In 1748, Italian architect Giambattista Nolli introduced a new style of the map of Rome. Commissioned by Pope Benedict XIV, Nolli’s map depicted buildings in black and exterior spaces in white. What the map revealed was that a city is not a mere collection of filled buildings, as it is composed of the interactions between enclosed architectural spaces and open exterior spaces. Interestingly, the map revealed that most open spaces?such as streets, squares, gardens, and courtyards of large buildings?are public spaces. Nolli’s map provided later architects, urban planners, and landscape architects with a great lesson: In cities, open, vacant spaces are as important as filled spaces. In fact, vacant landscaping spaces could hold more significance than filled architectural spaces.

Seoul is one of the fastest-growing cities in the 20th century. Seoul’s population, which was about 1.4 million immediately after South Korea’s liberation, surpassed 10 million in just 40 years. Naturally, the history of Seoul’s urban planning was a “history of filling.” Even with its vacant spaces constantly being filled and its territory being expanded, it was insufficient to accommodate the exploding population. All experts and administrators thought long and hard about how to fill Seoul more efficiently and rapidly. Any vacant land had the potential to be filled, leaving only places that simply could not be filled?such as mountains and bodies of water?as truly vacant spaces. As a result, we now live in one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Now that we have some financial and cultural leeway, we are starting to look back at our spaces and rediscover the preciousness of the open spaces we lost.

Statistically, Seoul ranks among the world’s major cities with the most abundant green space per capita. And yet, we always feel as though it lacks breathing room. Everywhere we go, it feels densely packed. Still, its abundance of open space, in fact, is due to its massive mountains and Han River. It is some sort of optical illusion. Most of the city’s open spaces are in places that are difficult for everyone to access on a daily basis, making us feel as though Seoul is packed. Areas developed through a planned housing project, in particular, achieved a balance of density and vacancy, thanks to proper park planning. However, in the old downtown areas north of the river, let alone parks, there are very few open spaces that we could count on one hand. With the lack of accessible open spaces throughout Seoul, “everyday” open spaces are especially precious in the old center of the city. Therefore, the recently renovated Gwanghwamun Square and Seoul Plaza?although not massive in scale?are even more valuable as vacant spaces.

Gwanghwamun Square and Seoul Plaza were not originally squares as their names suggest. In fact, a “square,” as in a deliberately vacant open space in the city, is a space specific to Western culture?not a space found in the East, including South Korea. This makes sense, as Western civilization’s traditions are based on cities, whereas ours are not. We did have cities, although not as packed as in the West, and there was no need to deliberately create vacant spaces within them. However, that does not mean open spaces were nonexistent in our cities. In Hanyang (the capital of the Joseon Dynasty), streets served as squares. This explains why today’s Gwanghwamun Square is narrow from east to west, and long from north to south. Originally, it was the main boulevard leading to Gyeongbokgung Palace. And as automobiles naturally became the main means of transportation in modern cities, the boulevard in front of Gwanghwamun Square once became the largest road in Asia.

The same goes for Seoul Plaza. It was more of an intersection than an actual space. When Emperor Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty proclaimed the Korean Empire, he designated Deoksugung Palace as the main palace, with the intention of making the area the center of Hanseong (administrative name of the Hanyang). Therefore, in 1896, a radial road system was created in front of Deoksugung Palace’s Daehanmun Gate, as part of the Hanseongbu Road Improvement Project. Many believe that Seoul Plaza was a result of the Japanese colonial rule, building the City Hall and revamping the old Hanseong’s organizational structure, but that is not the case. The Japanese simply built a city hall at the new center of Seoul, which was created according to Emperor Gojong’s plan. In addition, the center of Seoul became a roundabout for automobiles. As such, we also had open spaces downtown, however, through the process of modernization, these open spaces became vacant spaces for automobile efficiency, not for people.

Formerly spaces for automobiles, the rotary in front of the City Hall, as well as Sejong-ro, became squares for people thanks to the 2002 World Cup. There have been quite a few times when the very heart of Seoul was given to people, not automobiles. Large crowds gathered here to commemorate liberation in 1945, and it was also where major events in modern Korean history took place, such as the April 19 Revolution, the June 3 Resistance, and large-scale protests against dictatorship in the 1980s. However, the fervor that poured out in front of the City Hall during the 2002 World Cup became a festival, which is different from the temporary political gatherings in the past. This led to everyone feeling and agreeing that an open space for people was very much needed. Later in 2004, Seoul Plaza was created. Since then, Seoul Plaza has served as a venue for public forums where citizens voice their opinions, as well as for massive celebrations such as the World Cup. Rather than these massive events, perhaps what is an even more significant matter is its transformation into an open space filled with everyday events that citizens can experience, such as the winter ice rink and Christmas tree, as well as the daily royal guard changing ceremony at Deoksugung Palace.

In 2025, Seoul Plaza was once again renovated. It transformed into a more sustainable plaza in preparation for climate change, providing more shade and resting areas to get closer to the daily lives of citizens. Having returned to the arms of citizens, the success of Seoul Plaza transformed Sejong-daero as well. In 2009, the massive boulevard was reborn as Gwanghwamun Square. However, as it remains Seoul’s most important transportation axis, the road could not be completely removed. In 2019, a design competition was held to properly restore the historical space in front of Gwanghwamun Gate by fully connecting one side of Gwanghwamun Square to the city, and so Gwanghwamun Square was once again transformed in 2022. It was reborn as an open space that is even closer to the daily lives of citizens.

Having been transformed from symbolic urban spaces of the past, from spaces for automobile efficiency, back into open spaces for people, Seoul Plaza and Gwanghwamun Square symbolically show the changing direction and aspirations of Seoul. The power of open spaces, as shown by Seoul Plaza and Gwanghwamun Square, can be found in the new possibilities revealed by the transformed spaces, but perhaps the greater significance lies in the fact that citizens themselves created the change in these two spaces.