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 ARTISTIC LICENCE
Unchanged for some 600 years, a well preserved enclave of Seoul is attracting a hip, new crowd of creatives.
By any measure, Seouls rapid - fire development over the past few decades has resulted in a metropolis thats extraordinarily prosperous and successful. The thing is, when youre so busy hurtling forward,you have little time to look back. In Seouls case, this has had consequences for its built landscape. As the city emerged from its turbulent, poverty - stricken past - clusters of historic quarters razed to make way for more space - efficient apartment blocks, or waterways paved over to case traffic snarls - it had little inclination to reflect on the casualties of its transformation.
Unchanged for some 600 years, a well preserved enclave of Seoul is attracting a hip, new crowd of creatives.
By any measure, Seouls rapid - fire development over the past few decades has resulted in a metropolis thats extraordinarily prosperous and successful. The thing is, when youre so busy hurtling forward,you have little time to look back. In Seouls case, this has had consequences for its built landscape. As the city emerged from its turbulent, poverty - stricken past - clusters of historic quarters razed to make way for more space - efficient apartment blocks, or waterways paved over to case traffic snarls - it had little inclination to reflect on the casualties of its transformation.
In recent times, though, the city has become more reflective. The groundswcll of appreciation for its remaining cultural and visual legacy - a 6oo - ycar history and striking natural setting - has been substantial. Specifically, many of the citys historical assets, rather than being mere empty icons preserved as a reminder of a storied past, have morphed into hotbeds of creative activity. Ancient palace gardens echo with the sounds of world music, old prisons arc being retro - fitted to showcase contemporary art, and medieval fortresses now house space - age design complexes. All this activity has created a place where old and new do not simply coexist, but inform each other, and where the past is incorporated into inspirational plans for the future.
In few places is this exchange more evident than Bukchon Hanok Village. Tucked snugly between two royal palaces, this neighbourhood has the citys best preserved cluster of hanok, or traditional Korean houses, with its winding lanes and vistas of tiled roofs seemingly largely unchanged over the centuries. The focal point of a hanok conservation drive, restorations have been sensitively carried out and theres plenty to absorb, from the flared caves, intimate courtyards and warm wood interiors of the Bukchon Cultural Center to the Gahoc and Hansangsoo Museums collection of furniture, embroideries, and amulets that used to adorn a hanok.
Most tellingly, the village has a lively, distinctly urban edge. Artists, celebrities and architects have flocked to the zone, fuelling a mini - property boom and claiming it in the name of the countrys trendsetters. Which explains the cosy cafes, wine bars and art spaces and restaurants that sec little need to confine themselves to Korean antiquity. A stroll down a side street yields a cross - cultural melange of word sculptures and wood - fired pizzas.
Bukchons aesthetics echo citywidc. Hanok offices and dental clinics arc increasingly common, and there arc even plans for a brand new hanok suburb in northwestern Seoul, proof the form is still practical and much - loved.
Meanwhile, the rebuilding of the fortress wall that once ringed the capital continues apace. Originally erected in 1396, it was an impressive feat of engineering, snaking 19km along the mountains to join the great gates that controlled access from each of the cardinal directions, some of which still stand. Over the ensuing centuries, the wall was whittled down by war and urban renewal into a few isolated sections, and increasingly seemed irrelevant with the city spilling well beyond the brick - lined boundary.
Undeterred, the government began a tentative restoration effort a few decades ago that will be completed by 2014. More than $iom is being invested to shore up broken and degraded segments of the wall with new stones and to link it with bridges, walkways or markers where its no longer possible to reconstruct the wall itself. The intention is to invite visitors to waik its length, tracing the contours that once defined Seoul Today, different sections of the wall tower over the old city centre, run through tranquil forests, skirt neon - drenched thoroughfares and split quiet residential areas. The experience is an encounter with Seoul in all its incarnations.
Other recent developments include the transformation of the citys magnificent, but no longer functional. Baroque - style central train station into a performance and culture space, and the creation of a new modern art museum in the former HQpf the Defense Security Command.
From an urban planning and architectural point of view, developments like these provide an exciting layering of Seouls past, present and future, which Seoul - based architect Doojin Hwang describes as a dynamic, triangular interaction between natural landscape, history, and megalopolis that defines the capital.
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