Transformation of’Ilho’, the return square… Save me hometown! Seogwipo Ilho Square

‘Ilho Plaza’, located in the old downtown of Seogwipo, Jeju Island, is the first plaza in Jeju Island, built in 1966. Major roads in Jeju Island such as’Ilju Road’ along the coastline of Jeju Island and’Jungang Road’ connecting Hallasan and Seogwipo Port are gathered here.

In Seogwipo, it is not an exaggeration to say that all roads lead to Ilho Square. It reaches 7 lengths connected by a square.

Kim Soo-hyun (16 years old), who met at the plaza on December 18, said, “Wherever you take a bus in Seogwipo, everyone passes through Ilho Plaza.” Until the early 1990s, there was an oil field in Ilho Plaza, and Seogwipo City Hall, Seogwipo Police Station, and Intercity Bus Terminal were gathered.

Hwang-mo grandmother (77), who was married to Seogwipo at the age of 27, said, pointing at the’Circle Road’ in front of the registry office, which is now a six-lane road. “It’s really good because it’s busy. Even though it’s narrow, people open up a seat in every alley to sell. I used to go to see even though I had nothing to buy.”

Im Woo-nam, head of urban design team at Seogwipo City Hall, where Seogwipo is home, also said, “Every time I see Ilho Square, I remember the oil field I went to with my mother.”

“On a market day, my mother wrapped a bag of sesame seeds and took me to Ilho Square. After I exchanged sesame seeds for money at the grain battle, I went to the hamba house in the oil shop next to the shelf. He ordered a bowl of plain water noodles and gave it to me. My mother ate a few noodles and broth that I left behind.”

Ilho Plaza, a little smaller than Seoul’s Sinchon Rotary and larger than Hyehwa Rotary, is a space where thousands of Seogwipo citizens gathered at each event in the past. When Seogwi-eup, Namjeju-gun was promoted to Seogwipo-si in 1981, people filled the plaza.

The campaign of presidential candidates was also here. For the citizens of Seogwipo, Ilho Plaza was a daily plaza with joy and sorrow. The official name was changed to’Jungang Rotary’, but people still call it’Ilho Square’.

Oilfield moved to Donghong-dong, north of the square in 1995. The Intercity Bus Terminal and Seogwipo Police Station moved to a new city located in the west of the old city center. The city hall was also divided into two, and the first government office was located here and the second government office was located in the new city.

The roads people used to go have disappeared, and the car has widened. The square was filled with cars.

The square is now to the residents “A place that is scary to drive due to a lot of traffic accidents”, “A desolate neighborhood where all buildings are turned off at night”, “A place that passes by when transferring by bus”Turned into.

Is there any way to return the square to people? The Korea Craft & Design Culture Promotion Agency and Seogwipo City Hall decided to apply’public design’ to Ilho Square. Public design refers to designing public places and public facilities according to local characteristics and residents’ convenience.

From May 2019 to December 2020, the’Creating a Happy Space with Public Design’ project (hereinafter referred to as the Public Design Project) was in progress. It took nearly a year to gather the opinions of the citizens of Seogwipo and persuade the building owners and tenants around Ilho Plaza, who are directly affected by the project.

General Director Nam-seok Cho said, “To take off the stigma of being a plaza with many traffic accidents, to restore the former people-centered plaza function, and to return the plaza to citizens,” he said.

The stigma of’transportation hell’

In fact, as traffic has increased for decades, Ilho Square has become the highest risk of traffic accidents in Jeju.

As a result of an analysis of 443 accidents (excluding simple contact) that occurred in 30 locations in Seogwipo City traffic accident-prone areas from 2017 to 2019, the most accidents occurred in the Ilho Square Central Rotary (39 cases).

The project, which began in the second half of 2019, has been in progress for the past year. How would the Ilho Square be reborn?

Most of the accidents occurred in the process of entering the Ilho Square roundabout by turning left onto Ilju Road. These are accidents that occurred when vehicles that were unable to enter the 1st and 2nd lanes that could turn left forcibly intervene.

Although the radius of the roundabout in Ilho Square is not large, there are many structural problems in the lanes, but many pointed out that road signs installed in various places on the entrance to the plaza were made incorrectly.

In particular, road signs installed on Dongmun-ro and Seomun-ro on the south side of the plaza marked Ilho Square as a general rotary roundabout.

Inspector Kim Ji-yoon of Seogwipo Police Station said, “I think vehicles entering the plaza from Dongmun-ro and Seomun-ro can get off to Ilju-ro by turning to the lane they entered. “It wasn’t until we got to the north of the roundabout that we knew that we should have moved to the first and second lanes, so there were many problems.”

The Public Design Project decided to change the road signpost first. It was decided to clearly show that it is not a’rotary rotary’ but a’rotary rotary + intersection’.

However, the Jeju police objected, saying that the rotating rotary milestones used nationwide could not be significantly modified. Milestone design has been rejected three or four times. The last fifth amendment has been passed.

Inspector Kim said, “As the new road signposts have substantially coincided with the actual roads, drivers can drive more safely.”

I solved the old homework.

In the meantime, vehicles turning right near Dongmun-ro of Ilho Square have often caused accidents without seeing pedestrians crossing the street. This is because a 1m high switchboard was installed right next to the pedestrian crossing to block pedestrians.

Park Woo-sung (25 years old) also had a major accident here when he was a child.

“Because I’m short, the distribution box covered me. The driver thought that no one was crossing the crosswalk, so he turned right and tried to pass, and he almost hit me. After that, I turn around this road without even looking.”

The project team held several discussions with KEPCO and held the distribution box 4m back.

The sculptures that were built at every event such as the National Sports Festival, the Olympics, and the World Cup were also a problem. It was pointed out that it distracted the driver’s attention and occupied pedestrian space. The project team pulled out 16 sculptures that had been erected throughout Ilho Square.

However, it is difficult to completely solve the traffic problem in the plaza with public design. On this day, there was a contact accident between the vehicle turning the rotary and the vehicle entering it. There were still vehicles on the north side of the roundabout breaking the lane and turning left onto the roundabout.

The general director said, “There is a limit to reducing accidents in the plaza with only design in a situation where the entire road and traffic system in Seogwipo cannot be touched. However, even if you do not incur a large cost, improving some of the plaza’s designs will make it safer and more driver-friendly. I thought it was possible to build a road.”

If the speed limit on the Ilju road is reduced from 60 km/h to 50 km/h in April due to the revision of the enforcement regulations of the Road Traffic Act, the accident rate in Ilho Square is expected to decrease in conjunction with this project.

The western bus stop is the busiest place in Ilho Square. Bakeries, hospitals, and pharmacies are gathered.

On this day, Kim Soo-hyun, who was on his way back after receiving the high school application, was waiting for the bus to go home.

“All buses to all areas of Seogwipo come here. So, when I make an appointment with my friends, they say,’See you in Paris Baguette, Plaza Ilho’. Because everyone comes here if they take the bus.”

The three-story building, where the bakery’Paris Baguette’ is built, is the’Great feeling’ that has kept Ilho Square for decades. It is a state-of-the-art building where newspapers, nonghyups, and hospitals occupied at the test promotion event 40 years ago. At that time, some people went up to the roof of this building to watch the event.

Hwang’s grandmother, who was sitting at the bus stop, said, “I am going to the village to work.” “I took a bus from the neighborhood over there where Homeplus is and got off here. Older people get the bus for free, so they change to another bus here.”

Even in winter, 12 people were waiting for the bus at the bus stop. Half seemed to be over 70. The three raised their canes.

In Seogwipo City, the ratio of the elderly to the total population reached 17.87% (32,394) as of 2018. It exceeds the national figures (14.76%) and Jeju (13.13%).

According to Seogwipo City, as of February 2019, 49 bus routes pass through Ilho Square. Due to the wide spacing, the average waiting time is 53 minutes.

“It’s winter, so it’s this much. There is no place to sit in the summer. It’s also hot, so the city even installed an air conditioner at the bus stop. But if there are a lot of people, the air conditioner is useless. I always said,’If I had some shade outside, I would go under the shade for a little rest.’

The opinions of the elderly were also reflected in the public design project. The project team installed a shelter’Pagora’ near the bus stop.

In the summer, vines such as songak and eunuch will ride on the pagora’s tree posts and cover the roof to create a cool shade. Mr. Hwang said, “I made it well. I like it very much.”

There were dozens of palm trees in the plaza before the public design project. It is a Washington palm tree native to the United States that was planted all over Jeju in the mid-1980s to create an exotic landscape. It has grown to a height of 16-20m. It was tall but had few leaves, so it couldn’t create any shade.

Jeju language is engraved on the sidewalk in front of the’Paris Baguette’ building, the oldest of the western bus stops.

It contains greetings that even the younger generations of Jeju don’t use well, such as’Ozen Hanan was deceived (you had a hard time coming)’ and’Husseul, sir.

In 2010, UNESCO listed Jeju language as a Critically Endangered Language. Remembering the Jeju language is now a task for the people of Jeju.

“Jeju greetings were engraved on the floor to make people feel more friendly. “This is Seogwipo.”

Could Ilho Square be transformed into a square where people gather?

Kim Tae-il, a professor at Jeju National University, said, “The space people are looking for is a place where cultural and historical elements are piled up. Meanwhile, Ilho Square has not been able to make use of the charm of such a space in urban planning and has rather lost it.”

“Because time accumulates in space. While managing the city so that its appearance does not change rapidly, we must save the old streets that were cut off, and at the same time develop low-density that does not cover the scenery of Seogwipo.”

Director Nam-seok Cho, who conducted the project, said, “We wanted to build the identity that only Jeju Island and Seogwipo have.” The first step in the’Piazza where people gather’ was taken off.

He said, “The public design project welcomed me in returning the Ilho Plaza to the citizens of Seogwipo. In the future, we will continue to carry out related projects such as the’urban forest creation project’ and’the park city creation project’ and transform it into a plaza where people stay.”

The Korea Craft & Design Culture Promotion Agency, which supervised the public design project, said, “It wasn’t just a project to improve facilities, but works to revive the uniqueness and history of the region through public design. The local community listens to the stories of the residents, and the residents are expected to secure publicity and improve the quality of life through the process of finding and solving the inconveniences of their daily lives.”

One project cannot solve all the problems of Ilho Square at once. Nevertheless, if efforts and interest in returning the plaza back to the people’s arms continue, will the reputation of Ilho plaza be restored someday?

Seogwipo’s first plaza,’Ilho’, continues its transformation.