the seoul of design

here's a video of various design projects (including the previous post's bridge) seoul city has embarked on, via my kbs show, seoul scene.

cityplan #4: gwanghwamun plaza

an ambitious project to restore a 600-year-old landmark and build a plaza to connect old and new seoul.

the other day i had a sad moment as i stood outside exit #7 of the city hall subway station. to my faaar left i could see where seoul's "great south gate" should be, and to my faaaaarther right was where the grand gwangwha gate marks the entrance to seoul's largest royal palace, gyeongbukgung.

in a city this massive, seeing the ancient capital's center and southern entrance gave me my bearings. but thanks to an arsonist and a shoddy reconstruction, both gates were hidden inside huge boxes of scaffolding. to my left and right were two of seoul's greatest treasures concealed from sight. of course it's nice they'll be back soon, but there's something sad about 600-year-old structures being rebuilt from scratch. anyhow, i guess that's what happens when wood meets... the japanese, crazy old men, korean dictators, etc.

dictator park chung-hee did a shitty job rebuilding gwanghwamun in 1963.

the gwangwhamun (gwangwha gate) was built in 1395, three years after king taejo moved korea's capital to seoul, thus founding the joseon dynasty. the gate marked the entrance to his royal palace (gyeongbukgung). in the ensuing six centuries plus 13 years, gwangwhamun has been through a lot:

gwangwhamun timeline:

1395: gwangwhamun is built by king taejo.

1592: 2 centuries after it's built, japan's hideyoshi destroys the gate, the palace and nearly every significant structure on the korean peninsula during his 7-year-long invasion.

although gyeongbuk palace and the gwangwha gate were yet to be rebuilt at the time of this map (1750), it shows the street that will become gwangwhamun plaza (click for larger).

1867: 275 years later king gojong rebuilds the gate and gyeongbuk palace.

the massive governor general's building was built to dwarf the administrative buildings of european colonial outposts in asia. where's the gate? (click for larger)

1926: while under japanese occupation, 85% of gyeongbuk palace's 330 buildings are destroyed. a huge administrative building for the japanese governor general is built behind the gate in a deliberate attempt to conceal what remains of the royal palace. gwangwhamun is moved, but ultimately spared, thanks in large part to the japanese art critic, yanagi muneyoshi.

an errant bomb scores a direct hit (click for larger).

1950: korea is liberated in 1945 but five years later the gate is almost totally destroyed during the korean war.

1963: the gate is rebuilt by dictator park chung-hee, but inferior materials are used.

1996: following considerable public debate, the governor general building is demolished. seen by many as a painful reminder of japanese imperialism, its removal coincides with plans to move the gate 14.5 m south, 10.9 m west and turned 5.6 degrees clockwise to its original location.

a colorful box encases the gate during its reconstruction. gyeongbuk palace and bugak mountain are in the background (click for larger).

2006: renovations on the gate begin and designs are accepted for the development of a large public plaza.

the city solicited design ideas from the public and these were the top 5 (click for larger).

april 2008: construction on the plaza begins.

two images of the plaza's final design. apparently there's a party (click for larger).

june 2009 the gate and a new plaza is scheduled for completion.

in its future iteration, gwangwhamun will meet a 3/4-kilometer long (740 meters) and 34-meter wide public plaza. by eliminating 6 of 16 lanes on one of seoul's busiest thoroughfares, city officials' plan is to connect seoul's grandest joseon-era palace to the recently restored cheonggye stream. the plaza will include water features (of course) and better views of the palace and bugak mountain. the goal is to improve seoul's livability and help it get onto the UNESCO historic city list.

two korean studs.

per usual, there's been some controversy. an impressive statue of admiral yi, korea's greatest naval hero, stands in a landscaped island in the middle of the street where the plaza will be built. a seated statue of korea's #1 monarch, king sejong, however, was removed and currently rests in deoksu palace. since the restored gate and the palace it protects are reminders of the joseon dynasty days and because the street leading up to gwangwhamun is named sejong-no (after the king), some say the statues should be swapped. current plans, however, are to leave yi be and move the king beside the plaza in front of the performing arts center that also bears his name.

in any event, in the next couple of years, the giant boxes that surround both gwangwhamun and sungnyemun will be removed and two of the grand bookends of central seoul will once again be revealed.

seoul walking tour

the royal asiatic society's korea branch (raskb) offers an impressive number of english-language tours and lectures in korea and elsewhere. last october i attended my first raskb event: a talk about early depictions of korea in western maps. yum. this past week i went to see mr. a lin neumann, chief editor of the joongang daily, discuss some of the challenges of integrating u.s. style journalism in a korean newsroom (isn't korea... amazing?!)

anyhow, on sunday i'll partake in my first raskb walking tour of seoul. i'll follow expert peter bartholomew as he explains the cultural and historical background of seoul palaces, joseon-dynasty landmarks and recently-excavated royal treasures. he'll explain the 600-year-old capital's layout and history. from my brief interactions with him thus far, he's a kind older american canadian (sorry) gentleman with a sincere affection for korean history and culture. it's from 9 am to 3:30 pm, only 15,000 won, and mr. bartholomew comes highly recommended.

let me know if you want to meet up!

cityplan #3: new city hall

if it's "3 strikes and you're out," what happens after five?

i've been a bad blogger lately. sorry.

last month's tragic arson of sungnyemun focused considerable criticism at seoul's cultural heritage administration for its lax security of the nation's #1 national treasure. but the preservation group has also been dogged for its role in delaying construction of a new city hall for seoul.

here she is. all that wave action makes me feel a little sorry for the old building in the middle.

...and the inside.

the cha played hardball and rejected several designs before approving an october 2007 master plan. that version, however, was ill-received by the public for being architecturally incongruous with nearby deoksu palace. in response, the seoul metropolitan government invited four renowned korean architects to "remodel" the design. with the cha's reputation in tatters, one week after sungnyemun was destroyed the master plan for seoul's new city hall was approved. construction on the 13-floor, 941,000 square meter complex should begin any day now with completion set for 2011.

earlier designs were inspired by feminine curves (!) or the taeguk (the yinyang symbol on korea's flag), but the korea herald says that the new design will "feature a blend of traditional design such as the curves and shades of traditional [korean roof] eaves." hmmm. this design is many things, but "traditional" it ain't. anyhow, the building's curved design will also be incorporated into the grounds via a dozen "waves" on the city hall lawn. reportedly 30% of the new building will be set aside for "cultural space," which includes a "sky lounge." (why does every new building in seoul have a "sky lounge"? ...what is a "sky lounge"?)

4 strikes (click for larger).

the current city hall is itself controversial. built of gray faux-stone in 1926 during the japanese occupation, it has been seen by some as a painful reminder of foreign imperialism, prompting calls for its demolition. unlike the former presidential house, city hall escaped the wrecking ball. but the public's mixed feelings of the place seems to have inspired its planned annex. the new building looks poised to pummel the original structure tsunami-style. one expat blogger remarked that it was as if the korean pop-culture wave (한류) was swallowing up japan.

the current city hall will be converted into a public library and information center.

here's an earlier post i made about an earlier city hall redesign.

cityplan #2: dongdaemun design plaza+park

now what's a "world design capital" without a world design plaza?

although dongdaemun is best known as the 24-hour shopping destination that sells 40 billion won ($42.3 million) of goods every day, the name means "great east gate" and refers to heunginjimun (흥인지문), or "the gate of rising benevolence," among several translations. originally built in 1396, the current structure dates to 1869 and is one of the once-walled capitol's two surviving "great" gates. of course, the southern gate was destroyed last week by an arsonist.

a photo of the stadium during the japanese colonial period.

beyond the gate and thousands of shopping outlets, the gritty dongdaemun neighborhood is also known for its ugly conjoined (tho clearly not identical) athletic twin-fields. built in 1925 during japanese occupation, gyeongseong stadium, as it was called, hosted athletic events as well as an independence celebration in 1945 and a funeral for the assassinated korean independence activist kim gu four years later. post-occupation, the baseball and soccer fields remained the city's primary sports venue until a massive seoul sports complex was built to accommodate the 1988 summer olympic games.

not so gorgeous, eh?

but in the name of progress, by the end of next month the complex will be gone. 405 billion won ($425 million) will convert the site into the dongdaemun design plaza and park (brochure here), part of seoul mayor oh se-hoon's plan to make his city earn its recent distinction as 2010 world design capital. to this end, the metropolitan government held an international design competition. of the 4 koreans and 4 non-koreans who competed, it was the iraqi-born, london-based, and pritzker prize-winning architect zaha hadid who won the contest and the contract.

here's a page from an info brochure about the plaza. the park is to the left, the cheonggye stream is in the middle, and the great gate is in the lower right corner (click for larger).

hadid's "metonymic landscape" is three levels (two above and one underground) featuring a convention hall, exhibition space and offices on the inside with a 66,500 square meter park on the outside. the design was praised by the judging committee for embodying the neighborhood's historical, cultural and economic character, as well as the design's "great harmony of nature and architecture." perhaps the latter, but how the former?

a growing number of local historians and architects are disagreeing with the judges, complaining that the structure's fluid, titanium-swathed shape is incongruent with the area. architecture critic lee joo-yeon's main objection is that hadid, who has yet to visit seoul, designed a park that is oblivious to the ancient gate and remnants of the seoul fortress wall that will border it; both are designated national treasures.

criticism by lee and others is part of several larger debates. as the "miracle on the han river" continues to usher ambitious projects costing trillions of won, who should design and build them? in a city settled for over 2,000 years, when should the old yield to the new? and when it inevitably does, what should happen to the hundreds, if not thousands, of (mostly poor and powerless) residents who are displaced?

this looks cool, but i still don't really understand what's going on.

sure, the same cynical cycle of the powerful and powerless is once again at work, but in this case they are literally the same. over the past 2+ years, nearly 900 merchants have sold their fossils, antiques, joseon-era hats and fake viagra on the soccer field's asphalt floor. in 2005 they were relocated there when the hwanghak-dong flea market was razed by 8,000 riot police and hired thugs. that time around, they were in the way of a different urban renewal mega project. then-seoul mayor (and current president-elect) lee myung-bak had was spending 900 billion won to restore the cheonggye stream... the same stream that he, as the former ceo of hyundai construction, had a role in paving over in the first place. with a new mayor in office, these same vendors are being forced to move again, for the greater good of urban revitalization, of course.

who knows, the design plaza could be a big plus for everyone. the city has pledged 3 billion won to help move the repeatedly dissed merchants to a new, tourist-happy place in nearby sinseol-dong. along with the super future park design, plans are also in the works to restore the ancient castle walls in the area. when 2010 comes around, however, how will the dongdaemun project impact seoul? using bilbao's guggenheim and paris' eiffel tower as dramatic examples, city officials expect "seoul's new growth engine" to dramatically boost the city's brand power. in just a few years, they expect seoul to join the ranks of paris, tokyo and milan as a world center for design, culture and art, thereby drawing an additional 700,000 foreign visitors annually. hmmm.

getting there:

→ if you want to see the stadiums transformed into the park, take subway lines 2, 4 or 5 to dongdaemun stadium station (exit #1).
→ or, you can also take line 1 or line 4 to dongdaemun station (exit #4) to see the great gate. walk south over the cheonggyecheon to reach the stadium (future park) complex.

cityplan #1: seoul as the world's design capital?

choose two areas where seoul is deficient, and the lack of greenspace and poor aesthetics immediately come to mind. a recent korea times article said it plain:

seoul will have a long way to go to realize its dream of emerging as a world-renowned design city. we have to admit that the city lacks esthetic (sic) value due to poor urban design and reckless development.

the handsome mayor waxing eloquent on the power of design. you can read an interview with him on the topic here.

the good news is that seoul mayor oh se-hoon feels the same way. in his 2006 acceptance speech, mr. mayor said that design was his main priority for economic development. oh said that the 21st century is the age of design, and that design is what will make seoul the best city of the world.

apgujeong-dong's fancy galleria department store all lit up at night.

oh's vision is to use imagination to guide future building projects to transform seoul from a "hard" city to a "soft" one. he's already set up a design headquarters to issue design guidelines for redevelopment projects big and small, from streets, sidewalks and bus stops to a 246-billion won-dongdaemun world design plaza, to be completed in 2010.

it ain't all bad. here's i-park tower, hyundai development corporation's headquarters in samseong-dong, near COEX.

the massive dongdaemun project's timeline is no coincidence. last october, the international design alliance (ida) picked seoul to be the first "world design city". the project is a biennial global competition to identify cities that create sustainable ways that realize the full potential of design to improve the social, cultural and economic quality of life for its citizens. in 2010, seoul's wdc status will culminate in a year-long celebration showing an international audience how the city is integrating design into its larger strategic development and urban revitalization vision. by beating out dubai, singapore and toronto to win the wdc's inaugural contest, seoul triumphed over other cities that are far better-known for championing design.

a coupla nice old and new korean-bred designs. lg's chocolate phone and a new concept pc from samsung.

the jury's choice wasn't a total surprise, however. the sleek design of high-tech devices by korean companies like samsung and lg have helped to transform old perceptions of korean products from cheap knock-offs of japanese and western goods to industry leaders. the wdc jury, which unanimously endorsed seoul's bid, acknowledged korea's leadership in high-tech consumer design and hoped the wtc designation would encourage seoul to realize its design potential and ambition. for his part, seoul mayor oh hopes the special design title will sharpen the domestic design industry's competitive edge, improve seoul's image as a global city, and attract more tourists.

update 3/12/2008: seoul city has launched a new website to feature public design databases.

cityplan

introducing a special supplement to nice day's "field trips" department....

four centuries before christ, hippodamus became the father of city planning when alexander the great asked him to lay out alexandria. urban planning as an organized profession, however, is a much more recent development. in the 1920s, urban modernism envisioned grand metropolises of garden tower blocks accessed by un-congested freeways. fifty years later, port-modernist architecture reintroduced individualism and diversity to city planning.

joseon-era map of seoul.

maps, land use planning, built and social environments, architecture and urban design get me hot and bothered. starting at age 7, i spent most of my free time creating an imaginary society. thousands of hours were invested into filling a file cabinet with official "royal republic of targot" documents, including a hand-drawn 64-square-foot map that i still keep in the basement. recently, i've had a shame-filled addiction to the city-building computer game, sim city. clearly, i am obsessed with cities (and need more friends?).

one view of seoul (click for larger). i think this photo is by robert koehler of the marmot hole blog.

it's fitting that i live in the world's sixth largest city (10.3 million) and second largest urban agglomeration (23 million). in fact, half of south korea's population lives in the greater capital area. but unlike manhattan, london or hong kong, seoul doesn't lend itself to a postcard. there's no central, picture-perfect cluster of skyscrapers, no large body of water from which to approach its skyline, and photographers are often frustrated by the hills and mountains that obscure huge swaths of the city from every angle.

80% of south koreans live in cities and 80% of them live in tower block-style "ah-pa-tuh" (아파트).

seoul from afar isn't picture-perfect because, with notable exceptions, it is not a beautiful city. in the rush to rebuild after the civil war, aesthetics were sacrificed. as a result, dense clusters of ugly post-war, 2-story brick homes and rows of bland, identical hilberseimer-style apartment towers stretch for miles with few green spaces in-between. typically, any commercial building surface that isn't a window is covered with obnoxious signage in fluorescent inks or lights. while i love seoul, i envy the sophisticated historic beauty of many european and latin american cities.

architectural darling zaha hadid's winning bid to redevelop seoul's dongdaemun neighborhood. stay tuned for details...

but don't fret! flush with cash, the world's 12th largest economy is investing billions of dollars into ambitious urban regeneration projects designed to make its political, economic and cultural capital truly livable. and while a blank canvas is fun, there's something more authentic and exciting about taking a dysfunctional environment and transforming it into something remarkable. of course, part of doing this is respecting what and who was there previously.

so, as an addendum to my "field trip" postings, i hereby introduce "cityplan". this new series of posts will highlight what seoulites are doing--ingenious and misguided, alike--to transform the miracle on the han river into one of the world's most livable, and... dare i say it, beautiful cities.

about

yup, those are my pants on the couch. for the blogger, clothing below the waist is just distraction.
>more photos of korea (and me)

i grew up on a small island in the northwest corner of the united states. much of my childhood was spent drawing maps, harvesting sea life, and wishing i was puerto rican. after 8 years birthing and then resenting an NGO, it was time to leave identity politics usa-style behind for my mudder's mudderland.

because we share a special temperament, despite being mixed and homo i love korea and he loves me back. korea haters are boring. if you don't take yourself and/or your fetishes too seriously, you may enjoy my inconsistent mix of personal updates with regionally-relevant musings. i love maps. thanks for visiting.

email me here.

fyi: the homepage banner image was extracted from a photo by story sloane, jr., an american g.i. stationed in daegu during the korean war. it was taken in 1951 or 52.