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Korean architecture

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Heungryemun in Gyeongbok Palace.

Korean architecture refers to the built environment of Korea from c. 30,000 BC to the present.

Ancient architecture (Paleolithic–7th century)

Reconstructed Neolithic-period huts in Amsa-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul

In the Paleolithic the first inhabitants of the Korean peninsula used caves, rockshelters, and portable shelters. The remains of a portable shelter dating to c. 30,000 BC were excavated at the Seokjang-ri site in South Chungcheong Province[1]. The earliest examples of pit-house architecture are from the Jeulmun Pottery Period[2]. Early pit-houses contained basic features such as hearths, storage pits, and space for working and sleeping.

In the Mumun period buildings were pit dwellings with walls of wattle-and-daub and thatched roofs[3]. Raised-floor architecture first appeared in the Korean peninsula in the Middle Mumun, c. 850-550 BC[4].

Archaeological evidence of ondol, the Korean floor panel heating system, was found in the architectural remains of early Protohistoric[5].

In 109 B.C.E., the Chinese commandery at Nangnang (Lelang) was established in the northwest region of Korea. Official buildings of this period were built of wood and brick and roofed with tiles having the features of Chinese construction. Chinese architecture strongly influenced Korean architecture at this time, creating an architectural basis for the development of state-level society.

Temple Mireuksa built during Baekje kingdom era

In the Three Kingdoms Period, some people lived in pit-houses while others lived in raised-floor buildings. For example, the Hanseong Baekje settlement of Seongdong-ri in Gyeonggi Province contained only pit-houses[6], while the Silla settlement of Siji-dong in Greater Daegu contained only raised-floor architecture[7].

Goguryeo, the largest of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is renowned for its mountain fortresses built horizontally and vertically along the incline of slopes. One of the well-preserved Goguryeo fortresses is Baekam fortress (白巖城) constructed before 6th century in present-day South-West Manchuria.

Baekje was founded in 18 BC and its territory included the west coast of the Korean peninsula. After the fall of Nangnang, Baekje established friendships with China and Japan. Great temples were built during this time. The earliest stone pagoda of the Mireuksa Temple in Iksan county is of particular interest because it shows the transitional features from a wooden pagoda to a stone one. Baekje assimilated diverse influences and expressed its derivation from Chinese models. Later, important elements of the architectural style of Baekje were adopted by Japan.

Silla was the last of the three kingdoms to develop into a full-fledged kingdom. Buddhist temples were built in Silla. One of the well known examples of Sillan architecture is Cheomseongdae, said to be the first stone observatory in Asia. It was built during the reign of Queen Seondeok (632-646). The structure is known for its unique and elegant form.

Ancient mortuary architecture

Tomb of a Goguryeo military general located in Jian, China.

Megaliths, sometimes called dolmens, are the burials of important and prestigious persons of the Mumun Pottery Period (1500-300 BC). They have been found in great numbers and along with stone-cist burials, megaliths and are the main examples of mortuary architecture in the Mumun. There are three types of megaliths: (1) the southern type, which is low and often a simple slab with supporting stones, (2) the northern type, which is larger and shaped much like a table, and (3) the capstone type, which has a capstone with no supporting stones. The distribution of the dolmens would imply some relation to other global megalithic cultures.

Three Kingdoms Period mortuary architecture was monumental in scale. For example, in Goguryeo two different types of mortuary architecture evolved during this period: one type of burial is a stepped pyramid made of stone, while another is a large earth mound form. The Cheonmachong mounded burial is an example of the monumental style of mortuary architecture in the ancient Silla capital at Gyeongju.

United Silla architecture (7th–10th century)

Anapji pond in Gyeongju.

After the unification of the Korean peninsula into the kingdom of United Silla, Korean institutions were radically transformed. United Silla absorbed the fully matured culture of the T'ang dynasty in China, and at the same time developed a unique cultural identity. New Buddhist sects were introduced from the T'ang and Buddhist art flourished. It was a period of peace and cultural advancement in all fields of the arts.

Architecture flourished in the royal capital of Gyeongju, though almost all traces of the former glory have vanished at the present time. The city had nearly a 200,000 inhabitants at its peak was strategically located at the junction of two rivers and three mountains that encircle a fertile basin of about 170 km² in area. The urban area of the city was developed and expanded in three stages. In the second stage, when Hwangnyongsa Temple was located in the center, the region was developed into the grid network of road patterns with wide streets.

One of the Palace sites is marked by the artificial lake of Anapji with stone works of retaining walls delineating the former building location. The residential district of the nobles in the city was composed of great houses which were constructed conforming to the building code that granted privileges to the nobles, but forbidden to the commoners. Tiles from many ruins of the buildings were found everywhere. Of those that are still intact, show elegant and graceful design.

Buddhist architecture

File:Blgkst.jpg
Bulguksa

The plans of Buddhist temples were characterized by two pagodas in front of the central main hall in a symmetrical layout on the north-south axis with other buildings. Bulguksa Temple, built on a stone platform at the foothill of Mt. Toham near Gyeongju, is the oldest existing temple in Korea. The temple was first founded early in the sixth century and was entirely rebuilt and enlarged in 752. The original platform and foundations have remained intact to the present, but the existing wooden buildings were reconstructed during the Joseon dynasty.

The stone work of the two-story platform exhibits a superb sense of architectural organization and advanced building methods. Two stone pagodas stand in front of the main hall of the temple. The simpler Seokgatap located to the left of the court represents Buddha's manifestation in a transcendent calm. It has three stories with two pedestal layers and a total height reaching about twenty-five feet. The pagoda consists of simple undecorated pedestal slabs and three-story stupa each of which has five stepped eaves and truncated roofs. These characteristics constitute a typical form of the Korean stone pagodas.

Dabotap

To the right of the court, the complex Dabotap represents Buddha's manifestation in a diversified universe, and is unique in Korea, further so in Asia. With a height of thirty-five feet, this pagoda has one pedestal with a staircase on each side, four main stories with balustrade and is characterized by the final crown-ball-and-plate sequence. The design motif of the lotus flower is apparent in mouldings and other details of the pagoda.

The rock cave shrine of Seokguram is located on the crest of Mt. Toham. It was built by the same master architect of Bulguksa Temple, and built around the same era. This cave shrine was artificially and skillfully constructed with granite blocks and covered with an earth mound on top to give the appearance of a natural landscape. The shrine boasts a rectangular anteroom lined with large stone slabs carved with the figures of the protectors of Buddhism on each side of the walls and at the entrance passageway to the main chamber. The circular main chamber covered by an elegant dome ceiling and surrounded by carved stone wall panels depicting bodhisattvas and the ten disciples. The graceful statue of Buddha on a lotus pedestal in the center is the dominant feature of the chamber.

Rock cave shrines are not rare in Asia, but few of these shrines and sculptures reveal such high level of artistry. None are as religiously and artistically complete in overall design as those at Seokguram

Pagoda detail

Goryeo architecture (10th–14th century)

Much of the architecture of this time was inspired by Buddhism, such as magnificent Buddhist temples and the Korean pagoda. Unfortunately, since most of the architecture of this time was built of wood, little has survived to the present day. Also, the capital of Goryeo was based in Gaesong, in modern day North Korea, which has made this era especially problematic to study for historians at large.

The few remaining wooden structures surviving from the late Goryeo period in South Korea indicates significantly simpler bracketing than those found in Joseon period architecture. Bright and soft coloring of the structures indicate further development since the Three Kingdoms era.[2]

Joseon architecture (14th–19th century)

DongbukGakru in Hwaseong Fortress
Joseon dynasty court architecture

The founding of the Joseon dynasty in 1392 brought to power like-minded men steeped in the doctrines of Neo-Confucianism, which had slowly percolated into Korea from China in the 14th century. This ushered in a new environment that was relatively hostile to Buddhism, causing the state to gradually shift its patronage from Buddhist temples to Confucian institutions. Throughout the early dynasty, the impetus to reform society along Neo-Confucian lines led to the construction of hyanggyo (local schools) in Seoul and numerous provincial cities. Here, sons of the aristrocracy prepared for civil service careers in an atmosphere of Confucian learning. Although these institutions endured through the end of the dynasty, they began to fall out of favor in the mid-16th century for a variety of reasons. Among these, the rise in population made it the prospects of a civil service career less likely than in earlier years. Also, as the yangban aristocracy matured in its understanding of Neo-Confucianism, they grew more selective in the quality and type of instruction they favored for their sons. As a result, private confucian academies (seowon) gradually supplanted hyanggyos and became a staple of rural aristocratic life until the end of the dynasty.

Neo-Confucianism inspired new architectural paradigms. Jaesil, or clan memorial halls, became common in many villages where extended families erected facilities for common veneration of a distant ancestor. Jongryo, or memorial shrines, were established by the government to commemorate exceptional acts of filial piety or devotion. Even beyond these archetypes, the aesthetics of Neo-Confucianism, which favored practicality, frugality, and harmony with nature, forged a consistent architectural style throughout Korean society.

Japanese occupation architecture (1910-1945)

During the Japanese occupation of Korea, there was a systematic attempt by the Empire of Japan to destroy native Korean architecture and replace it with Japanese architecture. One of the ways in which the Korean people resisted the Japanese authorities was to build traditional Korean homes. The houses in Jeonju Hanok Village are a particularly famous example of this, erected as a statement of national pride and remaining so today. [8]

Important architectural sites were destroyed, often by burning. Significant elements of landscaping, such as Korean gardens, were razed, with important artistic pieces sold or taken to Japan, even to the extent of ancient bunjae trees taken for replanting in Japanese bonsai gardens. It was at this time as well that the traditional religious architecture was discouraged.

Japanese architecture was first introduced in the Korean transportation networks. Railroad lines saw the construction of Japanese-style rail stations and hotels. Ports as transit points, however, had limited construction. Inland, the Japanese built new city halls, barracks and military bases, jail and prisons, police stations, and police boxes. Having prohibited the teaching of the Korean language in schools, Japan built many new schools along Japanese educational models. Korean architectural schools were subsequently closed, and Korean architects were required to train only in Japan and encouraged to design exclusively along Japanese models when they returned. While the assumption was that Western influences on Japanese architects would have transferred to Korea, this did not happen.

Materials were in short supply, with the Japanese logging almost all old-growth forests and shipping particularly large cypress logs to Japan, taking any other building materials of use for export. It left Korean buildings unrestored and neglected, and contributed to the deterioration of much of Korean architectural history. Historic buildings were also decorated by Japanese ornamentation.

The Japanese discarded European cultural influences in Korea as well, meaning that Korea had in a period spanning about 55 years in which there were no influences of art nouveau, art deco, Bauhaus, or style moderne, and no influence until the post-war period of American architecture, such as skyscrapers or large-scale apartment buildings.

Post-war period and Korean War architecture

After the unconditional surrender in 1945, American architecture assumed supremacy. Under Douglas MacArthur, who set Korean domestic and political policy from the Supreme Command of the Allied Powers headquarters in Tokyo. Korean architecture by Koreans began once again in domestic areas, with extensive repair of the missionary churches being given priority funding. Essential repair to infrastructure followed, more patch-work than new projects, and block-built hospitals, schools, industries began simple construction under military supervision.

Seoul had survived much of World War II but during the Korean War (1950–1953), many buildings were destroyed, with the city changing command between North Korean and South Korean powers five times. Street-to-street fighting and artillery barrages levelled much of the city, as well as the bridges over the Han River. Important architectural sites were over-run and burnt by invading People's Liberation Army forces, looting was extensive, and the urban landscape suffered with little money for repairs.

Modern architecture

With the armistice, and distinct architectural styles determined by foreign governments began a long period of development.

In the north, Stalinist and absolutist, often brutalist architecture, was championed. North Korean architects studied in Moscow or Soviet satellites, and brought back socialist worker styles and huge celebratory people's architecture on a grand and massively impressive scale. Nomenclatura lived in Soviet-style apartment blocks, farmers and rural workers lived in traditional houses as they always had; urbanization did not occur. Grand buildings and huge public squares were developed in Pyongyang as architectural showpieces. Formal processional landscapes accompanied these sites. Nearly all architecture was government sponsored, and maintained great homogeneity of function and style.

In the south, American models defined all new Korean buildings of any importance, with domestic architecture both civil and rural keeping to traditional buildings, building techniques, and using local materials, and local vernacular styles. The pragmatic need to rebuild a country devastated by genocide, then a civil war, led to ad hoc buildings with no particular styles, extended repeatedly, and a factory system of simple cheap expendable buildings. As few Korean cities had a grid-system, and were often given limits by mountains, few if any urban landscapes had a sense of distinction; by the mid-1950s, rural areas were underfunded, urban areas overfilled, and urban sprawl began with little money to build distinctive important buildings.

Buildings were built as quickly as money and demand would allow in a workman-like anonymous way, but without individual identities. Architects were almost to a man trained in the United States, and brought American design, perspective, and methods without much recourse to the local community look and feel. As the need for housing for workers increased, traditional hanoak villages were razed, hundreds of simple cheap apartments were put up very fast, and bedroom communities on the periphery of the urban centres grew, built and financed as company housing. Little effort was made to have a sense of an architectural aesthetic.

Apartment buildings in Seongnam city, South Korea

This urgency for simple fast housing left most Korean downtowns as faceless as Hong Kong: concrete towers for work or living and local neighborhoods rebuilt with cheap materials. Little or no attempt was made for planning, if planning had been possible. In the countryside, traditional building continued.

Well into the 1980s, Korea had architecture, but its buildings had little aesthetic, a limited sense of design, and did not integrate into the neighbourhoods or culture. Awareness that functionality had reached its limits came quickly as Korea moved into the world through sports culture.

Sports architecture

Sports architecture transited to a Korean style.

South Korea won the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympic games, which spurred waves of new building activity. To market the country globally, international architects were encouraged to submit designs, introducing alternative concepts for modern architecture that began to put style and form ahead of spartan practicality. Historically, sports architecture has occupied the most money and the greatest expression of form identity within Korea. Hundreds of billions of won have been spent on defining Korea as a sports mecca with the architecture leading the way.

As in the North, most of the largest projects in the South were government sponsored works: but instead worked in confined, rather than open spaces, and worked with huge amounts of enclosed space, primarily in the state subsidized hugely expensive sports architecture. Korea since the 1980s had its most famous architectural works driven by sports: the Asian Games (1986), the Olympics (1988), and the 2002 World Cup stadia, as well as great support being given by the chaebols such as the Samsung Group which itself owned the sports teams for marketing purposes.

Important architects at this time and their works often led by the atelier-style architectural co-operative Space Group of Korea were:

It wasn't until the late 1980s and early 1990s that an entirely new generation of Korean architects had the freedom and the financing to build Korean architecture in a distinct Korean manner. This was a result of architects studying and training in Europe, Canada, and even in South America, and seeing the need for more of a sense of unique style, and more sophisticated materials.

There was a new determination that nationalistic architectural elements had to be revived and refined. Buildings had to mean something within their cultural context.

Post-modern Korean architecture (1986–2005)

Cultural and museum buildings have followed; with city halls and buildings for the civil service appearing generally in a New York/Chicago style rather than following London or Paris trends.

Individuality and experimentation became the new cause for young architects, however the country as a whole was slow to move from the old traditions into seeing good architecture aesthetics as being important to the sense of a village, town, or city. Change was forced at times against intense resistance, and new buildings evolved at great cost to the architects and builders and within a great tension.

Much of the growth of new architecture came from retail stores, clothing shops, bistros, cafes, and bars; and the underside of architectural commissions, rather than from major government contracts or the financial and corporate community. Foreign corporations setting up Korean headquarters also brought in an entirely new spirit of architecture to define their own visions.

Important architects at this time include:

See also

References

  1. ^ Jipjari [House]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp.1130-1131.
  2. ^ Jipjari [House]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp.1130-1131.
  3. ^ Jipjari [House]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp.1130-1131.
  4. ^ Jipjari [House]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp.1130-1131.
  5. ^ Jipjari [House]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp.1130-1131.
  6. ^ Seongdong-ri Jibjari [The Seongdong-ri Settlement Site]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp. 652-653.
  7. ^ Siji-dong Yujeok [The Siji-dong Site]. In Hanguk Gogohak Sajeon [Dictionary of Korean Archaeology], edited by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Seoul, 2001, pp. 749-751.
  8. ^ [1] Hanok hotels become a hip choice
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