Tradition Meets Modernity

Korean Culture No.12

Tradition Meets Modernity

ArCHiteCture

K

ArCHiteCture

K

K-architecture :

Copyright © 2013

by Korean Culture and Information Service

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

First Published in 2013 by

Korean Culture and Information Service Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Phone: 82-2-398-1914~20 Fax: 82-2-398-1882 Website: www.kocis.go.kr

ISBN: 978-89-7375-582-0 04610 ISBN: 978-89-7375-578-3 04080 (set) Printed in the Republic of Korea

For further information about Korea, please visit:

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Korean Culture No.12

Tradition Meets Modernity

ArCHiteCture

K

Contents

09

13

14 17

27

28 35 40 46

57

58 60

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Prologue

Bustling Cities, Rising Architecture

Rediscovering Korean Architecture Taking the Global Stage

The History of Korean Architecture

Stone Pagodas and Temple Architecture

The Beauty of Column-head Brackets and Entasis Humble Spaces in Harmony with Nature

East Meets West; Tradition Meets Modernity

Korean Spirit Embodied in Traditional Architecture

Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple

62 64 67 69 72 76 79 82

87

89 94 98

109

109 112 115 120 124

130 Janggyeongpanjeon Hall at Haeinsa Temple

Changdeokgung Palace Jongmyo Shrine Yangdong Village Soswaewon Garden

Dosan Seowon and Byeongsan Seowon Confucian Academies Hwaseong Fortress

Seongyojang House

Korean Modernism and Its Legacies

Two Giants of Korean Modernism

The 4.3 Group and Architectural Humanities Standing at the Boundary of Korean and Global

Pushing the Envelope: New Ideas and Experiments

Beyond the “City of Rooms”

A New Housing Culture between the Beehives Evolution of Korean Modernism

Landscape Architecture and the Transforming Cityscape Reinterpretation of Hanok

Appendix

Further Reading Chapter Four

Chapter Five

“Somewhere between tradition and modernity, Korea’s young architects have found a style all their own.”

Frankfurter Neue Presse, December 29, 2007

“The hallmarks of Korean architecture are its outstanding experimental spirit and its flexible approach to addressing complex issues in a changing environment. The result is a vitality and dynamism worth emulating.”

Die Welt, January 11, 2008

“The combination of art, philosophy, science, aesthetics, and the peacefulness of the hanok is remarkably complex and beautifully integrated and interrelated.”

Peter Bartholomew, former President of Royal Asiatic Society–Korea Branch

K- Architecture: Tradition Meets Modernity

8 Prologue 9

Prologue

Architecture is a vessel for life. The human environments and individual structures it creates give us better spaces for our life. It is also a vital cultural asset, a signal of a society’s capacity for cultural production, technology, and social consensus. Venice, that pinnacle of Renaissance culture, is home to many great works of art, but it is all the more beautiful for its distinctive canals and beautiful buildings. The modern era saw Paris planning its urban center and signaling its potential with structures that symbolized technological innovation—not least of them the world-famous Eiffel Tower. Manhattan’s skyline of soaring skyscrapers is an image that captivates many to this day.

In some cases, landmark structures have single-handedly revived a city on the wane. Designed by architect Frank Gehry and opened in 1997, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, helped turn around the city’s declining fortunes, transforming it almost overnight into a world cultural center. After the defunct coal mines of Essen—Germany’s largest—

were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, a master plan devised by Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas helped transform Zollverein in Germany into a cultural city with a rich new cultural infrastructure.

Dubai has used bold structures by star architects to move toward its yet

unrealized dream of building a man-made paradise on Earth. Buildings both represent a city and speak to a society’s cultural potential.

Like so many other areas of art, Korean architecture has changed rapidly in the modern era. Traditionally, its buildings have been structures of stone and wood, but this style would end up clashing with the Western approach as the country went through occupation by Japan and eventual liberation from the colonial yoke. These were turbulent times that left Korean architecture facing both a break with the past and an onslaught of new trends from the West. The discovery of an architectural identity has become something of an ongoing project.

The idea that the things most Korean are also the most global was something that applied as much in architecture as it did in other cultural spheres. Indeed, it would be some time before Korean architecture broke from its fixation with “Koreanness” and achieved a sense of universality through the work of individual architects. In a field perhaps relegated to the periphery of a Western-dominated architectural world, it was a slow process of discovering its confidence and revealing its capability.

In the past, Korean architects were somewhat limited by their passive acceptance of the Western ideas of modernism and postmodernism, but today, they are transcending those limits as they experiment and try new things in response to Korea’s dynamic society and the complex issues it faces. The very emergence of architects who express inherently Korean sentiments in their own original styles, who accept the extremes of Korean contemplativeness and modernist sensibilities, is helping the country find a place that is both universal and sui generis in world architecture.

This book offers an exploration of the lesser-known aspects of this dynamically changing field, starting with a look at the paradigmatic forms of traditional architecture before moving on to examining the issues and currents that have unfolded in architecture as it developed on Korean soil in the era of postmodernism—and began to find its way into the world.

By taking a historical approach with the more noteworthy developments in Korean architecture, it seeks to support a new understanding, a rediscovery, of a field in full flux.

Sunset over Yeouido district and Hangang River

Dynamic cityscape of Gangnam, Seoul

BuSTLiNG CiTiES, RiSiNG ARCHITECTuRE

Chapter one

The Pritzker Prize, often called the “Nobel Prize of Architecture,” has been shifting its focus to Asia recently. It has been a move beyond the limits of Western-centered discourse, turning the emphasis back on original architecture with a local focus. If we ignore the case of Japanese architects, who have been keen to adopt modern styles and work on the global stage for a long time, then a prominent example of this was the recent win by Chinese architect Wang Shu. Wang has been forging a distinctive Chinese identity into something universally modern, working with traditional materials like tile and stone while adamantly adhering to China’s traditional methods of construction. Wang had been a relatively lesser known figure internationally when the German Architecture Museum (DAM) first introduced his work in Europe. Similarly, it was DAM’s 2007 group exhibition Megacity Network: Contemporary Korean Architecture that served to really draw attention to the as yet undiscovered architecture and architects of Korea.

Rediscovering Korean Architecture

Arguably the country’s first ever group exhibition overseas, Megacity Network: Contemporary Korean Architecture was held in December 2007 at the DAM. By the time it finished its tour, it had visited various locations throughout Europe, earning invitations from the German Architectural Centre (DAZ) in Berlin, the Museum of Estonian Architecture, and the Association of Catalan Architects in Barcelona. The 16 participating architects, all active presences in Korea and abroad, offered an eclectic mix of perspectives and interpretations on the cities we live in, showcasing works in Korea’s traditional hanok style alongside skyscrapers, churches, libraries, residential/commercial complexes, and public structures.

The beginning of the exhibition can be traced back to a forum on Eastern and Western public spaces at the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair. It was there that DAM director Peter Schmal first encountered the modern Korean architecture that would lead to him to propose an exhibition. The European viewers, who had seen little of the country’s architectural work in the past, said that the exhibition was “fresh,” “dynamic,” and “full of potential.”

“If Japanese architecture is the same old thing and Chinese architecture gives the sense that it’s still in a process of growth, then Korean architecture is bold and innovative,” said Kim Sung-hong, the University of Seoul professor who planned the exhibition. “Seoul isn’t a relaxed, leisurely, clean city. You get the sense that there are a lot of things that need work, and it’s the designs that emerged from this dynamic environment that have already achieved world-class quality in terms of their creativity and excellence.”

One of the participating architects, Cho Minsuk, was selected as one of the five finalists for the German Architecture Museum’s 2008 International

Highrise Award with his design for Boutique Monaco in Seoul’s Seocho-gu.

Korean architecture and its designers have made their way into the pages of global architecture journals like DOMUS, MARK, and Architectural Review, while the architects have been making names for themselves at overseas awards. DOMUS focused on Moon Hoon in its March edition of 2012, then followed this up by spotlighting Cho in the July edition that same year. A winner of New York’s Young Architects Award, Cho has also been the focus of pieces in MARK and other international journals.

Another architect, Cho Byoung-soo, was one of 11 world architects selected in 2004 by the U.S. journal Architectural Record. He too has won his share of accolades, including top honors for the Northwest and Pacific region from the American Institute of Architects. In 2005, he was one of

The Megacity Network: Contemporary Korean Architecture held at the German Architectural Centre (DAZ), Berlin, in 2008. Photo Courtesy of DAZ

100 architects selected for 10 x 10, a volume published every four years by Britain’s Phaidon Press. Three years later in 2008, Cho Minsuk’s design for the Ann Demeulemeester store in Seoul’s Sinsa district turned up in the next edition. Architectural Review, considered Britain’s top architecture journal, took an in-depth look at projects by Jang Yoon-gyoo and by Cho Byoung-soo, whose L-House in Hwaseong earned “highly commended”

honors at House 2013. Further evidence of Korea’s great potential can be found in the U.S. architectural association honors won by U.S.-licensed architects like Choi DuNam, Ken Min Sungjin, and Woo Kyu Sung. All of these are significant achievements, evidence that the world is taking note and discovering Korean architecture after its many years languishing in the shadow of China and Japan.

Articles about Korean architects Cho Minsuk and Moon Hoon appeared in the April-May 2010 issue of the Italian architecture magazine MARK (top) and the March 2012 issue of Dutch magazine DOMUS (bottom), respectively.

Taking the Global Stage

The last century was not an easy one for the field. Western techniques first came into the country when it was forced open by the U.S., then occupied by Japan. Traditional styles were crowded out by more modern ones in the postwar reconstruction years, when the demand was high and urbanization was moving ahead at full bore. The introduction of Western architecture has not been easy either. Architects struggled to learn the new techniques and structures in the years following the country’s 1945 liberation from Japanese rule. In conceptual terms, Western modernism was adopted without fully processing what the style actually meant.

It was not until the late 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century that Korean architecture really began to diversify. A new generation of architects returned home after experiencing global currents first hand through overseas study—something they could do only after travel restrictions were lifted in 1987. Having gotten a taste of postmodernism, late modernism, and deconstructionism in the West, they pondered how to develop architecture to keep up with the Korean context. In an environment where the high-rise apartment was the residential norm, these young architects began experimenting and showing off their architectural lexicon. They certainly had learned from the West, but they did not simply transplant their lessons onto Korean soil. Instead, they wrestled with the idea of “Koreanness” while producing work that showcased their originality. Today, many of them are among the country’s leading architects, with work that continues to impress.

In some cases, architects have taken a more positive view of the Korean urban environment, analyzing it and coming up with interesting new themes. The Venice Architecture Biennale has traditionally been a place

where these kinds of world themes come together, and in 2004 the event featured a Korea-themed exhibition titled City of Bang, a fascinating analysis of the Korean city’s unique and flourishing “culture of rooms”:

singing rooms, drinking rooms, phone rooms, and the like.

It was around this time that Korean architecture began merging with contemporary international currents. A broader global network meant greater interaction, with more and more noted overseas architects working in Korea. The results of this include Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, a project that brought together Rem Koolhaas, Mario Botta, and Jean Nouvel, as well as the Ewha Womans University Campus Complex (ECC), designed by Dominique Perrault.

Other architects have focused less on issues of identity and

“Koreanness,” and more on individual architectural achievements in the global context. Where the previous generation had focused on overcoming Korea’s reverence of Western architecture and its inferiority

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, located in the Seoul neighborhood of Hannam-dong, was designed by three of the world’s top architects: Rem Koolhaas, Mario Botta and Jean Nouvel.

complex, and on “showing their roots,” these newer architects―such as Cho Minsuk’s trenchant observations of Korean society and explorations of “mass,” or Moon Hoon’s powerfully idiosyncratic expressions of a borderline-shamanist sensibility―are poised on the same territory as their contemporaries around the world. As noted before, they are already drawing the attention of international journals, earning awards in the U.S.

and Europe, and appearing in exhibitions all over the globe.

Another symbolic moment in the history of Korean architecture going global came in 2011, when it entered the citadel of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York City. The works in question were the Subaekdang, a Seung H-Sang building in Namyangju, and Jahajae, a work by Kim Young- joon in Heyri Art Valley. Every year since 1939, the MoMa has selected major examples of world architecture, requesting the architect’s original drawings and models for exhibition and eventual addition to its permanent

Seung H-Sang’s Subaekdang, the sketch and model of which are part of the architecture collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. © Osamu Murai

collection. It had already collected work by video artist Nam June Paik, installation artist Yang Hye-gyu, and painter Lee Ufan, but this was the first time Korean architectural work had ever been so honored.

Barry Bergdoll, MoMa’s chief architecture and design curator at the time, took in a wide range of Korean architecture during a 2010 visit. His four-day itinerary took him to traditional examples like Byeongsanseowon Confucian Academy in Andong, Buseoksa Temple in Yeongju, Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul, as well as more modern structures in the Paju Book City, Seoul’s Insa-dong neighborhood, and office buildings in Gangnam. He was interested less in seeing structures based on Western styles, and more in finding examples where the traditional architectural grammar had been reinterpreted, tweaked, and applied. In the Subaekdang and Jahajae, he found what he was looking for.

Stuttgart City Library in Germany, designed by Korean architect Yi Eun Young

Even by Western standards, modern Korean architecture seems like something new. An especially fascinating aspect is its experimentation, the attempts to interpret modernism and reconstruct it using traditional forms. Such experiments can be found in Korean architects’ overseas designs, too. In 1999, Yi Eun Young beat out 235 firms to win a bid to design the new Stuttgart City Library in Germany. Twelve years later, the finished building opened in 2011 to praise for its modern reading of the ancient Roman Pantheon. Its gray interior draws attention to the lines of books, while the exterior alerts passersby to the building’s function with the word “library” presented in four different languages, including Korean.

Yi remains very active in Germany, placing first in a 2010 competition to design the New Parliament of Lower Saxony in Hanover.

The work of Hwang Doojin is another example. In renovating the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, he not only incorporated the spatial characteristics of Korean architecture—overlapping,

The Korean Hall at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, designed by Hwang Doojin © Hwang Doojin

penetration, alternation—but also echoed Sweden’s own historical structures by exposing the wooden beams in its gallery. His use of Swedish spruce (which has a similar feel to Korean pine) in the gallery drew notice by demonstrating a communion between two seemingly disparate traditional cultures.

Pavilions, though not buildings per se, have been another form through which the structural characteristics and ideas of architecture have been captured around the world. Cho Minsuk’s Air Forest (2008) was an artificial structure built as part of the Dialog:City global art and culture showcase in Denver and designed for use in various cultural events. Supported by wind, it drew notice for the beautiful man-made forest it created in Denver’s natural landscape. The hula hoop-based Ring Dome, conceived as a temporary structure for the Storefront for Art and Architecture gallery’s 25th anniversary in New York in 2007, was also praised as a

”Ring Dome,” displayed at the Milan International Furniture Fair © Cho Minsuk/Mass Studies

clever example of environment-friendly construction. It has been installed at various locations around the world such as the Milan International Furniture Fair and Yokohoma Triennale in 2008.

Young Korean architects have continued to make strides in 2013, experiencing the contemporary global climate, learning from their international networks, and actively expressing themselves at home and abroad. Na Unchung and Yoo Sorae of Nameless and PRAUD director Yim Dongwoo garnered international attention by winning the Young Architects Award in New York. Back home, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s own Young Architects Award―organized since 2008 in conjunction with the Korean Architects Institute, the Korea Institute of Architects, and the Korean Institute of Female Architects—

has been a major venue for discovering and promoting young talents.

This new generation of architects shows what might be called “horizontal diversity,” offering fascinating solutions for the Korean urban environment and expressing themselves in form and space unbound by the fetters of tradition. Internationally, this courage and assertiveness will prove crucial in showing the diversity of today’s Korean architecture.

the Making of the

‘Made in Korea’ World

Korean architectural companies first began making inroads overseas in the 1960s.

By the next decade, they were enjoying a rapid boom, buoyed by a growing presence in the Middle East. The early 1980s saw the country ranked as one of the world’s top two construction powers.

It didn’t last. As oil prices fell in the mid-1980s, the market dried up and demand in overseas building declined. The companies had been too dependent on the Middle East market. In an attempt to turn crisis into opportunity, they began working to diversify their markets. The accessibility and demand potential of other Asian countries made them an attractive choice, and by 1996 Korea was racking up construction orders worth US$10.8 billion. Their projects were more diverse, too. Rather than simple engineering and construction, they were also working in high value-added plant work.

The renewed boom in overseas construction in the 1990s helped propel sustainable rapid growth for the industry over the past 20 years. Structures are going up in a wider range of places as well, including the Americas and Europe. Samsung C&T was the company responsible for building the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building today with 162 stories and 828 meters in height. The Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore, called a “miracle of 21st century architecture,” was built by Ssangyong.

Monumental achievements both in scale and in architectural craft, the two structures have been credited with alerting the world to the excellence of Korean architectural technique.

Korean companies aren’t just constructing buildings, though. Recent years have seen mammoth projects that involve the building of whole cities. One example is in Nha Be, a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, that is now being built by GS E&C. It’s a state-

Burj Khalifa in Dubai

of-the-art new city along Korean lines, designed on a 3.4 million square meter site to accommodate 17,000 households and 68,000 people. City authorities and local residents have high hopes for Nha Be after getting a taste of Korean residential culture with Riverview Palace, a luxury apartment built by GS in the city proper in 2011. Riverview Palace is located in an area along the banks of the Saigon River which is home to many high-end villas exclusively for the city’s international residents.

Bearing the “XII” brand, it has an interior decorated in the Korean style and all the top amenities you would find in Korea: an outdoor swimming pool, golf driving range, sauna, tennis courts, guesthouse, and gymnasium. It is also a triumph of engineering.

Many had thought the area’s weak bedrock would prevent the building of any large structures there, but the builders overcame this problem with a state-of-the-art process that involved boring 21 meters deep into the weak bed to remove water.

The year 2013 saw overseas building making up a sizable chunk of the national economy, with companies recording over US$7 million in annual orders.

Architectural companies have come to outpace such traditional mainstays as the automobile, semiconductor, and shipbuilding industries. In light of this, talking about an “Architectural Korean Wave” suddenly doesn’t seem so farfetched.

Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore

The site where GS E&C is working on the Bin Loi Bridge in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Sungnyemun Gate

THE HISToRy of korean

architecture

Chapter Two

In the history of Korean architecture, tradition has been a valuable asset and in some instances a root of identity, while at other times it was something to be overcome or left behind. In both cases, it is impossible to discuss Korean contemporary architecture without an understanding of it. Korean traditional architecture exists within the context of Asian traditional architecture. Nonetheless, it has developed according to its own particular set of characteristics—its flexible responses to topography and surrounding mountains, the organic layout of its buildings, its reiteration and metastasis of space—that distinguish it from the architecture of China and Japan. The unique charm of traditional building culture is now attracting new attention. It provides important bearings for those searching for “Koreanness” in the context of modern architecture and for those attempting to understand Korean contemporary architecture that rediscovers and reinterprets tradition.

Stone Pagodas and Temple Architecture

(Three Kingdoms Period and North and South States Period) In ancient times on the Korean Peninsula, intense rivalry between various states that had entered the iron age led to the formation of three powerful and organized monarchies: these were Goguryeo (37BCE–668CE), Baekje (17BCE–660CE) and Silla (57BCE–935CE), known collectively as the Three Kingdoms. Janganseong and Gyeongju, the respective capitals of Goguryeo and Silla, displayed layouts in a grid-like configuration of horizontal and vertical roads and residences arranged in chessboard fashion. Both cities were planned with an emphasis on defense, surrounded by stone walls and mountain fortresses.

Stone Tomb Culture

Each of the Three Kingdoms developed its own unique culture, into which evidence found in excavated tombs has offered us valuable insights.

Goguryeo’s architecture is characterized by huge stone-pile tombs.

Janggunchong Tomb, thought to date from around the 5th century CE, is 31.5 meters across and 12.4 meters high. The murals inside it realistically depict various scenes from the life of the deceased. As time passed, the emphasis of such tomb murals shifted from realism to symbolism, with scenes from everyday life being replaced by one of the Four Symbols (the Azure Dragon of the East, the Vermilion Bird of the South, the White Tiger of the West, and the Black Tortoise of the North) each on the eastern, southern, western and northern walls.

Baekje tombs were initially similar to those of Goguryeo, though smaller in size. From the late-5th century, however, brick tombs began to appear;

among these, that of King Muryeong offers a rare example of a tomb in which the deceased has been identified with certainty.

Silla tombs were built in a style different from those of Goguryeo and Baekje. A pit was dug in the ground, after which a burial chamber was

(From left to right) Janggunchong Tomb from Goguryeo, Cheonmachong Tomb from Silla, and King Muryeong’s tomb from Baekje

built from wood and the body of the deceased placed inside. A round pile of small stones was built above this, which was in turn covered with earth to create a mound. These tumuli often measured more than 45 meters in base circumference and 12 meters in height.

Temples Built Around a Pagoda

The introduction of Buddhism brought extensive change and development to the architecture of the Three Kingdoms. Goguryeo temples were built with three sanctums arranged to the north, east and west of a central wooden octagonal pagoda. This layout corresponds to that of Japan’s Asuka-dera and Horyuji temples, indicating that Goguryeo’s architectural culture was transmitted to Japan.

In Baekje, unlike Goguryeo, Buddhist temple complexes consisted of a central square pagoda from which the main building and assembly hall were arranged in a single row to the north. Complexes therefore took on a long, vertical appearance. Although Baekje pagodas were originally built in wood, this was gradually replaced by stone; the 6th- c e n t u r y s t o n e p a g o d a a t Jeongnimsaji temple site in Buyeo, the capital of Baekje, is a good example of this. The stone pagoda at Mireuksaji temple site in Iksan, meanwhile, is a

The stone pagoda at Mireuksaji temple site

direct imitation of a wooden pagoda structure that illustrates the period of transition from one material to the other. The Baekje temple layout, too, was transmitted to Japan, resulting in the building of temples such as Shitennoji in Osaka.

Silla was the last of the Three Kingdoms to adopt Buddhism and thus inevitably influenced by Goguryeo and Baekje. Nonetheless, it developed its own creative style of Buddhist architecture through the gradual introduction of indigenous elements. Hwangnyongsa Temple, in particular, boasted a 7th-century wooden pagoda that stood more than 70 meters tall. Unfortunately, this pagoda was burned down during the Mongolian invasion in the 13th century. Silla differed from the other two kingdoms in its frequent use of brick-like patterns in the construction of pagodas. The pagoda at Bunhwangsa Temple, for example, consists of stone cut into the shapes of bricks and was built using a bricklaying technique.

Despite such differences, the temple architectures of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla shared one basic feature: the central position of the pagoda.

Temples in all three kingdoms were designed with a pagoda at the heart of their complexes, with other buildings laid out around them.

The pagoda at Bunhwangsa Temple

Changes in Silla Buddhist Architecture

Silla’s unification of the Three Kingdoms in the 7th century saw the formation of two states: Unified Silla occupied the majority of the Korean Peninsula, while subjects of the former kingdom of Goguryeo formed the state of Balhae in northern Korea and Manchuria. This era is consequently often referred to as the North and South States period. Gyeongju, the capital of newly unified Silla, saw an even greater accumulation of people and material wealth, a situation that demanded both expansion and better organization. The city’s grid formation was further extended, creating enough square plots of land to accommodate 170,000 households.

Gyeongju became a truly splendid city, the capital of a dynasty that lasted for more than a millennium.

Changes became apparent in Silla temples immediately after it had unified the Three Kingdoms. Temple complexes now included not one but two pagodas in front of their main halls. Sacheonwangsa Temple, in the

Seokgatap (left) and Dabotap (right) pagodas in front of Daeungjeon Hall, Bulguksa Temple

center of Gyeongju, and Gameunsa Temple, on the outskirts of the city, both featured two pagodas. This was not just a local phenomenon but a wider trend that existed in China and Japan in the same period. Bulguksa Temple, built in 751, also has two pagodas arranged on a left-right axis:

Dabotap Pagoda and Seokgatap Pagoda. These two pagodas and their names reflect the content of the Lotus Sutra, in which Prabhutaratna Buddha, the Buddha of the past (known in Korean as Dabo), sits next to Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of the present (Seokga), testifying that the latter’s teaching of the dharma is correct. If the previous era had been one of using the power of Buddhism to reinforce royal authority, this was one of seeking a sense of depth in religious activity through the interpretation of the Buddhist creed.

Silla during the North and South States period also saw a growing preference for Zen Buddhism, which emphasized the importance of Zen meditation, and belief in mountain deities. This led to a rapid proliferation

of temples in mountainous areas.

Temples from this period that remain today include Tongdosa, Geumsansa, Beopjusa, Buseoksa, Hwaeomsa and Haeinsa. These temples, with natural layouts that followed the contours of the slopes on which they were built, had completely different atmospheres to those of the geometrically arranged temple complexes previously built in urban areas.

Another new architectural form to emerge at this time was that of the stupa, a small stone tower built to enshrine the sarira or cremated ashes of eminent monks. These aesthetically sophisticated structures, covered in splendid ornamentation and carved with elaborate details are examples of Silla’s unique and original architecture and handicraft.

International Styles in Balhae Architecture

It can be assumed that Balhae, a state established in 698 by the former migrants of Goguryeo, inherited the latter’s architectural styles as they also actively embraced the architectural culture of Tang China, resulting in an international style. Long-time Balhae capital Sanggyeong Yongcheonbu was a thoroughly planned city from the start, arranged in a square formation like the Tang dynasty’s capital Changan. A main road was created along a north-south axis in the city center, at the end of which a royal palace was located. The remains of towers and tombs have been

The stupa at Ssangbongsa Temple

excavated outside the capital; these Balhae’s brick towers are similar in style to Chinese architecture, while the stone chamber tombs of its ruling family members, for example that of Princess Jeonghye, are identical to those of Goguryeo.

The Beauty of Column-head Brackets and Entasis

The Goryeo (918–1392) capital of Gaegyeong, built in the 10th century, is characterized by the way the entire city follows the natural contours of the land upon which it sits. The topography of its location, an undulating basin surrounded by mountains, caused the capital’s roads to be curved rather than straight. Despite the fact that the city was planned, the sizes of the residential plots between its roads are also irregular. The important buildings within the royal palace compound are arranged in long, north- south rows, but these, too, are not completely straight; rather, the position and orientation of each structure differs slightly. This form is different to those of palaces in Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla and China, and is due to the way the city’s roads follow the natural contours of the land.

Buddhist Architecture Flourishes

Goryeo was a devoutly Buddhist state, from its royal family to its commoners. Consequently, the whole country was full of Buddhist temples built to pray for the wellbeing of the royal household and the health of individual citizens. Heungwangsa Temple, built over the course of 12 years near Gaegyeong (today’s Gaeseong), consisted of buildings with a total of 2,800 kan (a unit of building area corresponding to the distance between columns).

The construction of stone pagodas and stupas continued in the Goryeo period. The number of stone pagodas greatly increased, with strong expressions of regional character. This led to a diversification of forms and heights, with some pagodas reaching 11 stories. The curves of chunyeo (rafters protruding from the eaves at the corners of roofs) grew sharper, while overall forms grew slimmer.

The leading force in 13th century Buddhism was that of provincial mountain temples, including Zen temples such as Songgwangsa Temple and Baengnyeonsa Temple. These temples were laid out in asymetrical, undulating arrangements that followed the contours of the land upon which they were built. This was a form that had already appeared in temples built by monks who had brought Zen Buddhism back to Korea from China in the late Silla period. In the Goryeo period, however, it became more pronounced and deeply entrenched.

Songgwangsa Temple located on Mt. Jogyesan in Suncheon

Wooden Architecture

The wooden architecture of Goryeo can be classified into two categories:

jusimpo (column-head bracket) and dapo (multi-bracket). Jusimpo style architecture is that in which brackets (wooden structural elements fitted to the tops of columns or beams in order to support the weight of roof eaves) are placed only at the heads of the building’s structural columns, while dapo style architecture features additional brackets between columns.

Though a transition from column-head to multi-bracket styles was in progress in China at the time, the people of Goryeo showed a preference for the former, resulting in magnificent buildings such as Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple. The concentration of the weight of the roof on columns in column-head bracket architecture gives columns an important structural and aesthetic role. In such cases, columns are shaped in a

jusimpo (column-head bracket)

Types of Brackets

dapo (multi-bracket)

matbae (gable) roof ujingak (hipped) roof paljak (hip-and-gable) roof

Types of roofs

subtly curved way whereby their profile expands gradually until around one third of the way up before gradually contracting again. This technique is known in Korean as baeheullim (entasis). Baeheullim was also used on columns in China and Japan, but nothing compares to the beauty of Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple, which represents the zenith of column-head bracket architecture. Muryangsujeon Hall is also valuable in that it combines the column-head bracket style with a large, paljak (hip- and-gable) roof.

The Geungnakjeon Hall at Bongjeongsa Temple in Andong, Korea’s oldest extant wooden building, also features the column-head bracket system. Opinions as to exactly when this structure, which became famous following a visit in 1999 by Queen Elizabeth II, was built, but comparison with Chinese buildings indicates that the Geungnakjeon Hall uses 10th- century architectural forms. It also features flame patterns found in Goguryeo tomb murals.

As time went on, column-head bracket architecture placed an increasing emphasis on ornamental aspects being used to provide decoration in structurally simple matbae (gable) roof buildings. A good example of this

Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple (left) and Geungnakjeon Hall at Bongjeongsa Temple (right), good examples of the jusimpo style from the Goryeo Dynasty.

is the Daeungjeon Hall at Sudeoksa Temple, built in 1308. While some believe it is similar in style to the architecture of southern China, details such as brackets at the heads of its columns indicate the development of a unique Korean style.

Multi-bracket systems had the comparative advantage over column- head bracket styles of solving certain structural problems. The Bogwangjeon Hall at Simwonsa Temple in today’s North Korea features the same hip-and-gable roof as that of the Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa, but with a multi-bracket rather than column-head bracket design. Despite their use of different bracket systems, both buildings feature the same

“lever-form” chunyeo at the corners of their roofs. Chunyeo are rafters protruding diagonally out from the corners of a building. A lever type chunyeo rests half within the cross-beams and half on the outsides. The weight on the roof rests on the inner half of the chunyeo, pushing it down and pushing the outer half up through a lever effect, lifting the corners of the roof. This is one of the key distinctions between Goryeo-period and Joseon (1392–1910)-period architecture.

Humble Spaces in Harmony with Nature

In 1392, General Yi Seong-gye founded the new dynasty of Joseon. Two years later, he chose Hanyang (modern day Seoul) as its capital. Just as in the preceding Goryeo period, geomancy was deeply influential in choosing the location of the city. After the key mountains and orientation of the city and the site of the main palace had been determined, Jongmyo Shrine and Sajikdan Altar were built to the east and west of the main palace, respectively. Adhering to such propriety was believed to be the most fundamental consideration when building the new city. The topography of the site, however, made building a completely square, symmetrical city impossible. While remaining faithful to basic principles and ideology, therefore, Hanyang’s planners acknowledged the natural contours of the land, applying principles of feng shui (pungsu in Korea), yin/yang, and the Five Elements.

Palaces: Joseon Royal Legacy in the Heart of Modern Seoul

Five Joseon-era palaces still stand in modern Seoul:

Gye o n g b o k g u n g Pa l a c e , C h a n g d e o k g u n g Pa l a c e , Changgyeonggung Palace, Gyeongungung Palace (currently known as Deoksugung Palace) and Gyeonghuigung Palace.

Gyeongbokgung Palace, with main gate Gwanghwamun establishing its central axis, emphasizes order and hierarchy.

Its main buildings are arranged along a central axis consisting of Geunjeongjeon Hall, where rituals of state were conducted;

Sajeongjeon Hall, where the king performed his duties during peacetime; Gangnyeongjeon Hall, the king’s residence and

resting place; and Gyotaejeon Hall, the queen’s quarters. The overall design of the palace was one of left-right symmetry, arranged according to this axis. After being burned down during the Japanese invasions of the late 16th century, Gyeongbokgung was restored to its former glory in 1865.

Changdeokgung Palace is characterized by its almost total lack of level ground; its undulating, irregular terrain has been used in its original form to create a natural layout. The main gate of the palace is located to the southwest of the complex, so that visitors heading for the main hall must turn eastwards after entering, then north again. All buildings in the palace are arranged at oblique angles rather than along a single north-south axis, making Changdeokgung Palace the most Korean in character among the country’s remaining palaces.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changgyeonggung Palace was built as a residence for the king’s mother and grandmother. Its somewhat small scale allowed its main buildings to be arranged in a relatively straight line, but it is unusual in that it faces east rather than south.

Gyeongungung Palace (Deoksugung Palace) was originally not a royal palace but the residence of a prince. When other palaces were burned down during the Japanese invasions, however, it was used as the king’s temporary residence. In 1611, it was named Gyeongungung Palace and acquired the status Korea’s fourth royal palace. In 1900, it became the imperial palace of the Daehan Empire. One of Korea’s first Western-style buildings, Seokjojeon Hall, was built within its complex. In 1907, after he was forced to abdicate, Emperor Gojong began living in the palace and its name was changed to Deoksugung Palace.

Gyeonghuigung Palace, too, features an irregular layout that reflects its natural topography. Its gate is located at the south-east corner of its complex.

In 1909, imperial Japan demolished all of Gyeonghuigung Palace’s buildings and built a Japanese middle school on the site. In 1988, the palace’s main gate, Honghwamun Gate, and Sungjeongjeon Hall were restored.

Jongmyo Shrine

Jongmyo, Munmyo and Hyanggyo: Confucian Thoughts Embodied

Jongmyo Shrine, Joseon’s royal shrine, is located to the east of Gyeongbokgung Palace, opposite Sajikdan Altar to the west. It is one of the most important pieces of architecture of this period. Starting with the ancestral tablet of King Taejo (Yi Seong-gye), the founder of the dynasty, at the far west, the building houses the successive ancestral tablets of all deceased Joseon monarchs. As the number of tablets to be enshrined increased over time, the building was gradually extended from its original 7 kan, ultimately reaching a width of 19 kan. In Joseon, where Confucian loyalty and filial piety were practically the cardinal tenets of the nation, nowhere was more important than this building for worshipping the ancestors of the king.

Munmyo Shrine, meanwhile, consisted of an area that housed the ancestral tablets of Korea’s most famous Confucian scholars, centered on Confucius himself, and an area where students gathered to study. A hierarchical order exists within Munmyo, as well, with the buildings housing ancestral tablets accorded greater importance and buildings to the east of

the complex placed in higher positions that those to the west.

Jongmyo and Munmyo shrines were located only in the capital; the provinces were instead home to hyanggyo (provincial Confucian shrines and village public schools). Hyanggyo echoed the function and composition of Munmyo Shrine. They displayed certain differences according to the various sizes and topographies of their plots. Those built on large, flat sites placed the building housing ancestral tablets at the front of the complex, while those with narrow plots that were forced to build on sloping land placed this building on higher ground at the back of the complex.

Restraint, Modesty and Accommodation of Nature as a Virtue

Joseon-era wooden buildings used various bracket systems. The most important and formal buildings in royal palaces and Buddhist temples used multi-bracket designs. Other important buildings of lower status,

Cheonan Hyanggyo

such as the main buildings in gaeksa (guesthouses for traveling officials and dignitaries) and daeseongjeon (the buildings that housed the tablets of Confucius and other important scholars) in hyanggyo, featured column- head bracket designs. Normal houses were usually built without the use of brackets, which is called mindori style. Regular houses designed to appear more formal, or buildings within the complex of official places such as palaces, temples, public offices and hyanggyo that were intended to appear less formal, used the ikgong system. The ikgong is a simplified version of the bracket found in column-head and multi-bracket designs, featuring a bird beak-like protrusion as its main decorative element.

In some cases, ikgong can also be found in highly important buildings such as those of Jongmyo Shrine or the shrines of hyanggyo; this can be interpreted as a sign of respect or an emulation of the restraint and frugality of the ancestors they commemorate. Though such symbolic order was strictly observed in the

early Joseon period, the passing of time led to blended styles and the appearance of forms showing compromise between column- head and multi-bracket designs or between column-head brackets and ikgong in later years.

The main hall at the Jongmyo shrine is an example of the ikgong style.

46 47

East Meets West; Tradition Meets Modernity

(Daehan Empire and Beyond)

In the late 19th century, Korea signed a series of treaties in which it agreed to open its doors to many foreign countries, including Japan, China, Britain, Germany, Italy, Russia, and France. The ports of Busan, Wonsan and Incheon were opened as a result, leading to the appearance of various foreign concessions with new and unfamiliar buildings. While foreign legations were initially housed in remodeled traditional hanok (Korean- style houses), after 1890 they began erecting buildings in the architectural styles of their own respective countries. All that now remains of the Russian legation, built in Seoul next to Deoksugung Palace in 1895, is its belltower, while the Belgian consulate that was built in 1905 in Hoehyeon- dong, Jung-gu still stands but has been relocated.

The appearance of buildings in new styles was accompanied by the demolition of traditional city walls, leading to extensive and fundamental change in Korea’s cityscapes. The demolition of Daegu’s city wall in 1906 was followed in 1907 by part of that of Seoul; the phenomenon spread later on to cities all over the country.

Change in Modern Palaces

In 1897, Emperor Gojong moved from Gyeongbokgung Palace to Gyeongungung Palace (today’s Deoksugung Palace). In order to proclaim his new status as an emperor, he built Wongudan Altar, a round altar for hosting the performance of the rite of heaven, a ritual that could only be performed by an emperor, opposite Gyeongungung Palace. Hwanggungu Shrine, part of the Wongudan complex, was built to house the ancestral tablet of Taejo, founder of the Joseon Dynasty. Within Gyeongungung

Former Belgian consulate

Korean traditional and Western architectural styles rub shoulders at Deoksugung Palace.

Palace itself, meanwhile, a series of Western-style buildings was erected;

the first of these, Jeonggwanheon Pavilion, was built as a venue for holding banquets. Seokjojeon Hall, completed in 1910, is a three-story neoclassical style building designed to imitate the style of a European palace. Junghwajeon Hall, a two-story structure built in 1902 by Korea’s last palace carpenters, was destroyed by fire and rebuilt as a one-story structure in 1906. The simultaneous building of Western-style Seokjojeon Hall and traditional-style Junghwajeon Hall completed this modern-style palace with its coexistence of traditional and Western architectural forms.

The Appearance of Christian Architecture

The Catholic Church in Korea gained freedom to conduct missionary activity as part of a treaty signed with France in 1886. Yakhyeon Catholic Church was built in 1892 and became a model for other small Catholic churches in the country. Myeong-dong Cathedral was completed in 1898, becoming Korea’s leading Catholic building. Built under the supervision of Father Eugene Coste, the cathedral was built in an overall Romanesque style, with its interior spatial composition and finer details in Gothic style.

Outside Seoul, Daegu’s Gyesan-dong Catholic Church was completed in 1902 in the same style as that of Myeong-dong Cathedral. Jeonju’s Jeong- dong Catholic Church, completed in 1914, has three domed bell towers:

the central dome is dodecagonal, while those on either side are octagonal.

Protestant Jeong-dong Church, meanwhile, first used a hanok building;

this was replaced by a Victorian-style brick church in 1898.

Other protestant cathedrals and churches also followed this trend of initially using hanok before erecting their own Western-style structures.

In provincial towns with relatively small numbers of worshippers, however, designs for hanok churches appeared. Doejae Catholic Church

(1894) in Jincheon and Ganghwa Anglican Church (1900) on Ganghwado Island are good examples of this. Built by Rev. Charles John Corfe, Korea’s first Anglican bishop, Ganghwa Anglican Church symbolizes the Korean naturalization of Western Christianity through its adaptation of the wooden hanok style to produce a basilica-like floor plan. The same process, of course, occurred with Protestant churches; Sollae Church in Jangyeon, Hwanghae-do province is known as the first entirely hanok Protestant chapel. Many other chapels at this time used L-shaped hanok designs in consideration of the late-Joseon social climate, which required segregated spaces for men and women. One surviving example of this form is Geumsan Church in Gimje, built in 1908.

1 2 Myeong-dong Cathedral 3 4 Ganghwa Anglican Church 1 3 2

4

Former main hall of Seoul National University (top); Main hall of Korea University (bottom)

Modern Architectural Education and Architects

By 1907, the Korean government was running a technical college which turned out engineers with the basic skills needed for architectural work.

Gyeongseong Industrial Vocational School, a college teaching architectural design, opened in 1916, though only a small number of its students were Korean. This school turned out around 60 Korean graduates by 1945. Only some of these went on to work as architects; key examples include Park Gil-ryong and Park Dong-jin.

Park Gil-ryong graduated in 1919 and initially became a civil servant before opening his own studio in 1932. He designed a large number of buildings from 1929, including the former main hall of Keijo Imperial University (now Seoul National University) in 1930, Jongno Department Store in 1931 and Hwasin Department Store in 1935. Park also designed Bohwagak (now Gansong Art Museum), Korea’s first private museum, in 1938.

Park Dong-jin graduated in 1924 and opened his own company in 1938;

previously, from around 1932, he designed a large number of buildings including the main hall and library of Korea University. Though some of his works show modern, rationalist tendencies, most of them are stone buildings in Gothic style. The Chosun Ilbo head office (1933), Osan Middle School (1936), Jungang Middle School (1937) and Yeongnak Church (1946) are all Park’s work.

From Mud hut to apartment Block

Mud Huts: the First Homes

Mud huts, which first appeared on the Korean Peninsula in the Paleolithic Period, were created through a combination of pits dug in the ground and timbers arranged in a converging structure above. These huts featured fireplaces in their centers and holes for storing food around fireplaces. The remains of mud huts from this period have been excavated in Amsa-dong in today’s southeast Seoul. With the advent of the Bronze Age and the expansion of agriculture, villages and the mud huts in them grew larger. Interior space was divided, according to function, into cooking and resting areas, while some buildings were built with elevated, loft-like spaces.

The spread of iron culture around the 3rd century BCE saw the emergence of Gojoseon and several other states on the Korean Peninsula. Buildings and villages became larger again and the forms and structures of houses further diversified.

More houses were built without resorting to the use of pits, based instead upon columns resting on foundation stones at ground level. The use of fully vertical walls increased available interior space, allowing people to spend more time and engage in a greater range of activity indoors. It was at this time that original forms of ondol (underfloor heating), which can be regarded as a defining characteristic of Korean residential architecture, began to appear.

Forms Changing According to Social Status

Silla’s capital city during the North and South States period was home to people of varying social status. In accordance with Silla’s rigid caste system, the homes of its citizens were also subject to various restrictions, in terms of size and ornamentation, according to their statuses. Specific standards dictated details such as the size of rooms, form of staircases, type of roof tiles and roof decorations, form of wooden brackets, ceiling appearance, right to use decorative dancheong painting (red and

Reconstruction of prehistoric mud huts in Seoul’s Amsa-dong neighborhood

green colors on the pillars and rafters of a building), height of walls, type of front gate and size of stable.

Goryeo, too, placed similar restrictions upon the building of houses; those who violated them could be punished. Nonetheless, those in power did take advantage of their authority to build unnecessarily luxurious buildings. The houses of ordinary citizens are presumed to have not been especially splendid. While wooden beds were used in the houses of those of high status, commoners generally used ondol, which made sleeping on the floor the preferable option. In the late Goryeo period, individuals were encouraged, at the suggestion of Confucian scholars, to install family shrines in their own houses for the performing of ancestral rites.

Maru and ondol: the Perfection of the Korean Traditional House

In the Joseon period, too, social class-based distinctions existed not only in the size of plot and floor area of the house, but also the length of materials used and architectural forms. The practice of installing Confucian shrines and performing rites in the house increased the importance of the maru (a wooden-floored central space). A typical house was arranged with the male and female anbang (inner quarters) facing each other across a central space and the kitchen placed in front of, or next to, the anbang. Ondol, which warms rooms by using fire to heat the stones that comprise the floor from below, became widespread and was used in houses throughout Korea, regardless of the social status of their occupants. This completed the defining characteristic of Korean architecture: the juxtaposition of fire-heated ondol rooms and naturally ventilated ritual spaces (maru) in a single building. Those of high social status lived in complexes with a separate anchae (main building),

Examples of maru (left) and ondol (right)

sarangchae (men’s quarters), haengnangchae (servants’ quarters), sadang (ancestral shrine) and occasionally a separate banbitgan (kitchen).

Modernity Brings Change to Hanok

Joseon residential architecture reached a technical and cultural peak in the mid- 19th century, as exemplified in buildings such as Yeongyeongdang and Nakseonjae in Changdeokgung Palace and Unhyeongung Palace. The introduction of Western culture and Japan’s seizure of Korea’s economic assets, however, brought change to traditional methods of housebuilding.

The 1920s saw the appearance in cities of so-called “cultural housing,” a compromise between Western-style housing and traditional lifestyles. As interest in function grew, the tendency to link the inner spaces of hanok with long corridors grew more pronounced. Examples from the 1930s illustrate this phenomenon both in the work of trained architects, such as Park Gil-ryong’s “Min Byeong-ok House” in Insa-dong, and in that of traditional carpenters, such as the “Lee Tae-jun House” in Seongbuk-dong. These houses also feature indoor toilets, though they are located in corner positions.

Increases in the urban population between the 1930s and 1960s led to a need for more large-scale housing developments on the outskirts of cities. In order to build large numbers of cheap hanok, land was divided into plots of a certain size and a standard model of hanok designed. A ㄷ (a letter in the Korean alphabet)- shaped design was employed in order to make efficient use of each plot; houses were built facing away from the road, enhancing security, while inner courtyards

The house of Min Byeong-ok near Insa-dong is now used as a restaurant called Min’s Club.

were maintained, increasing the comfort of occupants. Since the structural nature of hanok makes building them more than one-story-high difficult, some were also built in terraced form, with several repetitions of the same floor plan, making it possible to accommodate more than one household.

Apartments and Super-highrise Multipurpose Complexes

Following the building of apartments for civil servants in 1968, apartments for private citizens began sprouting up in Seoul’s Dongbuichon-dong. The dull I-shaped apartment blocks built en masse in the 1970s were simple in their layout. A turning point for multi-unit dwellings in Korea came in 1986 with the building of accommodations for athletes participating in the Asian Games, which organically connected the everyday lines of flow of its residents with communal living spaces. Later developments went beyond the scale of single apartments to include the planning of whole urban areas. The new district built in Seoul’s Mok-dong area was divided into commercial and residential zones, with each apartment complex accorded a degree of independence and featuring various other experimental elements, such as a mixture of low- and high-rise blocks. The accommodations built for athletes and journalists at the 1988 Seoul Olympics showed apartment blocks radiating outward and differing in shape and height, suggesting a new form of collective housing. In 1989, the planning of two new cities outside Seoul, Bundang and Ilsan, in order to spread housing demand outside the bounds of the saturated capital, was announced. These plans aimed to create not satellite cities but

areas capable of functioning as autonomous towns in their own right.

In Seoul, meanwhile, multipurpose super- high-rise blocks appeared as a new form in the 1990s. Built in the 2000s, Tower Palace is a development renowned as the epitome of super-high-rise multipurpose blocks in Korea. Equipped with banquet halls, a gym, a swimming pool, a golf driving range and a rooftop garden in a single building, Tower Palace is an impregnable fortress that eliminates the need for its residents to venture beyond its gates.

Tower Palace in Seoul’s Dogok-dong neighborhood

K- Architecture: Tradition Meets Modernity

56 Korean Spirit Embodied in Traditional Architecture 57

KoREAN SPIRIT EMBodIEd

iN TRADiTioNAL ARCHiTECTuRE

Chapter Three

This chapter will explore 10 buildings that offer some of the best examples of Korea’s traditional architectural aesthetics. Six of these—the Seokguram-Bulguksa complex, the Janggyeongpanjeon Hall at Haeinsa Temple, Jongmyo Shrine, Changdeokgung Palace, Hwaseong Fortress, and Yangdong Village—have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites, underlining the global recognition of their value. Among the remaining four, the seowon (private Confucian academies) are currently preparing for UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The other buildings covered in this chapter offer the best examples of the particular architectural styles in each period of Korean history. Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple is an outstanding building, dating from the Goryeo period, that reflects the international style of its time, while Soswaewon exemplifies landscape architecture that reflects the views of life and nature held by intellectuals of its time, as well as the political and sociological background of the early

Joseon period (1392–1910). Seongyojang House, finally, is significant as a sophisticated example of late-Joseon period residential hanok architecture.

Bulguksa Temple and Seokguram Grotto

Bulguksa Temple, built in the 8th century, is the leading extant example of Silla religious architecture. It uses the natural slope of its site to express spatial hierarchy, while showing an outstanding sense of form with the natural connections between its spaces. Its sloping site means that the front of the complex rests on a long stone base. Meanwhile, the complex itself, which is reached by ascending stone staircases at each end of the stone base, consists of four realms: that of the Daeungjeon Hall, the Geungnakjeon Hall, the Birojeon Hall and the Gwaneumjeon Hall.

The realm of the Daeungjeon is a built embodiment of the content of the Lotus Sutra, while that of the Geungnakjeon embodies belief in the Pure Land (paradise). Anyangmun, the gate located in front of the Geungnakjeon, represents the entrance to the Pure Land. The gate and the hall behind it thus constitute a set of structures representing paradise itself. The Birojeon Hall enshrines Vairocana Buddha of the Avatamsaka Sutra, while the Gwaneumjeon Hall enshrines Avalokitesvara, the goddess of mercy. Ultimately, then, Bulguksa is a reflection of several strands of Buddhist thought: the content of the Lotus Sutra, belief in the Pure Land, the Avatamska Sutra and worship of Avalokitesvara. Beomyeongnu Pavilion, meanwhile, is located between the realms of the Daeungjeon and Geungnakjeon halls: this represents Mt. Meru, the central world-mountain in Buddhist cosmology. Accordingly, the stone columns below it are carved into cloud-like forms, creating an atmosphere befitting a high mountain.

The building of temples combining four different streams of Buddhist

thought in one single complex is a characteristic feature of 8th-century Silla temple architecture.

Seokguram Grotto, meanwhile, is unique in that it was created not by finding and using a natural cave but by building an artificial one. The grotto consists of a stone chamber, passageway and round dome. A statue of the Buddha sits beneath the dome, which was finished with an external earth covering. The halo behind the Buddha’s head is carved into the wall below the dome, forming a straight line of sight between the eyes of a worshipper standing in the grotto, the head of the Buddha and the halo.

The ceiling of the dome is crowned by a large, round stone carved with a lotus pattern, under which concentric circles of stones extend downwards.

Every second stone in the first three concentric circles protrudes slightly inwards: these are the heads of long stones driven deep into the walls, like rivets, which provide the structural support needed to keep the dome intact. Their role is thus both structural and decorative.

Interior of Seokguram Grotto

Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa Temple

According to Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) and Samgukyusa (Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms), two of Korea’s most important ancient historical texts, Buseoksa Temple was built in 676 by the eminent monk Uisang upon his return to Korea following a period of study in China. Muryangsujeon Hall is built in the column-head bracket style, with brackets located only at the top of each column. These columns are famous for their beautiful use of entasis. Entasis is also used in the stone columns of Greek temples and in the wooden architecture of other East Asian countries such as China and Japan. Nowhere was this technique popular for longer than in Korea. It was used until the early Joseon period and manifested its full beauty in column-head bracket-style buildings.

1 Muryangsujeon Hall 2 The roof supported by hwalju, or auxiliary columns 3 Pillars designed using baeheullim (entasis).

1

2 3

The chunyeo (rafters protruding from the eaves at the corners) of Muryangsujeon’s roof, meanwhile, are supported by auxiliary columns known as hwalju. These are believed to have been added to the structure some time after it was originally built. This is because the chunyeo in the hall’s hip-and-gable roof are of the “lever” type. The weight of the roof thus presses down on the inner part of each chunyeo, lifting its outer part. Supporting this outer part from beneath with an auxiliary pillar is therefore contradictory; it is highly likely, then, that these pillars were not part of the original structure but added at a later date to support the corners of the roof.

Other buildings that feature lever-type chunyeo include the Bogwangjeon Hall at Simwonsa Temple, which dates from the Goryeo period (918–1392), and the Daeungjeon Hall at Bongjeongsa Temple, which dates from the subsequent early Joseon era. These are the only three known examples of hip-and-gable roof buildings with lever-type chunyeo.

The Muryangsujeon Hall at Buseoksa, meanwhile, is of great significance due to the way it features details that echo 11th-century northern and southern Chinese architectural styles in one building. The soseuljae, a component found in its central roof bracket, in particular, is an extremely old feature also depicted in Goguryeo tomb murals. The ungong, a component located above the soseuljae, however, is found only in the architecture of southern China. Ultimately, Muryangsujeon can be regarded as embodying an international style that combines native Korean forms dating from the Goguryeo period with newly introduced southern Chinese elements. Its status as the biggest and most beautiful example of the column-head bracket-style hip-and gable roof, where each column is topped by its own bracket, makes it worthy of global recognition.