Sea change in South Korea

A team from MIT may help turn a bay into 155 square miles of new land

ALEXANDER D’HOOGHE

CAMBRIDGE - Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology architects are designing what they say is the largest land project in history. Over the next few decades, 155 square miles of new land are to emerge from South Korea's Saemangeum Bay. The project will be eight times larger than the current record holder, the famous Palm Deira, which is under construction in Dubai.

Architecture professors Nader Tehrani and Alexander D'Hooghe were among three international teams that won the South Korean government's design contest for the project last month. Their plans include industrial, residential and agricultural areas, new wetlands, and even a space port.

If given the go-ahead by South Korea's government, Tehrani and D'Hooghe may supervise at least part of the work, which could eventually cost hundreds of billions of dollars. But other than considerable bragging rights at winning the international design contest, little is set in stone for the MIT team.

Many questions remain about the South Korean government's intentions for the project, and even if it goes forward, the process of reclaiming land from the sea could take 15 years.

"We already know the Palm Islands in Dubai," D'Hooghe said. "Now, the question is: What comes next? What's the next step for megaprojects like these? What comes after the Palms?"

Saemangeum is the largest land-reclamation project in Asia since the construction of Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong's new airport, which opened in 1998. At the time, 80 percent of the world's dredging equipment was involved in building Chek Lap Kok.

But at just under four square miles, that project would be dwarfed by the South Korea plan.

"The scale of this project is unprecedented," Tehrani said. "It's truly immense."

As booming nations in Asia and the Persian Gulf seek to assert their arrival on the world stage and expand their economic bases, mega construction projects are proliferating.

Saemangeum also promises to be a boon for MIT, Tehrani said.

Faculty at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning are increasingly involved in designing new islands, cities, and other supersize structures around the world, drawing more research and development contracts to Cambridge.

"Those of us that are already operating on the global stage will generate more work through this kind of endeavor," he said.

With the Saemangeum project, the South Korean government aims to bring development to Jeollabuk-Do, one of the country's poorest provinces.

Situated on the Korean peninsula's West coast, the bay's new port will open the area to trade with the region's nascent superpower, China.

South Korea's current main port city, Busan, is on the other side of the country and oriented toward Japan.

The project has been in South Korea's pipeline for over two decades. In 2006, a 20.5-mile seawall around the bay was completed after many delays because of legal challenges. Many worried about how the wall would affect wildlife.

The MIT team's design calls for the construction of seven islands and peninsulas, ranging in size from 4.8 to 36.9 square miles, enough space for half a million people, and with room to grow for two to three million more.

Based on the MIT plan, construction could begin in 2011.

First, dikes marking the perimeters of the new islands would be built. Then, thousands of tons of soil would be dredged from the sea floor and transported to Saemangeum Bay to create land.

How the huge project would be financed is unclear, Tehrani said. In all likelihood, it will require a mix of South Korean public funds and private investment, from within and outside of the country.

According to the MIT team's estimate, costs could easily reach $200 billion, but even that is a conservative projection, warned D'Hooghe.

The northern half of the area is reserved mainly for industrial, scientific, and residential purposes. In addition to port facilities and factories, it would include theme parks, a technical university, research and development facilities, a Formula 1 racetrack, and, most notably, a space port, where the budding local aeronautics industry may follow Virgin Galactic's lead in launching space tourists.

One of the plan's key aims is flexibility, D'Hooghe said.

"If you create a piece of land today, it still has to function when the first wave of investment starts dying down. If you have to start over in 20 years, you're on the wrong track."

Agriculture and tourism are the focus of the southern half, which D'Hooghe labels New Tuscany.

"The region already produces wine and fine delicacies," he said. "The idea is to stimulate that even further. In the southern half you'll see a series of new towns, each one surrounded by farmland and natural preserves."

Much as in the real Tuscany, the new townships will be on hilltops overlooking the surrounding landscape.

"They are the antennas of the new civilization that will grow in the area," D'Hooghe said. "There, we bet heavily on potential tourist development. But instead of mass tourism, you'll get boutique hotels, second homes, sports facilities, and wellness centers."

Saemangeum's new land would border an existing nature park, at the mouth of two rivers. Tehrani and D'Hooghe planned for new wetlands to restore some of the ecological damage inflicted when the seawall shut down much of the tidal forces in the estuary.

"Ideally, you would restore the tides by opening up the seawall again, but that is not feasible politically," D'Hooghe said.

"Luckily, some of the tidal effects have been preserved, because the seawall does have tidal gates that can be opened. The fact is, creating wetlands with working ecosystems can be done, but it will take many years."

The South Korean government also selected design teams from New York's Columbia University and London Metropolitan University. Ultimately, the government may elect to use any combination of the winning teams, or none at all.

"It could go in many different directions," Tehrani said.

"There will be an announcement, probably in the next month or two, about the winning project. At that point, there will also be some form of dialogue to identify what our exact roles are, what degree of participation we have."