urbanplot by Hosung Seo from korea
designer's own words:
The repeated horizontal expansion of cities around the world and the artificial ecosystem in the natural ecosystem have speeded up the destruction of ecosystem since the industrialization. As time passes by, many problems have been arising from the disconnection from the ecosystem and the degradation of urban quality. Roads which are the pillars of urban structure are the infrastructure with single purpose of mobility.
Cities have low efficiency in overall aspect as they are used for only single purpose though they occupy vast areas. Moreover, the thermal island of city or soil contamination are caused mainly by cities. Recent attempts to alleviate thermal island, such as water spraying or rooftop green gardens, are merely piecemeal alternatives.
No coexistence of ecosystem and city will be assured any more if the road-induced disconnection from ecosystem results in high barrier blocking the access to animal and plants. Ecosystem is also repeating the destruction and extinction. Cities are also plagued with the environmental and social problems. In the past, ecosystem and human were coexisting.
However, the accelerated development and destruction for more affluent life of human has led to the shift from the coexistence to unilateral destruction and use, breaking the link of coexistence with the nature. Plants and animals coexisted.
Flowers and honey bees coexisted and propagated. However, honey bees disappeared and both flowers and plants are on the verge of extinction as a consequence of the technology of human. Like that, human intervention in the coexistence of plants and animals accelerated the extinction of plants and animals, and human species will be extinct finally.
The presentation of this design is intended to raise the awareness of human toward the ecosystem that has been destroyed and extinct by human, and restore the ecosystem through the road system which mainly causes the destruction of ecosystem.
A small ecosystem is intended to be created by perforating a hole in the road and making cracks which symbolize the disconnection and inserting plants and microbes inside. That represents the envision of future city expanding to neighboring cities with small green tract of land and small animals and plants cohabiting.
As microbes and plants stuck in the wheel of car or sole of shoe move from one city to another, road will help restore the ecosystem.
Roads serve the function of making the urban environment clean, and play an intermediary role in transforming stuffy cities with thermal island into rich and eco-friendly scenes, cushioning the effect of environmental change. The traffic culture will pursue lowness if roads are become green lands. In the near future, the relationship between ecosystem and artificial ecosystem will change from the disconnection to the coexistence and from the destruction to the restoration as many people are gathered around the roads and new culture is created.
eco nest
eco messenser
eco road