Jury Report and recommendations

• Overall observations
  • This ambitious ideas competition set a very important challenge, and a complex task.
    
    It seeks not only approaches and solutions to redeveloping the area around the KTX station, and the station itself - but also to help engender the revitalisation and very renaissance of the wider urban areas surrounding it. To be done well, these tasks require a sensitive and careful analysis of not only the physical environment, but also of the economic and social/cultural dynamics of the areas involved. But the competition also presents yet another challenge to the entrants: it is hoped that the visions presented will help stimulate community, stakeholder and investor interest and engagement.
    
    The rich field of Korean and overseas submissions was of a very high quality - and all entrants tried to live up to this enormous challenge. Given the ambitious brief and the nature of an ideas competition, it was to be expected that no entry, however excellent, has found a comprehensive solution and approach that is capable of being immediately implemented. Instead, we encountered a range of wonderful concepts, ideas and design signals across many of the submissions. The strength of these determined whether an entry was awarded a place among those who should receive a prize or honourable mention. Still, few, if any tackled detailed technical aspects successfully such as the integration of bus and rail transport functions.
    
    We recommend to begin basic programming, planning and design preparatory steps across physical, social, economic and environmental issues, to build a more careful map of strengths and weakneskses of present activities and conditions, as well as of historic circumstances. We also recommend to build a storehouse of perceptions and hopes of Daejon's citizens and community groups. We also recommend to carefully study and identify economic and social development opportunities, to help craft the special market environment presenting itself here - and, hence, the program of activities and spatial support settings that make sense.
    
    We also urge the prioritisation of major renewable energy and efficiency measures, to make this project one of the world's first energy independent city centres, responding to the combined global climate and energy crises, using solar, wind and bio-fuel sources, boosted by natural gas powered cogeneration systems - and to excel through best-practice in integrated water cycle management and design.
     

First Prize

• Strong aspects of the scheme
  • The scheme asks important programmatic questions of the kind useful to this project: 'What is the local identity of the site … ? Should all KTX Station areas aim for global business? What makes the City alive?' The general approach that follows presents a sound basis on which to build a formidable plan. It does not answer all of these questions - but, instead the submission presents an intelligent path toward answering them, illustrating several possible concepts that may result from this. This path should be followed, incorporating strong ideas from other schemes.
    
    Strengths of the physical plan: the scheme shows keen awareness of the various urban conditions of the site, and the attempt to respond to this diversity is positive. Also positive is the search for a new urban focal space - the ring form - but it should be better integrated into the surrounding street grid to properly work.
     
• Improvements to be made
  • Main spaces: The West Plaza deserves to be studied further, to correct the fundamental dysfunctions it presently is hampered by.
    
    Connectivity and integration: A better understanding of peripheral and internal opportunities to connect east and west should be developed. The 'floating bars' should be tested and developed as real connections for pedestrian and vehicle access. From this, stronger urban form signals will also flow.
    
    Some present urban linkages are missed, the position of the food market is not understood, and the existing street pattern should be retained where useful and appropriate.
    
    The ring: The 'ring' assumes that building open space above the railroad tracks is indeed feasible. Its present position places too much emphasis on the National Railroad Office towers.
    
    Urban and built form: this is the least developed aspect of the scheme. The parallel building rows, facing south, are acceptable as a diagram only, not yet as a literal representation of built form.
     

Second Prize

• Strong aspects of the scheme
  • The notion of the entire area becoming the 'landmark' is very useful. The central vision of a major creek-side open space is powerful, and the associated perspectives compel. The current creek is deprived of a strong water flow, and the urban image presented suggests that water sensitive design such as stormwater / rainwater harvesting combined with grey water filtrating and creek recharge systems can help to improve this situation. Also, much of the creek bed could remain a green, ie 'dry' open space.
    
    Also strong is the pairing of accessible urban plaza space in front of both east and west ends of the station - normalising this into active main street spaces.
     
• Improvements to be made
  • Too much commercial and retail space is crowded around the rail yard, and packed in far too tight ways - these buildings would suffer from excessive noise intrusion and vibration.
    
    The open space proposed to sit adjacent to the western edge of the regenerated creek may be seen as excessive - its precise width remains to be confirmed. Still, the jury stresses its intrinsic value to the precinct and wider city for biodiversity, water management and microclimatic improvement purposes.
     

Third prize

• Strong aspects of scheme
  • Entry # 036 deserved the third prize for a number of reasons. First and foremost for its idea of a generous platform connecting the west and the east sides of the site along the Daejeon station, with enormous potential for reenergizing the whole area and bringing the west plaza back to its important position in the urban fabric of Daejeon. The jury also highlighted the fact that the intervention was thought as steps over time and that it departed from the regeneration of the green spaces along the waterways throughout the central part of the city. The housing scheme was also commended by some of the jury members for its southern orientation and the proposed variation on building heights.
     
• Improvements to be made
  • The jury discussed the fact that the "green rug" or platform should be as close to the ground as possible as visible in the study models and not elevated as the final design solution indicates. The proposal would also benefit from better explaining the theoretical foundations of its intervention as well as from providing more information on the FARs and area tabulation.
     

Honourable mentions

• Entry 025 (Ben Addy)
  • Entry # 025 was chosen for its bold view represented by the futuristic towers in addition to its emphasis on pedestrianism, reducing space taken up by cars and enlarging the areas devoted to people's activities. The scheme structures the DJURe precinct into two large void areas or public arenas - and paints a dreamlike vision of a sleek and towering world hovering above, in three tower clusters consisting of three segments each. The unique presentation is well documented, structured and articulated, and offers a number of very compelling images. These images focus softly on the emotional experience of the individual in the communal yet often anonymous realm of the city.
     
• Entry 032 (Vladimir Belskiy)
  • The jury thought that entry # 32 deserved to be commended for its planning principle around the one-minute grid and for the initiative to cover the rail tracks offering place for recreation and sport activities. While the grid highlighted the importance given to daily activities of the population that will inhabit the area, the jury thought that the sports facilities were a inventive way of utilizing the space above the tracks because it would not suffer so much from noise and vibration coming from below
     
• Entry 008 (Luca Donner)
  • The jury bestowed entry # 008 with an honorable mention for its strong focus on environmental performance. We thought that the revitalization of the Dae Dong creek is an important step in the renaissance of Daejeon station area and that the treatment facility proposed by this entry could help regenerate not only the Dae Dong creek but also other waterways along the city, spreading its benefits beyond the competition site. The 'sun houses' and other innovations expressing a focus on locally available energy sources was also commended.
     
• Entry 041 (Dejan Jokic)
  • The jury conferred an honorable mention upon entry # 041 for its careful analysis of the urban conditions and its pragmatic response that took the form of morphological formulas to be followed by the reconstruction process. Organized as a game of rules and steps, the formulas have the potential to be useful and flexible principles guiding the new design. The illustrative plan also featured several positive illustrations of these generative rules, such as an open space system buffering the rail yards and station area.
     
• Entry 012 (sung goo yang)
  • The jury selected entry # 012 for its sensitivity to the existing grid pattern and 'low city' traditions, and for its vision of the new scheme expanding to the whole area southwest of the river bifurcation. While the celebration of the existing urban field has the clear advantage of connecting the new condition with its past, the articulation of roof gardens and platform gardens have the unquestionable potential of dissemination, spreading its benefits for the entire city of Daejeon.