Information about Korean Architecture

Korean architecture refers to the architecture of Korea.

Introduction

Ancient architecture (Neolithic–7th century)

The Neolithic period was when the early stages of Korean architecture began. Archaeological evidence of ondol, the unique Korean floor panel heating system, was found at the remains of the burnished plain pottery culture and the development of the vertical wall was evident in the primitive houses of this culture.

Dolmens, which were primitive tombs of important persons, have been found in the Korean peninsula. There are two types of dolmens: the southern type, which is low and often a simple slab without supporting stones; and the northern type, which is larger and more definite in shape. The distribution of the dolmens would imply some relation to the megalithic cultures of the Western world.

During this period building techniques of houses evolved from a pit dwelling to that of an earthen wall with thatched roof, to that of a log cabin construction, and finally, to a raised floor construction.

In 109 B.C.E., the Chinese commandery at Nangnang (Lo-lang) 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 a basis for further Korean development.

After the fall of Nangnang in 313, Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, expanded her territory to included half of Manchuria and all of north Korea. Two different types of tombs evolved during this period: one is a stepped pyramid made of stone, while the other is a large earth mound form.

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

Silla was the last of the three kingdoms to develop into a full-fledged kingdom. Again many great temples were built, but the most famous architectural development is Cheomseongdae, said to be the first stone observatory in Asia, built during the reign of Queen Seondeok (632-646). The structure is famous for its unique and elegant form.

United Silla architecture (7th–10th century)

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 great period of peace and cultural advancement in all helds of the arts.

Architecture flourished in the royal capital of Kyongju, though almost all traces of the former glory have vanished at the present time. The city with nealy a million inhabitants at her peak was strategically located at the junction of two rivers and three mountains encircling a fertile basin of about five by seven miles in area. The urban area of the city was developed and expanded in three stages. In the second stage, when Hwangyong 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 Annap 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.

The plans of Buddhist temples were characterized by two pagodas in front of the central main hall in a symrnetrical layout on the north-south axis with other buildings. Pulguk Temple, built on a stone platform at the foothill of Mt. Toham near Kyongju, 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 Choson 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 Sokka-top 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.

To the right of the court, the complex Tabo-tap 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 Sokkuram is located on the crest of Mt. Toham. It was built by the same master architect of Pulguk 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 Sokkuram

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.[1]

Joseon architecture (14th–19th century)

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.

A typical yangban house in Gangneung.	Trees and flowers were carefully arranged to make a nice view.	A small country house in Gangneung.	Seongyojang,a grandiose country house for a prominent yangban family in Gangneung.
Walls and pavilions divided sectors.	The presence of gulttuk or chimney is a unique characteristic of Korean architecture which is rarely found in its other Asian counterparts.	Entrance to house.	Chimneys were used to draw off smoke from ondol.
Unhyeongung or Unhyeon Palace in Seoul. Wealthy yangban families and royalites lived in this kind of town house wich were mainly built in the northern sector aka bukchon of old Seoul.	Inside Unhyeon Palace.	19th-early 20th century houses for common city dwellers.	Changdeokgung or Changdeok Royal Palace.
Another pavillion in Changdeok Royal Palace.	Gyeongbokgung or Gyeongbok Royal Palace.

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. ^[1]

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.



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:

• Park Kil-ryong
• Jungup Kim or Kim Chung-up - Trained in France and designed the Olympic Memorial Gate/World Peace Gate, 1988.
• Jongseong Kim - Weight Lifting Gymnasium, Olympic Park, 1986.
• Kim Su-keun who trained in Tokyo - Olympic Stadium. 1984. Total area is 133,649metres³, 100,000seats, 245×180m diameter, 830m in perimeter.
• Gyusung Woo - Olympic Village, 1984.

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:

• Um Tok-mun - Sejong Cultural Centre
• Kim Seok-Chul - Seoul Arts Centre
• Korean Architects Collaborative International under the guidance of Fentress Bradburn Architects - Incheon International Airport

•  • [ e] Architecture of Asia
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External links

• Asian Historical Architecture
• History of Korean architecture by Shin Young-hoon
• A Brief History of Korean Architecture
• ENHR Conference report by Jun, N.I., Hong, H.O. and Professor Yang on Japan's occupation architecture in Korea
• Junglim, a leading edge architectural atelier
• Visuals and plans of Junglim's larger projects
• Korean contemporary building, cityscapes shown to indicate changes
• Silla Architecture
• Yi Jongho's atelier designs

References