Seoul honors outstanding community gardens, urban landscapes in annual awards

In a city better known for sleek skyscrapers than green canopies, Seoul celebrated a new wave of urban design this week, awarding five major landscape architecture projects and 23 neighborhood gardening groups that are bringing nature back to the capital's streets.

Seoul's deputy mayor for administrative affairs and the chair of the city council's environment and water resources committee attended the ceremony at City Hall, along with about 280 guests from the landscaping and gardening fields.

The Landscape Architecture Award, now in its fifth year, went to Namsan Sky Forest Trail, a 1.65-kilometer accessible walking path built on the southern slope of Mount Nam, Seoul's central mountain, that connects previously disconnected pedestrian routes while preserving the forest's ecology.

The project also won a new citizens' choice prize, drawing the most votes — 2,889 of 9,654 cast — in a two-week public poll in June. A water garden built into a neighborhood park's aging concrete channel took the top runner-up prize, while three other projects, including a children's forest playground and a converted flower garden in Mullae-dong, received merit awards.

The Garden City Award, marking its 14th year, recognized citizen groups that have built and maintained gardens in everyday spaces such as alleys, rooftops and traffic islands. The top prize went to a group that turned a neglected traffic island into a community garden, while two neighborhood "village gardener" associations took runner-up honors. Corporate volunteer groups from Porsche Korea, together with the Seoul Green Trust, and Hyundai Engineering Co. also received a special award for employee-led garden projects.

Seoul will host a related exhibition on the winning gardens at Seoul Forest's Cleo Hall from Tuesday through Sept. 19, along with designer talks and guided site visits through Sept. 18.

“The award-winning spaces and gardens this year are the invaluable result of efforts to bring green spaces closer to citizens’ daily lives — from mountain foothills to neighborhood alleyways,” said Kim Young-hwan, director general of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Garden City Bureau.

“I extend my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to the winners for creating such beautiful transformations across Seoul.”

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.