Twice in the last two weeks I had the opportunity to talk to a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul about his work on the philosophy around what people build and his push to reintroduce a philosophy back into the field that finds its origins in Eastern as opposed to Western ways of thinking. Yesterday I sat in on his class and was able to discuss a little bit with some of the other grad students there.
A suggestion from one student in the Yonsei program, interestingly corresponds with an idea from an article I read today and I think reorients the desire to understand architecture in Korea in a new and important way.
The student suggested that the best way to get a quick introduction into the state of the built city environment in Seoul and Korea would be to take a tour through the various parts of the city that were built during different periods in Seoul’s development. The Bukchon neighborhood which I posted about previously would be a preserved representation of the neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th century. Other neighborhoods were planned and built immediately post war. Some neighborhoods were built for the affluent classes in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and then the finale would be to juxtapose all of that with something that has been built recently. The idea he had was that this could be a quick tour of a day or two that would truly reveal a sort of progression through time that would reveal the constant transformation of practice that is continuing to accelerate.
An article recently appeared in Space Magazine, written by a composer, titled “I am not clear”. In the article the composer describes the other layering that exists, this time in the Korean psyche. He describes this as his personal internal conflict with the layers of culture that shape his perspective on the world and in turn his work. “Looking at Korean culture,” he describes, “we find shamanism at the bottom, and the traditional culture of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism above it. Then there are layers of modern and contemporary culture, like Christianity, democracy, and capitalism at the top.” Later in the same paragraph he writes something that I have come to believe might be the potential of this layering. He talks about how these layers sometimes contradict each other but that Koreans are now destined to live with them. He states “If we can find a value in this day and age that penetrates through these layers, that will become a value that we can offer on the world stage.”
Source: Lee Geon-yong, “I am not Clear”, Space Magazine, No. 523, June 2011
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