This research project examines South Korea’s pioneering role in the development of reef urbanism in a global context. The construction of artificial reefs along the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which extends the Military Demarcation Line of the Korean Demilitarized Zone into the Yellow Sea, is a paradigmatic example of cosmopolitical architecture and illustrates the geopolitical and environmental implications of this type of subaquatic structures.  

In the summer of 2016, the South Korean government installed 80 artificial reef structures along the NLL. Camouflaged as productive and marine conservation devices, the structures operate with an additional agenda: to cut the fishing nets of Chinese and North Korean commercial vessels operating in the area. Theses reefs are passive defensive artefacts that render the NLL tensions visible across the seabed.  

Since 1971, a constellation of artificial reefs has been deployed across 210,000 hectares of seabed around the South Korean coastline, expanding the country’s urban condition into the underwater realm and mirroring its rapid inland urban growth. The implementation of reefs has followed an equivalent sequential process to that of urban development, with phases of planning, zoning and the application of construction guidelines.  

The project authors form a research group and architectural practice called GRANDEZA. GRANDEZA frames architectural practice as a space of hybrid action that blends education, design and cultural production. The team aims to position design as a tool for emancipation.