Seoul floats towards the future

[ilbonito]

Seoul has started its reign as 2010's new World Capital of Design. Its a title bestowed by a worldwide union of industrial design associations on North East Asia's "other" megalopolis, (greater Seoul is now the second most populous city in the world, after Tokyo). The city will be celebrating with a Design Olympiad, design festivals, an ice sculpture exhibition and a pop-up Prada store in the grounds of the Gyeongbokggung Palace, among other things.

It is fitting recognition for a city that has been quietly evolving from an Asian also-ran into a centre for urban style; since I lived there (2005, though it seems like a million years ago) the city has already plated its Galleria Department Store with luminous, ever-changing LED screens;




Built the world's fifth largest museum (the new national Museum of Korea), and a new Leeum contemporary art centre with each wing by a star architect, like Jean Nouvel and Rem Koolhaas.

it has sprouted buildings like the concrete and moss boutique for Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester:




With the Samsung WaveEbuilding now under construction.



And most spectacularly, the city has resurrected a stream long buried under a freeway as a wildly popular symbol for everything from environmentalism to anti-Japanese national pride. The 900 million dollar Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration project has proved so successful that ideas were even floated by the mayor of Seoul (and national presidential hopeful) to replicate it on a national scale by constructing a new canal the length of the whole country (an idea that makes little economic sense and has dire environmental implications, if you ask me).



And having now renovated the stream, the city is turning its attention to its most magnificent waterway, the Hanggang river which snakes majestically through the city. Last month a buoyant concrete shell was towed into place, soon to be transformed into one of three floating islands moored in the river, housing parks, theatres and leisure facilities, and manga-tastically named Viva, Vista and Terra .



But even this will be topped by the kooky green spires of the Seoul Commune 2026 project where 50-storey plant covered gourd-shaped towers will sprout over the river's Southern bank.



Another similarly designed complex will also be built 35 km to the South at Gwanggyo.



Its quite an impressive performance by anyone's standards, and even more so when you consider that the city has eschewed the biggest, tallestEdevelopments of Shanghai or Dubai ( plans for the long-promised world's tallest skyscraper in my old neighborhood, Jamsil, have been scrapped). Instead the city is focusing on projects to boost the city's liveability and green credentials; firmly rooted though still with flair. Judging from these pics, Seoul should be a green, interesting and curvy city in the future.

[Deleted]

That's quite a different Seoul from the one that I saw.... er.... 30 years ago. Back then, the thing that struck me the most, apart from just the general ugliness of the city, was the depth of the subway system, which was built that way to also serve as a bomb shelter from possible North Korean attacks.

There was a bomb drill once a month where everybody had to drop everything and go to the bomb shelter. Visitors were exempted from this, but they had to stay in their hotel room during the drill.

[ilbonito]

There was a bomb drill once a month where everybody had to drop everything and go to the bomb shelter. Visitors were exempted from this, but they had to stay in their hotel room during the drill.

Oh, they still do this!! The first time it happened I heard the siren go off, a squadron of planes flew over in formation and the streets cleared - I thought we were at war. No-one had told me about the drills.

They say it would take two minutes for a North Korean missile to hit Seoul, from launch to impact. That is kind of what impressed me about the city - its not elegant or refined (or it wasn't then) but its a real survivor - flattened by war, shivering through freezing winters, the capital of a country conquered and divided, always living on the edge of a terrifying precipice - and yet it not only survives but thrives. And look at it now - going from strength to strength. It reminded me a bit of Berlin in that way. Its not a typically "lovely" city but its beauty is in its sheer force of will - the fact that it is still here!

[bixaorellana]

This is a revelation! Do you know who or what was the impetus behind this leap into the future?

A question about the buildings with plants -- how will those be sustained in the brutal Korean winters? Or are will they be replanted every Spring. All that moss on the Belgian designer's bldg must get pretty ugly in the cold. Not being a nay-sayer, as all of this is exciting and positive, I just have practical curiosity.

[ilbonito]

I'm not much of a gardening expert, but itsn't moss very cold-resistant? After all, it grows above the Arctic treeline...or is that lichen?

I think Seoul's recent tech-savvy is partly due to a design-focused city government pushing through some popular and successful projects (especially the Stream restoration). But even more than that, it is simply Korea adjusting to its newfound status. In the 1960s Koreans had a living standard comparable to Ghana, but by the twenty-first century their incomes are roughly comparable to Western Europe. Obviously Seoul has always been a forward-thinking city, a mover and a shaker. Its gone through its cheap "Made in Korea" industrial phase, consolidated its big brands (Hyundai, Samsung, LG) and now is beginning to realize that it is not competing with the sweatshops of China anymore, but the hi-tech corporations of Japan. Design is a crucial way to add value and edge to Korean products - and that thinking is seeping through to urban planning.

Another thing is that there has been a huge boom in interest in Korea in other asian countries; the "halryu" or "korean wave" has seen Seoul's TV dramas and pop stars topping charts from Tokyo to the Philippines. It has become fashionable to learn Korean in lots of South East Asian countries. I saw signs in Korean EVERYWHERE when I was in Vietnam. In fact I just read that one Indonesian tribe called the Cia-Cia in Sulawesi have decided to revive their threatened language by now writing it in the Korean alphabet! All of that must be feeding into a new confidence in the city, as its profile gets ever higher.

[Deleted]

Fantastic photos ilbonito. You have seen some amazing sights. It IS surprising just how much this city has progressed.

[bixaorellana]

Apr 10, 2010 12:00:13 GMT ilbonito said:

... it is simply Korea adjusting to its newfound status. In the 1960s Koreans had a living standard comparable to Ghana, but by the twenty-first century their incomes are roughly comparable to Western Europe. Obviously Seoul has always been a forward-thinking city, a mover and a shaker. Its gone through its cheap "Made in Korea" industrial phase, consolidated its big brands (Hyundai, Samsung, LG) and now is beginning to realize that it is not competing with the sweatshops of China anymore, but the hi-tech corporations of Japan. Design is a crucial way to add value and edge to Korean products - and that thinking is seeping through to urban planning.
... It has become fashionable to learn Korean in lots of South East Asian countries.

Ilbonito, thank you so much for that very illuminating answer. Since I don't pay attention to the financial pages, nor have any immediate plans to travel to that part of the world, this is completely new to me.

What strikes me is the populist impulse behind so much of this design. There seems to be no brittle elitism about it at all, but a desire to put to work human-friendly ideas that are mostly only talked about in other places. The resurrected stream lined with greenery and being enjoyed by hordes of citizens can indeed be seen as a symbol of environmentalism &/or national pride, as you say. The rounded aesthetic in all these projects is so interesting as an antidote to the sharp-edged towers that rise elsewhere as a symbol of wealth and power.

2026 is only 16 years away. I want to see those fantastically beautiful green buildings!

[ilbonito]

I found the statistic quite amazing that Seoul is now the world's second largest city. The rest of the world knows so little about it ..

[bixaorellana]

It is amazing. The only thing I can compare it to is Mexico City, which is vast indeed. In the artist's rendering of Viva, Vista, & Terra, is the cityscape shown pretty much how it looks right now?

If you had a chance, would you return there to live for any period of time?

[ilbonito]

I think that picture is all accurate, except for the islands which have now been hauled into place, but are still undergoing construction work.

I had an interesting time in Seoul. I had moved there from Tokyo and there were times when I found it stiflingly parochial by comparison; not at all what you'd expect from the world's second largest city. Its so homogenous, and so morally conservative. Korea is sometimes said to be the world's purest Confucian society (Buddhism was actually illegal for several hundred years) and as a result it is very...rigid. There is a certain way to do things and no deviation will be accepted. At times it felt like I'd stepped back to the 1950s, and the outside world felt very far away. I wrote on my blog at the time: "Everyone is very prim and conservative, women who dont wear makeup are looked down on as "unfeminine" and there are ostentatious churches everywhere."

And I ended up leaving in less-than-ideal circumstances; the company I was working for went bankrupt leaving us unpaid for a month's work. I did a runner and fled the country - and was promptly blacklisted by immigration from re-entering for two years, because by leaving I had broken my contract (although of course, by not paying me, my employers had too).

And yet despite all the aggravation, and the reasons to dislike the city, I do find myself missing it sometimes. I found Korean people very warm, and very genuine and I always managed to have fun there. And from what I have seen, it seems to be continually changing, and improving, and bettering itself. I wonder if it would seem worldlier and less constricting now?

[bixaorellana]

I'm only now reading your insightful answer above, Ilbonito. The tiny bit I know about Koreans suggests that they may be among the most resilient people on earth, along with having great respect for their culture and traditions. Perhaps that explains in part the dichotomy between a rigid and formalized way of acting and the innate warmth of the people.

I hope you get a chance to return to see for yourself if it's changed, and in what ways. Of course, once you know a place, what was so surprising and disconcerting when you first encountered it, may not strike you that way the next time around. Do you agree?

[ilbonito]

Yes.
I almost forget that Tokyo seemed strange to me once, its so familiar and reassuring now!
I'd love to go back to Seoul, and it might just happen. There are some cheap deals floating around occassionally passing through Incheon Airport en route to other places.

Besides which, I have rather kept in touch with Korea due to the huge explosion in Korean pop music. I love it. Its so shiny and well-produced; some of the videos are even glossier than American ones! Its getting more and more popular .... I wouldn't be at all surprised if the first Asian pop singer to really cross over in the West is not Chinese or Japanese, but Korean.

[ilbonito]

Example:

[hwinpp]

Completely different from my expectations! Looks like the Koreans are in the fore of developments in Northeast Asia not only on the pop front.

The Koreans are the biggest tourist group in Cambodia once again (after the Vietnamese overtook them in 2008), they have a lot of expats living here yet I know only one.

[ilbonito]

I was surprised to find a North Korean souvenir shop (!!!!) in Phnom Penh. Aren't the Koreans also building the city's first skyscraper (plated in gold) and a monorail to run around Angkor Wat (a shame about that, I think ...)

[hwinpp]

Ha, ha, yes, that's always a shocker!

And the North Korean restaurants both here and in Siem Reap. Always a big draw with the South Korean groups ;D

Gold Tower 42 is being built by South Koreans, slowly it's going up.

I think with the monorail around Angkor Wat your leg has been pulled...

What they did try once was to introduce electrically driven buggies to the whole Angkor area. Sounds good but turned out to be quite sinister and the idea was scrapped when the tuktuk drivers threatened self immolation in front of Angkor Wat. Was that what you heard of?

[ilbonito]

What they did try once was to introduce electrically driven buggies to the whole Angkor area. Sounds good but turned out to be quite sinister and the idea was scrapped when the tuktuk drivers threatened self immolation in front of Angkor Wat.

Oh thats it then. When I was there my tuktuk driver was outraged over it (understandably) and heading off to a big protest. He kept asking "how does this benefit us - the people who live here? We lose out jobs and some big Korean company wins out". It was a good point. Glad it didn't happen (and no idea how the plan morphed from electric buggies into a 'monorail' !

[ilbonito]

There is an interesting article on a cutting edge art and design village just outside Seoul, near the "Demilitarized Zone" as the heavily fortified border with the North is ironically known:

culturemagazine.ca/art/heyri_art_valley_art_on_the_border.html






I thought the intro to the article was really perceptive:

South Korea is possibly the most optimistic country on earth. They have reason to be, given the amazing rate of development and economic growth they have experienced in the last 30 years. They also have a great need to be optimistic, as they continue to share a border with the temperamental regime to the north, which has separated them from their families and friends for the last 55 years. As South Korea has become richer, the government has ensured that the built up infrastructure could one day be easily linked to the rest of the peninsula. But it's not just the government that is optimistic. Some of the most hopeful of South Korea's residents decided to establish a village not five kilometres from the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas... an artist village called Heyri Art Valley as a place to promote the culture of a united Korean community.

[ilbonito]

More from Seoul:



The amazing "Kring Building"


Alternative cultural centre, Ssang sang Madang


Bar called "OI" which is made of "underground tunnels" with a "rave in an igloo" aesthetic according to a blog I read

Due to open later this year: A public park built onto the roof of a new design centre, in the middle of the world's largest market, Dongdaemun

<a href="http://s1007.photobucket.com/albums/af193/ilboni30/?action=view¤t=4064754874_3951c04c8c.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1007.photobucket.com/albums/af193/ilboni30/4064754874_3951c04c8c.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>[/img]


A czech restaurant called Castle Praha

None of this existed when i was in Seoul. Its all very impressive ...

[Deleted]

I am wondering what aspect of the Asian psyche has allowed this sort of architecture to develop. When you think of more than a millennium of traditional architecture throughout the region with an emphasis on harmony and symmetry, it's almost as though they now have some sort of interesting brain virus cutting them off from their past.

[Deleted]

I was going to say something similar, Kerouac. They are very inventive though, almost an overload of the senses.

[fumobici]

I love it. Like any experimental expression it's perhaps more misses than hits, but the totality of it all still expresses a cheerful effervescent vitality.

[ilbonit0]

I think the concept of harmonious, muted good taste is in many ways a Western hang up (see Tokyo street fashion with its cheerful disdain for any rules about what you can mix and match). Asians are often all too happy to just jumble things up together. Personally I find that very liberating.

That, plus a much keener interest in "novelty" than Western cultures. Asian cultures generally I think are much more interested in "newness" than Western ones (hence their often woeful efforts at preservation of historic buildings and areas), and infatuation with fads and crazes (which again, I enjoy).

I love the Kring Building!!! It is so witty and exciting.

[Jazz]

Ilbonito, all of your threads are incredibly vital and beautifully written. Especially for me, I have never been to Asia and know little. Given that you said, ‘it was so homogenous and so morally conservative’, this thread is stunning! I can understand why Seoul has been honored with 2010’s ‘World Capitol of Design’. This is an overwhelming achievement in so little time. I love it all. The extensive use of vegetation, the human scale, and bringing a ‘lost’ stream back to life.

Especially, the concrete and moss building (yes, moss is very cold resistant), the wave building, and the sprouting towers yet to come. It takes guts to build an art and design village in the Demilitarized Zone. The middle photo of #17, with the golden tree growing out of the building is beautiful. (for me, a window or two would enhance the design.)

To live there may almost be a sensory overload and certainly a radical departure from the past. Thinking about our planet’s disturbed situation environmentally, I am relieved to see green, humanistic design being recognized and honored.

This is a bit hard to express…But, I am in conflict...while I love the 'edge' and vitality, I feel sad and disturbed that we have, with our technological ‘advances’, brought ourselves to the point where concrete and vegetation buildings are exalted as miracles of design, while at the same time, we are still very much in the process of slowly and carelessly destroying the design of our Earth.

[alanseago]

I first went there in 1975, to instal the first web offset press at Dong-a Textbook. It was much different then but already magic with adorable people.