Seoul formless_2.3




Namdaemoon 1904

Many discussions were held this semester about the historic 'plan' of Seoul. Perhaps more succinctly was the lack there of. Seoul's earliest beginnings excluded any semblance of urban planning. The urban form which emerged at the turn of the 20th century was the result of land ownership and negotiated, sometimes indistinctly blurred boundaries. 

Seoul could be described as a city in reverse. Its roads and thorough fares, by-products of an indigenous architecture and building 'mass'. Viewed another way, the city streets and routes came second. Cities, as we known them in many other places (as in western cities), are often the direct result of planned efforts forged of transportation routes and zoned districts.

Seoul, it seems is exactly opposite.






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