*photo credit: Seoul National University Museum of Art (http://www.snumoa.org/Moa/Builds.asp)
This week will be dedicated to the foreign invasion! One cannot discuss contemporary Seoul without considering the deep tension that exists between the city and the outside. The physical manifestations of outside influence (or coercion) are imprinted throughout the city, yet these foreign artifacts are truly alien. Despite being a megalopolis, almost 98 percent of Seoul's inhabitants are ethnic Korean (http://www.macalester.edu/courses/geog261/Brown_Seoul/demographics.html). The built environment does not necessarily betray this.
Seoul City Hall and a nearby art museum (contained in the walls of an ancient palace), are remnants of the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), designed by a German architect (WHAT'S HIS NAME). These buildings lie at the heart, as it were, of Seoul. It is a very complicated relationship to try to unpack. Built in a Western neo-classical style, imposed by the Japanese, there is a strange and twisted history existing just below the surface. Particularly intriguing is that these buildings are not facing the wrecking ball, the fate of some buildings, such as the Japanese General Government-General (Seoul Capitol) building (demolished 1995-6).
Following the war, the American military presence continues the lineage of seemingly disproportionate or incongruous foreignness in the central built environment of the city. This is best discussed on its own. I promise.
What this is meant to demonstrate is that the 20th century was an uncomfortable period of involuntary foreign predominance in the built environment. So how does one read the voluntary commission of Western starchitects in the 21st century?
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