Two award-winning entries: Seoul Forest Park's Seolleim Garden and Winter Gardens 1 & 2

Korea National Arboretum Children's Garden's Forest Garden of Goblins and Fairies

Seoul Green Trust (Chairperson Ji Young-sun) announced that its Seoul Forest Park — Seolleim Garden and Winter Gardens 1 & 2, and the Korea National Arboretum Children's Garden — Forest Garden of Goblins and Fairies, won the Korea Forest Service Administrator's Award and the President of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture Award (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), respectively, in the public category of the 11th Korea Landscape Architecture Awards.

The Seolleim Garden and Winter Gardens 1 & 2 are part of the Index Garden project carried out together with Yuhan-Kimberly, restoring idle spaces within Seoul Forest Park. Since 2016, Seoul Green Trust and Yuhan-Kimberly have enhanced the value of public spaces through Index Garden, an urban forest project that introduces plants people can encounter in the city under a variety of themes.

Seolleim Garden (2019), which reborn the circular courtyard of Seoul Forest, was planned around themes such as "people, marriage, married couples, and lovers," and was named through public participation via a naming contest. It was planted so that visitors can appreciate a variety of flowers that evoke a flutter of excitement in every season, along with fruits symbolizing the fruition of happiness. Beyond simply creating a garden, it earned praise from citizens by hosting programs — such as eco-friendly weddings and flower-crown making — where people create memories with those dear to them.

Winter Garden 1 (2020) and Winter Garden 2 (2021), created in and around a forest clearing within Seoul Forest, offer 12 attractions that let visitors experience the charm of nature even in winter. These include △the wonder of birch trees with their striking white bark, △the contrast of green and red created by evergreen plants and red-twig dogwood with its crimson branches, △the sense of rhythm produced by formal and informal plantings, △the browns of plants, △flower stalks with enlarged seed pods, △fruits that stand out even more in winter, △fences made from forest byproducts, △shelters for insects, △green moss, and △a small greenhouse.

In addition, the garden makes use of the stumps and trunks of dawn redwoods felled during redevelopment in Gaepo-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, providing an opportunity to reflect on the existence and value of the trees around us.

The Forest Garden of Goblins and Fairies (2020–2021), a children's garden along the Gwangneung Forest trail at the Korea National Arboretum, is distinguished by its pursuit of a Wild Garden approach that draws on Gwangneung Forest's abundant natural environment and forest byproducts rather than large-scale new planting. To minimize damage to the forest, existing trees were not cut down, and instead centuries-old dead fir trees were put to use.

In particular, inspired by the ancient, vast forest, the project created a "forest adventure storybook" featuring a fictional character — a "kind goblin who protects the forest" — and two children, along with a "children's workbook" that supports observation and play in the garden, helping children grow closer to nature and enjoy the garden creatively. It was jointly created by Seoul Green Trust's Garden Culture Club and the Korea National Arboretum, with sponsorship from KB Kookmin Bank.

All of the Seoul Green Trust gardens selected at this 11th Korea Landscape Architecture Awards were designed and built by Gardeners' Friends.

Lee Woo-hyang, Secretary General of Seoul Green Trust, said, "We will continue to create various types of gardens in the city so that citizens of all ages, from children to adults, can experience new joys in our parks and grow closer to nature."

Meanwhile, Seoul Green Trust is a nonprofit foundation that creates green cities together with citizens. In 2003, it realized a model of citizen-driven park creation through Seoul Forest Park, the first park in Korea built through the voluntary funding and participation of citizens. It has operated Seoul Forest Park from 2016 to the present.


▲ Seoul Green Trust won the Korea Forest Service Administrator's Award and the President of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture Award (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs), respectively, in the public category of the 11th Korea Landscape Architecture Awards. The photo shows the children's garden along the Gwangneung Forest trail at the Korea National Arboretum.