Architectural Restoration Projects in Metropolitan Areas: The Case of the Supyo Bridge

Abstract

In the last ten years, Asian metropolises have invested large amounts of money in urban renewal projects by encouraging large-scale environmental interventions that re-introduced nature to the cities and promoted a specific identity for the downtown areas. Among these projects, the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul is the most well-known case. The transformation of the river in twenty-nine months from an outdated highway into a multipurpose linear park deserves recognition as a pivotal project in modern urban design. The plan is an outstanding achievement that recovers the biological and social ecology of the city and demonstrates the keen ability of design at the urban scale to generate concrete transformation successfully over vast territories. As an example of a process of urban identity, the creation of this large-scale intervention evokes the historical legacy of the city and has been considered a step towards redeveloping the city's cultural heritage. The construction of a network of pedestrian pathways to connect the historic places and the restoration of the historic monuments are part of a cultural strategy characterized by a long debate of how to restore these areas. In particular, the restoration of two historic bridges Gwangtonggyo and Supyogyo was a highly controversial section of the plan as several interest groups voiced opinions on how to restore historical and cultural sites and their remnants and whether to replace the bridges or not. This article will examine the different restoration strategies designed for the Supyo Bridge ( Supyogyo) that has stood in the Jangchungdan Park since 1965 and, according to the main project, should be relocated in its original position.