The disused railway in GwangJu has left a visible absence in the city plan. the 10.5 kilometers long ribbon - starting from Gwangju station, and running through various urban developments at the edge of the historical city - represents a fantastic section through the histroy and present life of Gwangju. on remarkable characteristic of this section is that it is sometimes coming very close to the surrounding buildings. This proximity reminds us that, as a new element is the urban context, the railway had sometimes to slide into excluding the existing. Like a tributary, it organizes the landscape along its route : sometimes it becomes a large river, some times a narrow bottleneck.

    At first, the train generated its own pattern of movements. Ignoring the surroundings, it followed its own logic. Today, its absence reveals a series of folds, pleats, undulations, and cut-out flats, offering the vision of a geometric configuration of the railway. All these introduce spatial qualities related to the presence of a void, missing links, and ruptures in the urban fabirc, or a fantastic reservoir of urbanity where the sharp cut of the railroad meets daily users fantasies. once the train definitely gone, the proximity to the walls of adjacent houses gives rise to a profitable in-between space. Number of doors, and windows, sotrage compartments, cooking places, gardens, play areas, spontaneously happenend as a natural appropriation of the unfettered track. A landscape in transition was created that has a variety of uses, flexible adaptations, and `multiple relations between the open site and the city life.

    From this very first observation, it seemed that we had to accept this linear terrain vague as a physical heritage, to recognize its value, and the sets of possibilities it offers.