The site of the former foreign residents’ housing on Namsan is being reborn as a Korean forest garden. Seoul City announced that the Namsan Outdoor Botanical Garden area will be renovated into the “Korean Forest Garden” and fully opened to citizens on June 27.
The site, in Itaewon-dong, Yongsan District, is one of Namsan’s representative green spaces. Centered on tree species and native plants that symbolize Korea, such as plum trees, crape myrtles, and bamboo, it also includes gardens modeled after traditional forests from across the country. Paths, rest areas, and viewing spaces have been newly arranged so the forest and gardens blend naturally.
From foreign housing site to garden
The history of this land is long. It once hosted foreign residents’ housing. In the 1990s, it returned to its original green state through the “Restore Namsan to Its Original Form” project, and in 1997 it was developed as an outdoor botanical garden, becoming a space close to the public. For nearly 30 years, it has been used as a place to encounter nature and the changing seasons up close.
This renovation goes beyond simply reinforcing plantings. Based on Namsan’s natural environment and scenery, it was an effort to translate the sentiment and aesthetics of Korean gardens into contemporary language. Rather than reproducing old gardens as they were, the design incorporates the perspective and openness they embodied into a modern spatial form.
One notable feature is that it draws inspiration from traditional forests across the country. In effect, the one site on Namsan brings together garden design languages from many regions. A downtown green space is now used as a vessel for a broader identity: the Korean garden beyond any single local landscape.
Korean gardens do not oppose nature. They leave the mountain ridges and waterways intact, and people settle within them. In that sense, bringing this approach into the heart of the city gives the Korean Forest Garden significance that goes beyond a simple landscaping project.
The beauty of Korea expressed through 11 gardens
The Korean Forest Garden is organized around three themes: tradition and culture, nature and ecology, and leisure and relaxation. Under those themes are 11 gardens.
The tradition-and-culture forest gardens include Jidangwon, Yeongjiwon, and Mugunghwa Garden. These spaces reinterpret the pavilions where scholars once enjoyed refined leisure in a modern way. The atmosphere of the garden is combined with the experience of walking barefoot along a forest path.
Jidangwon reinterprets the spatial composition of a traditional pavilion and the technique of chagyeong, or “borrowed scenery.” Chagyeong is a method of drawing the landscape beyond the wall into the garden. In a refined space where bamboo groves and a pond come together, the pavilion roof is finished with frit glass to reflect the outside scenery while blocking the summer sun. Beside it, a forest path of bare earth lets visitors feel Namsan’s nature with their bodies.
Yeongjiwon was inspired by Myeongokheon in Damyang. A calm pond reflects crape myrtle trees and the forest, revealing the mood of a traditional garden. The practice of capturing scenery in water is an aesthetic Korean gardens have long cultivated.
The nature-and-ecology forest gardens consist of five areas: a azalea hill, plum blossom garden, moss garden, bamboo grove garden, and pine forest garden. They are designed as places of rest and healing for people who live in the city but struggle to connect with nature.
The moss garden offers a quiet sense of openness through moss landscapes rarely seen in the city. In the bamboo grove garden, light, wind, and sound mingle among the tall bamboo reaching toward the sky. The pine forest garden turns a pine grove into a healing space, with an earth path for barefoot walking. It is a place to directly feel the texture of the soil and the scent of pine.
The leisure-and-relaxation forest gardens are composed of the Pine Forest Yard, Ginkgo Tree Field, and Namsan Maru. They are designed so visitors can enjoy rest, views, and leisure in nature. The highlight is Namsan Maru. As a viewing space that captures both Namsan’s scenery and downtown Seoul at a glance, it uses a steel grating structure and transparent railings so visitors can look down on both the forest and the city below.
Why citizens want gardens
Urban green spaces are not just pretty scenery. They are places where people stop for a moment and catch their breath. They are also pathways for reading the changing seasons and regaining the feel of soil and trees amid dense buildings.
That is why the Korean Forest Garden includes barefoot paths and healing spaces throughout. It aims to create a garden that is experienced by the body, not just seen by the eyes. The goal is to bring gardens into everyday rest and sensory recovery.
This also connects with Seoul’s effort to link the city together as a garden city through the Urban Garden Bureau. If parks are a certain amount of green space, gardens are closer to a culture of tending and staying. The change on Namsan shows an attempt to bring that culture into the center of the city.
On the day of the June 27 opening, various programs will be held from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. as part of the “Namsan Summer Festival.” These include docent tours in which forest interpreters explain the stories behind Namsan and the meaning embedded in the gardens, as well as hands-on activities such as making traditional mother-of-pearl butterfly fans and trying tattoo stickers. The docent tours require advance reservation, while the craft activities are free and open to anyone on site.
“The Namsan Korean Forest Garden is a garden that modernly reinterprets Korea’s unique natural beauty and garden culture,” said Kim Young-hwan, head of Seoul’s Urban Garden Bureau. “As it is a space that combines ecological value with a place for rest, I hope citizens will be able to enjoy nature and gardens more closely in their daily lives.”
How a city manages its green spaces reveals what kind of time it is willing to give its citizens. Beginning from the site of the former foreign residents’ housing and returning as a Korean garden, this space offers one answer to how people can encounter nature in the city.