For decades, a busy highway cut through central Seoul. Beneath it, a small stream had disappeared under concrete. The city had covered the waterway during a period when roads and development were seen as signs of progress. Over time, the corridor became one of the city’s hottest and most crowded spaces.
Then Seoul made an unusual choice. Instead of adding another road or building more infrastructure, it removed the existing highway and uncovered the buried Cheonggyecheon stream. The change was not cosmetic. It altered how the space worked.
