cost heavily. Its sustainability achieved through autonomous management directly connects to the public benefit provided for the community. In a modern city crying for ‘more, faster, and higher,’ Tongui-dong project Brickwell has identified the elements of shared landscapes as below: 

• Subject that entices the sense of community (protected tree) 
• Low-rise residential area that create semi-anonymity among neighborhood 
• Enclosures and semi-proprietorship created from the alleys 

The garden collective taps into the niche possibility for a shared landscape. With protected trees in low-rise areas, which have little access to gardens unlike the newly rising mass-scale residential complexes, the collective explores ways to address ecoclimatic environment crisis. Various members of the city, from general citizens and local residents to architects and landscape designers, understand the crisis and imagine of a virtual collective to create a shared landscape. What kind of shared landscape would people want to nurture together? In this era where everything is born and grown by human, how can people meet nature in cities that hardly share any piece of real nature?

Nature Invited into Daily Lives, Wearable Tree 

People form a collective, or a community, by sharing and bonding around a common subject. In a nation, ethnic group, or religion, where individual benefits and needs are fulfilled and people are grouped by their rights and beliefs, “tangible elements” become the anchor for invigorating individuals and sustaining the sense of community. Those tangible elements have penetrated deeply into people’s lives in forms of identification cards, school uniforms, and rosaries. 

In case of the garden collective, that tangible element comes in the form of a protected tree, enhancing and maintaining the sense of community. As demonstrated by the Tongui-dong project, protected trees have long been recognized in the society as a subject for protection. It is a desirable case, a clear evidence of enhanced public consciousness, but how do we change the awareness of those who are yet to recognize the importance? What if nature— the protected trees—is recognized as a subject of their needs and desire rather than of obligation or duty? Once nature becomes an essential element for them, something they want to protect and “own,” perhaps they might actively join the effort to tackle the climatic crisis with heightened awareness. 

Owning means to invite the subject into one’s daily realm. But protected trees are firmly rooted in earth. We cannot keep it in a wallet like identification cards or hold in the hand like rosaries. One of the solutions to invite nature into people’s daily lives and make it a purchasable and ownable item is to offer a piece of nature as a wearable item for virtual market dominating the modern city. 

A Collaboration Between Nature and Daily Life, W.A.T.

Artificial goods stand farthest from nature, and closest to cities. When artificial goods become a medium connecting nature and city, the members of the city will naturally want more shared landscapes and create a spontaneous garden collective.

In complementing the difficulties of access and ownership around protected trees, online markets suggest the easiest and most friendly way to obtain information and analyze trends for people to respectively establish a social and cultural stance. Purchasing of tangible goods extends to offline territories and consequently entice various responses and participations to deal with ecoclimatic crisis.

In commoditizing the protected tree, collaboration with fashion brands—physically closest to people—allows nature to penetrate the urban daily environment, down to its very core. Buyers automatically join the lines of environment protectors, while on- and offline marketing works as a way to change, expand, and inform of the civic awareness toward climatic crisis. 

Virtual online market WearAbleTree (W.A.T.) sells a piece of protected trees to modern urbanites. Buyers purchase the goods and wear it daily, forming a garden collective that share the same protected tree. Raw materials come from the officially designated protected trees across the city of Seoul, and there are a total of 200. Among them, protected trees in 14 locations—in the alleys of low- rise residential areas where it’s easier to share the subject offline—are selected to collaborate with fashion products and commoditize the protected trees. Each product will be named according to features of each location, and coordinates will be their model names. The prices will be decided by their ages.