Korea's First Urban Arboretum, the ‘Sejong National Arboretum’
DL E&C announced that the Sejong National Arboretum, Korea's first urban arboretum, has won the Prime Minister's Award at the ‘2022 Korea Landscape Architecture Awards.’
Now in its 13th year, the Korea Landscape Architecture Awards is a ceremony co-hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture. The event aims to identify landscape architecture projects that create a pleasant national environment and contribute to national development. Winners are selected through a comprehensive evaluation of landscape policies and practical case studies among the submitted entries.
DL E&C submitted the Sejong National Arboretum to this year's event and claimed the Prime Minister's Award. It received high scores across all stages: the first-round document review, the second-round on-site inspection and public participation evaluation, and the third-round final evaluation.
DL E&C began construction of the Sejong National Arboretum in 2016 and completed it in 2020, roughly four years later. It is Korea's first urban arboretum, created to provide citizens with a green space for health, leisure, and cultural activities. Located in the central green space of Sejong City, the arboretum spans 65 hectares—the equivalent of about 90 soccer fields.
In particular, DL E&C established various themed exhibition gardens (a palace garden, a byeolseo villa garden, a traditional garden, a bonsai garden, and more) at the Sejong National Arboretum, offering an at-a-glance view of Korea's plant culture. In addition, it set the arboretum apart from existing botanical gardens by creating a four-season greenhouse, living gardens, and a festival plaza where visitors can take part directly in green cultural activities. The arboretum has also earned praise from visitors by presenting beautiful waterfront spaces, including Cheongryujiwon, a 2.4-km artificial waterway made using water from the Geum River.
Having demonstrated industry-leading competitiveness in the landscape architecture field through the successful completion of the Sejong National Arboretum, DL E&C additionally won the contract for the Saemangeum National Arboretum construction project last year and is currently building it. The Saemangeum National Arboretum will be established on a 151-hectare site on reclaimed coastal land in the Saemangeum district of Gimje, North Jeolla Province.
▲ At the ‘2022 Korea Landscape Architecture Awards’ ceremony, DL E&C employees, including Kim Hong-dae, Executive Director of the Housing Business Division (fifth from left), pose for a commemorative photo after receiving the Prime Minister's Award for the Sejong National Arboretum.