condenCITY: notes from the core

Lautner's LA

2012-02-06T01:47:00.000-08:00

photos-ereeder 2000

It was no secret that John Lautner was appalled by LA's appearance. He once commented that he wondered how anyone could have created such a dreadful environment. Yet, through his unrecognized, albeit maturing career Lautner made LA home. And he made it an impressionable 'home' for the fortunate clients to have commissioned his work to design their domestic retreats. It has been more recently that his life's achievements have come to light in the eyes of the architecture community however, few architects even today, can measure in spatial experience, what Lautner was able to accomplish in his time- sans computational tools.

It was early 2000 when I visited the only Lautner residence I have ever seen. It is is perhaps one of the most memorable architectural experiences of my life, having the rare opportunity to step foot inside of his Sheats-Goldstein Residence in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Our small group was invited on that bright Los Angeles afternoon, with late day sun casting shadows and directing our procession. I remember clearly upon arrival, the house had no facade so to speak. Unlike so many structures, predisposed to what the facade represents in style or form; as if surface is all that mattered. Lautner's residence, on the other hand, was about capturing the dense landscape of the steeply sloped hillside- the facade being nearly invisible in its disguise to make environment and spatial experience the forefront spectacle....

It is interesting to recall such experiences from distant years. In part because the mental reconstruction is most likely inaccurate to some extent, slanted to a personal bias and yet honed to what the senses reveal in ones eye and memory. I re-create my visit in words, searching for description of loosely connected spaces- each segment seemingly independent from the previous, reaching for its own independent identity within its connection to the outside world. And so it was, the house that pulled you into its folded entry, disguised in obscurity, seemingly all about its interior-exterior play. Was it inside or outside that we crossed into the vaulted living area? Fixed with built in furniture- the space looked of tomorrow yet, was built years past with it's folded cast concrete ceiling, capturing sky and shadow. Infinity floor, looking to city skyline, I wondered to the edge of Lautner's LA.

condenCITY_88 forgotten cities

2012-01-16T01:31:00.000-08:00

798 Beijing, China

Industry represents the seeded beginning (and inversely at times, the cataclysmic end) of a cities life. As we look into the 'The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit'- definitely worth reading by the way- in regards to the industrial miscue of what Detroit, Michigan has become.

Not everywhere though are places, so defined by industry, as ill-fated or so forgotten. Shouldn't we in the very least hold ourselves accountable for the invariable damage inflicted upon the very environments of such places? Remembering must therefor be part of the equation.

Remembering must overcome how we have chosen to forget.

condenCITY_87 south of somewhere

2012-01-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

Beige
caught between sky
and ~~building~~
vacancy

Where manufactured lives
and packaged dreams
Assembled
In production like
Perfection
Weight rises
and always falls

Here time
is covered
In atypical fashion

South of somewhere

Vaclav's Prague_ 1936-2011

2011-12-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

Frank Gehry's Fred and Ginger Building 1997, Prague, Czech Republic

A revolution led by written word (and architecture).

The late Czech leader and galvanizing visionary, Vaclav Havel led the peaceful uprising Prague spring and 'Velvet Revolution' of 1989. Mr. Havel, with wit and poetics of word, stirred discontent through the foundations of Charter 77, a human rights watch group that brought attention to the abuses of perverse power, corruption and other atrocities under communist oppression. His imprisonments fed his frustrations further and inspired revolutionary ideas and words which would propel a people to freedom in 1989 and into the early 90's as he was elected Czechoslovakia's first democratic leader.

It was during his time as President of the newly formed Czech Republic (after the split with Slovakia) that Prague emerged in the eyes of the world as a city unparalleled in a well preserved, cross-section of historical identity through time. The rebirth of ideology (and the city itself) was perhaps exemplified in a new architectural project to be situated adjacent an apartment building designed by Mr. Vaclav's grandfather in 1907- and a place Mr. Havel once lived. Having secured the rising star in Frank Gehry back in the early 1990's, the design of the 'Fred and Ginger Building', on this prominent river front site, represented a fresh start for the fledgling democratic country. If there ever was an architecture embodying political change it is here along the Vltava River in Prague, instigated by none other than Mr. Havel himself.

Mr. Havel can be credited with with both preservation and progress in Prague and in the Czech Republic. Absolved of militarism, with pen in hand, creatively writing social change.

He will be remembered.

condenCITY_86 commute

2011-12-09T00:45:00.001-08:00

About three years ago, I posted sequential images and descriptive words relating to my daily commute in San Francisco. In actuality, I had 5 years prior to that, done the same thing in Seoul back in 2001, tracing my daily route to work on cold winter mornings. Now, almost ten years ago to the day, I reflect upon my daily commutes that I made from Anguk-dong to Yeoksam-dong in Seoul. The original commute images were shot in 35 mm slide film that has since been scanned to digital format as you see here now. Even in 2001, Seoul in its tattered youth and engineered front, appears design-less; awkward in adolescence as a growing and changing city. In that respect, not much has changed to this day.

'Commute' has always had significance in my daily routines. On foot or via public transit, my routes have shifted by mood or of necessary expediency. Always varying, even in the slightest of deviation or shifts in step. Our awareness is heightened in tactile contact. Ground against foot, Feet on moving platforms; the camera at one's side, as a mechanism for recording time and distance.

Eyes open and mind wandering, wondering.

condenCITY_85

2011-12-04T23:36:00.001-08:00

Visions of Nakwon

The belly of a city, turned upside-down in the darkness of day.
Where some explore, others remain cautiously aside;
outside.
Both road and structure conceived simultaneously;
a partnership of ~~economics and~~ an expedient double time.
My memory is vague but bold as I look back through my forlorn window.

condenCITY_84 above and below

2011-11-29T17:27:00.001-08:00

Faux-fotos capturing real "insta"-moments. I have begun to photograph Seoul above and below ground in a series of images, quickly capturing the reflected half of the city; a metro system, experienced daily by thousands and yet receiving little attention as a place of destination- or perhaps even consideration as active public space. The Seoul metro is a place of passage where most commuters rarely take pause. The series can be seen here at an instagram platform for viewing and sharing photo's, captured on handheld, mobile devices and networks.

condenCITY_83 cities in-between

2011-11-14T20:20:00.001-08:00

The Kaesong Industrial zone is located 16 kilometers north of the DMZ and South Korean borders. Kaesong, having opened in 2004 as a joint project between the north and south, now operates as a conditional industrial area with productions of low-quality garments and commercial accessories at the hands of cheap North Korean labor. The city is directly connected by train and bus to and from Seoul, making it the only direct civilian connecting line, between the two countries along the heavily fortified DMZ. It is a place of transient existence, with a workforce shipped in for operations and then out at off times. It is caught, in-between, somewhere as typical industrial park, and a decades old cold war hangover.

But could it be a staging ground for more?

Kaesong represents more than a place of industry but now presents the possibility of industry as a uniting force of disparate ideologies; bridging lapses and filling voids.

condenCITY_82 city depths

2011-11-08T00:25:00.000-08:00

The depths of a city can be measured in anticipation; what may or may not eventually happen as a result of environmental oversight. In the case of Seoul, the engineered Han River, is a subtle measure of the city's depth. The negative elevations of which, have been excavated away, as a precautionary stance ensuring the safety of its citizens and investments. As contingency this city is intentionally deep.

Un-condensed rural 2.0

2011-10-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

'nightwall'

With day turned to night- all that remains is wall, casting shadows and projecting light in the cool autumn air of rural Korea. The earthen walls, 'tom', are labors of division (and inclusion); containing spaces of outside to be included inside. These are outside rooms to be certain. The rise of autumn brings silence in night and in day. Contained within earthen walls- nightwalls.

Jon Jost

2011-10-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy, Jon Jost

I sat down recently in Seoul with American filmaker and artist, Jon Jost. We met on the campus where I teach, at a small cafe for an exchanging introduction. He was both engaging and accessible in conversation that lasted seamlessly for two hours. His stories of life seemed opposite his films in some ways, and then again, his work as a direct projection of his own divergent 'lives' rendered the man and places behind the camera even more real- in details captured deliberately in time. Jost has made more than 60 independent films dating back to the late 1960's.

Perhaps, known best for, All The Vermeers in New York, his films are as much a reflection of places he has lived and experienced, as they are in deeply personal views and an obsessive craft in making. His films have been both widely celebrated around the world for their cinematic attention and perhaps equally criticized for a cadence, some find hard to follow. They are cerebral and deliberately constructed; or film as "architecture," as Jost describes.

Jon Jost will lecture on November 25th at 1:30 pm in the department of Architecture at Konkuk University. His lecture is titled_ Cinematic architectural space: an exploration

condenCITY_81 Seoul from above 1.3

2011-10-03T02:28:00.000-07:00

The horizon is lost and then found in Seoul. It's serrated edge pitched against a hazy, late summer sky. For many city dwellers it is an elusive experience to be found in moments of brief visits above the 10th floor. At street level we tend to forget that vision can be free of limit.

condenCITY_80 Seoul from above 1.2

2011-09-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

From above Seoul is mixed.

Architecture is at once road, programmed space, bridge, public node, parking lot, to name just a few; collective as a multi-functional device in the city. Bound indistinguishably on its sides, concealed and then revealed. Architecture, by determined will (and absolute limits), as it was constructed in double-time, producing road, market and modern apartment block in one economic effort. Simultaneously they rose, as we see it today from above; the confluence of Nagwon.

condenCITY_79 Seoul from above 1.1

2011-09-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

The Seoul Metropolitan area is 605 square kilometers (or 233 sq. miles). It's population of 10,464,051 estimated in 2010, is concentrated in an area of 17,288 people per square kilometer (44,770 per square mile); in comparison New York City's density of approximately (27,500 people per square mile) is clear indication of just how dense Seoul is in terms of population per area. From above at night, in this NASA satellite image, we too are reminded of Seoul's defining topographic boundaries and limits, viewed here in its thinly delicate and fragile form (quite opposite the constructed reality at ground level). The cities overflowing edges have been pushed outward and forced through narrowing geographies, north and south, east and west, visible high in the night sky.

condenCITY_78 1912 Se-ul From Above 1.0

2011-09-04T23:22:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy nationmaster.com

Seoul has a history of being fictitious when it comes to mapping and representations of the city on paper. Through centuries either locally or by the hand of visiting foreigners (as viewed in the map above) it has been laid out and mapped according to personal perceptions, a kind of visual feeling, rather than by any exactness of measure or precision. It is a representation that permeates even the city today; in its constructed imprecise form.

condenCITY_77 60's seoul Nakwon Sanga

2011-08-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

Fall 2011; preservation or preservative?

condenCITY_76 mullae shadow

2011-08-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Tinged air washed away along rust stained streets.

open windows accepting what the city has to offer; tempered for a moment by rains torrent.

a lights line connects odd bedfellows in programmatic disharmony.

casting a final evening glance, I cut through another eves pale twilight of wet grey

Lost in shadow.

condenCITY_75

2011-08-10T01:17:00.001-07:00

Seoul Adaptations

condenCITY_74 From roads to rivers

2011-07-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy open source for public use: daum.net

As the rain continues to fall this day, July 28, 2011 the deluge of the last two days has left my home district of Seocho-gu underwater literally. What has officially been classified as a 100 year flooding event on the south side of the city is still unfolding in terms of an urban disaster. Homes washed out as mountainsides have eroded and motorists stranded on the roofs of their vehicles in 1.5m+ deep water, the rains caught many by surprise in the early morning hours on the 27th. With downpours falling in amounts as much as 2.3 inches (6 cm)/ hour it is no surprise that Seoul's drainage systems have been helpless against the torrential summer monsoon.

Cy Twombly [April 25, 1928 – July 5, 2011] making histories

2011-07-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

Coincidentally, it was last week I was posting a note regarding the memory of a great painter I once studied with. In fact we would have great discussions about the man I write of here now. About the same time on July 5th 2011, although I did not know, another American painter passed away. Cy Twombly wasn't just another painter. I was introduced to his work about 12 years ago as a student. At the time I was challenged by a suggested reference to his work and my interests. After some time in 2004, I wrote an article for Loudpaper Magazine attempting to draw correlation between the fragmented city of Seoul (in its palimpsestial formation) and Twombly's paintings of historical reflectance. Today, perhaps it is clearer to me as I have contemplated time and again, Twombly's work and the process' one goes through as an artist, architect, designer, or creator at will. It has been said that Cy Twombly would paint and draw in light subdued spaces to achieve the loose 'freehand' he was so known for. It was his "experience" as he once described when it came to making art that seemed to consume form.
Experience of making above all else.

With each passing, a history is made. Cy Twombly was a master, even during his life, of making histories.

Sussman remembered

2011-07-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

'invisible'- e.reeder 2001

"I always use the analogy of a pool that has frozen over," in the words of Wendy Sussman "The finished painting is like that. So, in the pool at the lower depth might be a rock, and then there might be a little leaf that is frozen closer to the surface, and above that maybe a candy wrapper. It's all frozen in the pool, and then on the very top somebody comes and skates. The surface has this history, and that is time, the time of the painting."

condenCITY_73 heavy Seoul

2011-07-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

My Seoul is heavy. Weighted with materials that connect to earth, the surfaces of the city, and bend precariously to the sky reaching. The architectural forms of Seoul are one with the ground, by the very nature of gravity that pulls at dense material compositions common in many structures throughout the city. There is ambiguity between ground and vertical surface. Where one begins and the other ends is at times unclear.

condenCITY_72 material Seoul

2011-06-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

The Leeum Museum revisited.

Eclectic Seoul emerges in my return visit (after 4 years) to the Samsung Leeum Museum. Seoul as a city recognizable in its fragmented condition, in refined contrast, the Leeum Museum balances the art of its 'architectures' (designed by Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, and Mario Botta) and the traditional to contemporary arts contained within. The tightly arranged "campus" of buildings is tucked away in the upscale Hannam-dong residential neighborhood, buried within Seoul's north of the river district. It's material (and formal) presence is precisely Seoul, divergent and un-coreographed yet, somehow for its ambitions, remains contextual within the equally ambitious neighboring villas.

condenCITY_71 mobile streets

2011-06-14T01:38:00.000-07:00

Seoul streets rumble under my feet.

The hum and buzz of motion; metal to metal, propelled through blackened tunnels where walls remain obscure and only glass reflections reveal an internalized compartment, stern faces. Starting and stopping requires loose legs, allowing for a kind of dampened reaction to the jerky motion of pinned cars. This is a street to be sure with beggars and paddlers daily. The actors remain silent, although I know they too are there, seated quietly waiting in turn for their moments to shine. Gawkers sit on the side-lines watching and chatting quietly. Personal space in these streets is non-existent. I remain flexible to the possibility and definition of 'street', my morning street, deep in the city.

condenCITY_70 city of shadows 2.0

2011-06-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

What scale is your life?

Defined by walls that bound your routines of passage and pause. The marks, textures and distances revealing 'scales' here today for a moments notice.

Mullae citydouble doublecity

2011-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

condenCITY_69 floating seoul

2011-05-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Aerial plan illustration courtesy of exinteriordesign.com

It appears the city of Seoul has long had a fascination with "floating" structures along the Han River, as the opening of a photo exhibition last week suggests. The newly completed 'floating-islands' project is home to the exhibition and apparently itself a long anticipated addition to the cities river waterfront in Banpo-dong. Floating or not, upon visiting on the second day of operation I couldn't help but feel how oddly out of place the structures appeared, scaled more for the urban eclecticism of city fabric. But even there the 'architecture' would appear to be trying a little too hard in its pompous display of formalism; over-structured and under criticized.

In the 1950's too, the cities river front was doted with floating structures attracting visitors for leisure activities. Then, the river was still in its untamed, un-engineered state. With edges soft in vegetation and earth, unlike today's concrete lined and dredged depth artificiality. Yet, the floating structures at least in the black and white photos of the exhibit, appear to mesh with the small boat craft of the river. Perhaps as a reminder of the way river and city co-existed at that time in history. City now dominates the river, as the new 'floating island' suggests, regardless of how much the local government wants to claim Han River 'Renaissance'.

condenCITY_68 end of a life

2011-05-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Dressed in time with splintering cracks, the aging low-rise apartments of guro-gu have outlived expectations. Today, more than 30 years old, the apartments slated for redevelopment now await termination. Lives of yesterday have moved on to the cities newer residential areas, leaving behind the foundations of Seoul; as a city of beige bedrooms.

condenCITY_67 urban monolith

2011-05-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

In the summer of 1995 I made my way daily past Strahov Stadion going to school. It was a seemingly long walk to the bus stop to catch the only option for public transportation, located at the far side of the stadium from my dorm room. What I didn't know at the time was Strahov is the largest stadium in the world. (How I could not have known that simple fact then, is beyond me to this day). But for me Strahov wasn't a stadium from the outside and it seemed not even of 'architectural' classification. It's daunting presence, as a building, was more of a curiously strange neighborhood, uninviting but alluring at the same time. Back then at street level along its east facing perimeter were restaurants and pubs, as well as a few small specialty shops and markets.

To this day it stands testament to mass appeal. The crowds which it has drawn through the decades may have changed in spectacle event but its form remains as urban monolith, a ghostly, vacant city in its own right.

Time in Words

2011-04-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

condenCITY_66 concrete city

2011-04-17T02:10:00.000-07:00

Ai Wei Wei “Love the Future” (爱未来)

2011-04-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy from the web BBC

The detaining of artist and activist Ai Weiwei by the Chinese government earlier this week has sparked nations and citizens from around the world to demand his release. Outspoken in his views of the Chinese government, Ai's work has come to represent a national conscious, stoking awareness of human rights. The son of one of China's most revered poets, Ai himself has in his 30 year career gained a cult like notoriety with installations and works spanning media and continents. He is well remembered for his collaboration on the Beijing Olympic stadium with Architects Herzog and de Meuron but perhaps more importantly his efforts to expose the recklessness of a government against its people upon the completion of the project.

His recent disappearance is sure to solidify his persona and one might speculate his personal agenda in awakening the suppressed spirit of a nation. This could be his biggest work to date.

condenCITY_65 urban green space

2011-03-30T03:28:00.000-07:00

Green space is redefined in Seoul, with all of the environmentally conscience advantages to go with it. Packed in tight lots throughout the city are multi-story driving ranges, free from the burdens and labors landscape care and excessive water use. These diaphanous green giants, boasting lightweight space frames and strikingly green nets, are second home to thousands of golf fanatics who stand on its platform edges both day and night, gazing out into the urban-wilderness.

Seoul green space.

Lost Cities (to be rediscovered in time)

2011-03-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

In the wake of the massive 8.9 quake and ensuing tsunami that struck Japan on Friday the 11th of March is certainly cause for contemplation. Being within a stones throw from Japan here in Korea, of one of the more seismically active regions on the planet. The incomprehensible carnage left by the trembler and tsunami, caused the north eastern Japanese coastline to be displaced by an estimated 8 feet (2.4m) and vast areas of towns and cities leveled.

Earthquake and tsunami preparations in Japan are amongst the most stringent in the world. Tokyo's ability to survive largely in tact in the aftermath, might be testament to this. With substantial damages to be sure, the mega-city of Tokyo, considering what might have been with out such rigorous seismic standards, would have been much more serious comparatively in other parts of the world. It is stammering, for example, to think about such a quake in California and in retrospect of Japan's tragic experience, should provoke an awakening of response in other parts of the world with similar earthquake potential.

We may look to Japan, as we have in decades past, for innovations in Architecture and perhaps the thoughtful approaches to 'details' in modern life. I consider now the future of a design profession and the creative responses to be seen in coming years, as a country rebuilds and again, as it has had to in the past, critically rediscovers and shapes the future of cities worldwide.

condenCITY_64 city of shadows 1.0

2011-03-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I left Seoul and entered the city of shadow. Constructed entirely of its history as it was and as it remains. Bound in starkly banal newness this city stands apart. Defined by neighbors of contrast working side by side. The narrow streets recede in shadow to depths at times unknown and unseen. Light penetrates only so far to stir our imaginations. By invitation we enter and bypass the ground level activity. Blue sky gives way to encrusted corridor and each door with its cast of characters remaining as mysterious as the street below.

Roche: generations + works

2011-02-23T23:49:00.000-08:00

Knights of Columbus Building, New Haven, Connecticut, image courtesy wiki commons

I was reminded yesterday of a conversation I had years back when reading a non-related New York Times article featuring the achievements of modernist Architect, Kevin Roche. The divisive conversation took place in an informal design review at a former office of mine, with an ensuing discussion regarding relevant parking garages as precedent for a design commission in San Francisco, California. My colleagues at the time were flippant at the idea of considering the importance of the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the attached parking structure, which to me represented a critical example of the tectonic and monumental (as in architecture) combined in a manner relevant even today. For my colleagues the parking structures non-glamorous, 'ugly image' was of a flatly knee-jerk response. Frankly, their non-critical "general public" position was a hollow argument (shocking to me being in a 'design' office) and enough for me to let a dead-end conversation lie flat... in any event...

The attraction of the firms 60's and 70's works, during the heyday of Roche Dinkeloo Architects, was an evident desire to extend architecture beyond site; engaging a number of their projects in urban reference both literally, perhaps in the surreal spectacle in the forms they created and clearly too, in methods embracing delicate cultural and functional identities of the time, revealed through 'details' in their work.

Mr. Roche was once quoted as saying in an interview, a "highway scale" was influential in a number of their projects and evidently so in the New Haven Coliseum. It was an innovative project that overcame a high water table site constraint by relocating the parking program to the emblematic elevated position for which the Architecture became known for. (Which, by the way, was unfortunately demolished in 2007. Limited public funding had let the building deteriorate to the point of New Havens refusal to sufficiently fund and refurbish the aging structure). More can be read about the work of Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo in a Kevin Roche interview on Archinect.

I have never known Mr. Roche in person although, I feel as though I do, having befriended his daughter Alice in graduate school at Berkeley. Testament (and compliments) to thought filled generations and visions at polar opposites at a spectrum of scales.

condenCITY_63 Urban Factories

2011-02-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

A new exhibition in New York at the Skyscraper Museum titled 'Vertical Urban Factory' recently peaked my interest as I examine similar conditions here in Seoul with regards to shifting industrial zones in the city (and what is ultimately left behind as industry relocates to the urban periphery). There is a good article at the Architects Newspaper that reviews the NYC exhibition and brings to light conditions today and more pointedly through the twentieth century of factories in the urban center.

Not surprisingly is the differences between factories and districts of industry in Seoul in contrast to the western equivalent which has revealed more integral forms in aging city-scapes. In Seoul, the integration is more complex perhaps and regarded with less long term value and questionable overall contributions to the urban fabric. The social components of such conditions are still undeniable as workers and supporting businesses shape the city in ways unique to industrial process.

With the displacement of industry anywhere and factories that remain, choices persist as these places rest idle.

condenCITY_62 double seoul

2011-02-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

Calvino's Seoul

2011-01-19T18:05:00.000-08:00

"Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else."

-Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

condenCITY_61 city-double : double-city

2011-01-12T22:27:00.000-08:00

Mullae dong in Seoul has become an artists enclave over the past decade. To begin THIS decade we examine two communities in Mullae, having become a double entity, side-by-side; the industry and artist communities of Seoul.

Mullae-dong in Yeongdongpo-gu is one of the few remaining industrial areas within the center of the city. At the first half of the 20th century, industry took root in Seoul with modernization and production needs (during the Colonial period) and population induced, extended city limits. Today, industry has been pushed to outer city limits with speculative rezoning, leaving vacancies and voids in the industrial city-scape. By 1999, displaced artists of the Hongik area began to take over the vacant spaces of Mullae-dong, occupying the upper levels of what were once industrial offices and work spaces within non-descript, concrete slab structures. A loosely formed community began to emerge and what has now been collectively realized as Mullae Artists Village.

Now, with the last remaining metal and machine shops at street level, both artists and artisans have established a mutually beneficial common ground. A blossoming 'double' which may even overcome short sided speculations to redevelop this culturally significant area.

condenCITY_60 public discourse

2010-12-30T16:08:00.000-08:00

The year (and decade) ended with two public exhibitions of intensions well beyond personal and group recognition. The intense need to bring architecture to the forefront of social/ political awareness and debate was impetus enough for our semester long investigation and final exhibitions. 'Transit_ house', considering the plight of North Korean refugees and the need for an accessible housing type, in the very least was an attempt to plant seeds for dialogue and contemplation. Although met with modest reception the ideas will extend beyond studio and gallery.

Structures of Propaganda

2010-12-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for propaganda.

A large Christmas tree has been fashioned of lights, wrapping a communications tower bordering the DMZ in South Korea. The tower, standing 30 meters high, is supposedly viewable by villagers and military posts on the north side of the DMZ border. It has been reported the 'tree' alters perceptions of North Korean residents to recognize fallacies of the North Korean government, who for years have been telling its citizens that they are far better off than the people of South Korea. The bright light display of the tree is meant to challenge this idea amidst long periods of blackout and limited electricity availability in the North...so the story in the media goes or is it a Christian church thing? It certainly wouldn't be the first time for such propaganda.

Transit_ house Seoul

2010-12-19T06:09:00.000-08:00

Opening tomorrow, the 20th of December at Prugio Valley gallery in Gangnam ]Seoul[ is an exhibition of ideas for housing Seoul's next wave of refugees from North Korea. This semester our design studio has been researching the plighted situation of North Korean's seeking freedoms here in the south. Our group will be exhibiting ideas for new housing types and strategies, surprisingly a muted topic amongst design professionals in South Korea.

The exhibition will run through the 24th of December.

condenCITY_59 inhabiting the gap

2010-11-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

Seongbuk-gu in Seoul extends outside the northern most ancient city walls. It is an amalgamation of old and new with preservation and conversion of 1930's urban Hanok's (traditional Korean houses) alongside new villas and non-descipt commercial storefronts that can be found throughout Seoul. Galleries, museums and creatively inspired businesses dot the cityscape here.

As in many of Seoul's older districts there is a willingness to inhabit the uninhabitable- or so it would seem. Drainage-way turned neighborhood with residences and small cafes filling what appears to be a once natural water way. Recent summer and early fall monsoons brought drenching deluges to the region this year and one must wonder the ability of such unplanned areas to withstand the tendencies of water to flow to the lowest geographical point. Somehow drainage whether sufficient or not has been mitigated allowing the occupation of this urban gap.

condenCITY_58 lines and curves

2010-10-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

Rational expressions and organizations, at least in a coherent sense, as experienced momentarily in Seoul. New commerce rises out of formless city streets. Lines (and the occasional curve) replace the non linear city. While Gangnam can hardly be considered historic by any stretch of the imagination, its roots and side streets retain characteristics of Seoul's urban past. With each new high-rise tower these woven traits of unplanned urbanity slip away.

Seoul has become linear.

condenCITY_57 seoul adaptations 1.2

2010-10-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

mobile garments_ Seocho-dong

......[or anywhere]

condenCITY_56 city of refugee

2010-10-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Seoul has been a city of refugee for decades. It's massive growth through the mid-twentieth century was fueled by rural migrations and immigration from abroad. People seeking new opportunity and promotion flocked to the city. Today, Seoul faces a new population of refugees hoping to find political, idealogical and economic freedoms. Ironically, this marginalized population of defecting North Koreans, is given relatively little assistance when faced with issues of housing equality and option.

This semester, graduate students at Konkuk University will be researching and designing 'transitional' refugee housing for North Korean defectors, to be sited in a quickly changing district within Seoul city boundaries. A silenced topic (one rarely discussed amongst local design professionals and government collaboration) will be placed at the forefront of discourse with an end of the semester exhibition of works to be held at Prugio Gallery in Seoul.

condenCITY_55 above

2010-09-11T04:40:00.000-07:00

Daum.net aerial view of Ttueksom station in Seoul

Dymaxion Map, Buckminster Fuller, Courtesy wikimedia commons

Now, more than ever, we have access to a myriad of options for viewing the city. Cartography, or the craft of map-making has for centuries been a search for representing the earths surface and its composition in two dimensional form. Maps as two dimensional representations have given way to digitized volumes of aerial shots and three dimensionally charted land/ building forms, capturing nearly every corner of our urban (and rural) environments. It seems impossible that the two dimensional map, be it analogue or digital, will disappear anytime soon. The ability to view the city or any arrangement on the earths surface from various vantage points in nearly live time, has been augmented with combined technologies for unprecedented realism in viewing the composition of the earths surface from above.

By comparison, the Dymaxion map, patented by Buckminster Fuller in 1946, was a projection of a world map onto the surface of a polyhedron. The ensuing pattern was then unfolded using various methods and flattened to form a two-dimensional map which, in the end retained much of the proportional integrity of the globe map. While it may seem easy to dismiss the accuracy of the Dymaxion map at first glance, when in fact it is the deception of our minds eye that challenges relationships of the continents we have come to recognize in a northerly upward orientation, form and arrangement. The polyhedron superimposed grid establishing accurate break points, while maintaining continental precision.

So too, is the current aerial deceptive in its momentary, time captured snapshot of the city. Here today, and as is the case in Seoul, altered city tomorrow. Perhaps in the near future technology will have bridged the gap between transforming cities/ land forms and the digitized lenses through which we view them.

condenCITY_54 urban gaps

2010-09-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

The city of Seoul is always in-between, both physically and metaphysically. The gaps and fissures that feed our imagination are voids for intervention. They expose the tattered form of transformation caught between yesterday, today and tomorrow. Time is presented as exposed fragments; weathered and aged, testament to the labored roots of a cities humble beginning.

Early autumn brilliant blue breaks the hazy grey of thick summer. With mid-summer weight lifted the urban gap is once again free to breath.

condenCITY_53 seoul adaptations 1.1

2010-08-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

His divided life, halved by the structures before him that cast dark midday shadows. The other side of the road a world apart, that he catch glimpses of through sluggish, unending traffic and towering concrete columns. This industrial city, where workers ceaselessly tire from sun up till evening, the air tinged thick with the smells of determined labor. On a bright summers day it stifles the senses. This is the workers city, built on hand and foot with stern faces.

My life on the same metro-line, a minutes journey away and yet a social-political world apart. My train glides past above looking down at the city floor below. Speculations on an adaptable city.

Cal Berkeley Architecture: The First 100 Years

2010-08-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

There was a time from 1999 to 2003 when Wurster Hall was mostly closed for seismic renovations. I say mostly because a few rooms on the lower non-studio corridors remained open for classes. I was at Berkeley during this strange transitional time. Reflecting back, it seemed disappointing then to have not been a part of Wurster's long history but our class and the others around ours had a history of its own perhaps part of the uniqueness of a Berkeley education (and the departments relatively long history in American Architecture education).

A recent article and good read at the Architects Newspaper highlights the last 100 years of the College of Architecture at UC Berkeley. With fondness those of us remembering the voices and spaces that shaped our formative years- and still forming to this day.

condenCITY_52 tattered edges

2010-08-04T20:22:00.000-07:00

Gwangju in the far south on the Korean peninsula is a city seeking identity. In recent years its outwardly expansive growth has sought to create a new urban center for business, residence as well as renewed image for the city in general. This growth to the western urban edge has now joined efforts with the Korean governments recent campaign to redevelop the four major rivers throughout the country. Political argument has it that redeveloping the river corridors will attract tourism and protect urban areas from flooding. Read more on the history of the projects here at the Joongang Daily.

Whats most shocking is the processional erasure of natural habitat presently being bulldozed in the name of 'restoration'. Design and development needs to have its limits (if this can even be classified as design). The river corridors are home and habitat to migratory Egrets and various other species now threatened by habitat destruction. The natural 'design' of such places should remain just that. No amount of beautification can claim progress over what nature can accomplish rightly on its own; and the projects are just that unsightly beautification.

Un-condensed rural 1.0

2010-07-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to use the words 'green' or 'sustainable'. Truly we have always know of these ideas, lived them to a larger extent (in many cultures around the world) without the commercialized use of these terms, without the "greening" of anything. So how have we forgotten about these basics of life? How have we forgotten what it means to be a part of our environment so seamlessly? These are fundamental questions that seem easily exposed when visiting places inherently part of a larger system.

I recently revisited a historic garden in the far south on the Korean peninsula. Maintained for over five hundred years, Soswaewon has passed through successive generations as a place of seclusion, meditation and scholarly discourse. It has passed through the hands of political outcasts, scholars, invading governments (Japan) and was subsequently rebuilt after Colonial destruction. In Korea, it is one of the most recognized historical places of its kind and continues to represent uncompromising points of view regarding 'constructing' in the context of nature. Balance has been established through relationships.

Soswaewon is composed of a meandering wall which, encloses the garden on all sides except to the southeast where the site is bound by a small creek. The wall shifts from edge boundary to internal divisor and in doing so separates a small structure (a residence of the host) situated at the highest elevation in the garden. An even smaller residence for a guest placed at the lowest elevation just below the hosts house. At the middle of the garden the wall encloses a small outdoor space of meditation, or what one can assume was the past function of this 'outdoor room'. The wall continues to transform over the restricted distance of the valleys shifting topography, giving way to altered functions. The wall rises and falls, responding to both nature and human necessity. Its function oscillating between boundary and permeability, being seen and being invisible, exposing and concealing. The expression of which is a clear reflection of a balanced existence.

condenCITY_51 lost city

2010-07-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

Namdaemoon destruction and reconstruction: images courtesy Chosun Ilbo

Just over two years ago an arsonist set fire to Sungnyemun on Feb. 11, 2008. Korea's No. 1 national treasure was burned with almost 70% (as reported in the news) total destructive damage to original wood structure with the entire second level of the ancient city gate known as Namdaemun being destroyed. Sungnyemun was originally constructed in 1396. The reconstructive efforts have exposed newly unearthed original foundation stones dating back to the early period of the Joseon Dynasty.

The newly discovered foundations have also revealed discrepancies in what was thought to be the original elevation of the old city gate. Excavation experts have noted that the current ground level around the historic structure is approximately 1.4 meters higher than the orginal ground elevation, obscuring the original foundation stones. As reported researches will now document the gates height at 8 meters obove sea level.

condenCITY_50 seoul adaptations 1.0

2010-07-02T03:50:00.000-07:00

Jong-gak 2002

I took this photo in the winter of 2002 while living in Seoul. While so much has changed here, so much hasn't. In 2002, this perspective of commercial Seoul represented to me all that was different here regarding the urban condition; so much so it is still at the forethought of my interest in Seoul as a place of urban adaptations. Buildings and commercial structures are 'soft surfaces' (and for the most part irrelevant in design) readily manipulated, covered and altered. The base surface rendered obsolete, unnecessary beyond that of supporting facade and malleable interior space.

Nearly eight years later, a visit to this part of the city reveals the same invisible buildings and structures with new faces. Much that was there in 2002 has given way to remodel storefronts, new tenants or other altered cosmetic change (inevitable in commercially economies). The collective transformation of such districts changes our overall perception of the city; our memories of the past clouded with surface adaptations.

Seoul formless_2.3

2010-06-29T01:43:00.000-07:00

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.

condenCITY_49 long city 2.0

2010-06-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

The final days of each semester seem to expose more questions than answers but perhaps this should be the goal of any studio objective; establishing questions which then become seeds of interest for lifelong journey's and investigations. This semester my students have been challenging Seoul's decision to demolish Saewoon Sanga and replace the 40 year old structure with park space. (See thoughts on Saewoon from previous words condenCITY_42.)

The contention that this mega-structure is a vital part of the cities rapid transformation (although recent history has rendered the building obsolete) and in part can become a continuation of Seoul's history and future. Student projects considered urban as well as architectural issues at divergent (and relevant) scales. Project proposals instigated ideas for temporary and in themselves transformable solutions, recognizing the ever evolving nature of Seoul and the emerging questions 'how do we respond to the these rapid changes' and 'how can we consider existing structure as relevant and adaptable as opposed to expendable' (which is often the case here in Seoul).

The above works were completed by Hanyang University students Eun Hee Lee, Jong Hyun Kim and Hyun Kim from top to bottom respectively.

condenCITY_48 Vertical life 2.0

2010-06-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

The apartment phenomenon and proliferation has transformed the face of Seoul. There is no other building type that has so drastically shaped the image and form of Seoul. Its current (yet loosely defined) life cycle stands at around 35 years after which entire complexes and numerous apartment units fall to the demolition crane. The first generation of such apartment complexes in Seoul's southern urban districts have already begun to be redeveloped, with aging buildings being replaced with higher density developments.

Banpo Dong's apartment explosion began in the 1970's. Lining the Han River on the south side of the city, thousands of apartments of this residential district await 'ugrades' with apartment dwellers sometimes divided about being displaced, often with economic incentives spearheading disputes and holdouts (there has to be unanimous agreement amongst current dwellers prior to any redevelopment). The Shin Banpo is one such complex at the twilight of its lifespan.

Apartment blocks in Seoul are places of homogeniety. Individuality is camouflaged amongst drab concrete slabs dressed in standard neutral beige. The apartment phenomenon has been the center of cultural debate as such residential conditions seem to skirt the very traditions of social contact and place identity here in Korea. Conditions that seem long lost in Seoul's quest to house exploding urban populations of the past forty years. While measures to improve such developments in recent times have been to improve housing design and livable conditions, ironically (as in most sub-urban residential developments anywhere in the world) implemented codes and zoning instill a cycle of stifled potential in advancing such residential models. The results are often more of the same as prescribed by written laws.

condenCITY_47 urban dinosaur

2010-05-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

The Seoul Express Bus Terminal in Gangnam opened in 1985. City plans have already tagged the building for removal and reconstruction within the next ten years. Like most construction in Seoul, its hulking mass of weighted concrete is oppressive and awkward at best. A walk around the dated structure seems more like 1960 as opposed to something of a 1980's creation. Oddly though, its oddity is precisely it's appeal.

Entering on either the east or west sides of the building takes you through oversized arcades ( the most interesting spatial experiences at the terminal ) situated at the buildings edges and defined by massive concrete columns extending to foundation. The spaces are well kept and appear in a continual state of mopped-over preservation, presumably as they have for the past twenty five years.

Even when open the terminal appears closed. Passengers are funneled down the long flanking sides of the building to entries well concealed and curiously hidden from street view. It was months after living here I realized the terminal was in operation. Its fortified appearance imposes an impenetrable impression, standing as apparition within the bustle of the busiest bus and subway depot in the city.

condenCITY_46 relative cities : irrelevant form

2010-05-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

image courtesy wiki commons

The 193 km (120 miles) that separate Seoul, South Korea and Pyongyang, North Korea couldn't seem greater if the two cities were actually opposite poles of the planet. With some effort it is possible for foreigners to visit Pyongyang but for now, I am stuck with imagining what the city must like. A unified Korea and seamless visit to Pyongyang seems equally impossible anytime in the foreseeable future. I am left to my imaginative devices but from what I have read and the photos I have seen, there are remarkable similarities between the architectural 'technique' in cities of the north and cities here in the south. Korean architecture is intensely 'form' driven. Seoul is testament to that. The culmination of such projections perhaps is even more evident in the Ryugyong Hotel located in the North Korean capital.

The Ryugyong Hotel construction began in 1987 but was abruptly halted in 1992 amidst the North's severe economic troubles. The construction of the mega-structure has remained on hold since 1992 however, recent investment has renewed efforts to complete the out-of-place building. After nearly 16 years, in early 2008, foreign investors and political motivation allowed construction to restart. The structural skeleton of Ryugyong stands at 105 floors and was initially built to attract foreign investors, dignitaries and guests who would stay in anyone of the staggering 3000 hotel rooms. There have been questions about construction quality and even structural integrity of the building with claims the elevator shafts are misaligned, yet its looming completion pushes on.

The construction now has been projected to be complete by 2012, coinciding with government celebrations marking the 100 year anniversary of the late communist leader (the father of Kim Jong Il). With populations of starving citizens one has to question the motivation of a government to put perverse architectural form ahead of dying social need. Since when have cities been places of equality though? Speculation is, the work now being done is nothing more than an aesthetic 'skin', covering what will remain an empty, non functional building.

condenCITY_45 transitions

2010-05-05T01:40:00.000-07:00

May

transitions

hard line

between winter chill

summer heat

caught between light

and rising steam

public dimensions

drift in and out

of negotiated

boundary

Seoul Formless_adaptations

2010-04-29T03:57:00.000-07:00

Architecture just happens.

It is the adaptable forms of the city which shape the everyday pedestrian experience in Seoul. Makeshift structures identify as utilitarian only and yet account for much of the cities outward aesthetic. Such small buildings represent Seoul's "commando" approach to urban development (which through the 20th century drove Seoul's quick modernization), whereby necessity and function have clouded any consideration of 'planned'.

Seoul is evolutionary.

condencity_44 double city

2010-04-14T04:56:00.000-07:00

Seoul's double identity is both hidden and exposed simultaneously. Underground corridors extend invisibly (from the city streets above) for blocks, connecting subway riders from sidewalk destinations to subway trains below ground. Lengthy tunnels match length for length sidewalks and streets at ground level. Curiously, few corridors as this are so sparsely populated leaving destination above in questionable limbo until the moment of arrival when emerging into city light.

condencity_43 urban memory

2010-04-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

The highest topographical elevation on the Konkuk University campus in Seoul is punctuated with an oddly curious building, projecting an aesthetic and form caught somewhere between Corbusian modern and Eastern Block socialist architecture of the 1960's. The designing Korean architect in fact had studied briefly under Le Corbusier and was undoubtedly influenced in the outcome of what stands today. The building functions now as the campus' foreign language institute but in the recent past served as the school's main library.

It's exterior white-washed walls have recorded seasonal time with weathered streaks and accumulated dust. The interior, while dated opposite outside, has recently undergone a fresh coat of refurbishment. Painted corridors and newly tiled floors attempt to conceal time. As I moved around the central, spiraling corridor I can't help but remember the long extended corridors of the communist panel-laks of Eastern Europe. Clouded windows, with the collected haze of season's and lives past to my right, mysteriously concealed, oblique spaces to my left; urban memory and the making of myths.

Condencity_42 long city

2010-03-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Saewoon Sanga during the 1970's

The birth of modern architecture in Seoul was in part initiated by the construction of Saewoon Sanga in the mid 1960s. It's construction erased a half century of contentious urban 'vacancy' and representation. In the early 20th century a 1km strip of land was cleared by Japanese Colonial occupation and served as a fire break in the city during war time. After the Korean War, new urban settlers quickly constructed shanty villages and the area became known as the cities red light district. Rapid post war reconstruction of Seoul and a growing economy, fueled a burgeoning electronics industry and instigated needs for a larger modern market place.

The vision for Saewoon Sanga by renowned Korean architect Kim Swoo Geun and city officials was thus an unprecedented mega-mixed use project of electronics commerce, educational and residential spaces, stretching the entire 1km. The ambitions of the project, while never fully materializing in diversity of mixed-use functions, did become the cities largest electronics market and most desirable residential address. Home to movie stars and corporate CEO's it's vibrant climax was quickly overcome by subsequent residential and electronics markets in other parts of Seoul. What has become today is a marginalized market of working class dwellers struggling to survive amidst a city that has quickly surpassed (and left behind) the advancements of what Saewoon Sanga once represented.

Today, the mega-structure stands silently the same as it has for the past 45 years. Virtually unchanged and in disrepair its fate to demolition cranes apparently decided by the city of Seoul. This stretch of concrete form will once again become 'empty' as in urban park, dispersing its commercial tenants and residents of decades to other hidden corners of the city. It appears an un-thoughtfully simple solution for such a complex and fascinating place, to completely demolish the birth place of 'modern' in Seoul.

Condencity_41 dead ends

2010-03-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Night and day are reversed in the dead-end corners of Seoul. The sky exists as a night like grey metal cover with cool fluorescent eye-burning light. Just above, the day shines bright without notice. Narrow alleys pinch to shoulder width and terminate in shuttered doors. Boundaries of public and private space blur in obscurity and the chance to move forward is met with hesitation. Seoul's pulse are back alleys of work and mystery.

Their presence, while here today appears to be something bordering the obsolete. As modernization of this city continues such curious roads are being raised and replaced with sterile glass towers. This road too has a finite future. It will survive though always in our imagination.

Seoul formless 2.2

2010-03-01T20:45:00.000-08:00

Recently I have begun writing and researching about urban 'adaptations'. The economic machine of Seoul on a micro scale is evidence enough of how adaptable the generic office 'box' can be. With little regard for form or context the commercial shop adapts to any building location. Small spaces at the street front regularly appear and dissappear with the ebb and flo of economics. In return the street and city at large are constantly changed at face value. Color, material and light exist apart from the building in which they are fashioned to.

Condencity_40 slim

2010-02-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

San Francisco is attractively slim. It's the narrow lots wedged into city gaps and my memory that make it un-American; slim. Zero lot lines squeeze in to a nearly 'zero lot'. City often surprises us most when it reveals the least. An efficient use of space leaves much to the imagination. Stairs, Elevator, could it all be there? The memory of yesterday simply exists for what is possible today.

Condencity_39 Beige

2010-02-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Returning to the scene of the crime, I recently made a brief appearance in San Francisco. From a new perspective at the 17th floor the city is not what I remember. I remember a 4th floor lifestyle from my apartment and office. Rarely did I go outside of that vantage point of the city. 17 was new for me and a reminder of how 'beige' San Francisco is. Cast against a cloud strewn blue sky and the occasional colored tower, the city exists banal in a colorless resistance. Variable identity is manifest only through ornament and time dependent details.

Beige gives way sirens and horns from below that remind me of a return home. San Francisco, frozen in its time remains as it always has.

Seoul Formless_2.1

2010-01-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

With each step we experience the rise and fall of Seoul's urban topography. The city is shaped by contours, viewed through pedestrian spaces of yesterday and today. Links between here and there are captured in laborious step and breath. With few exceptions the architecture and buildings that dress these slopes do so in clustered masses of indeterminate form; hillsides are blanketed with irregularity and density.

The city is experienced in actions. Carefully aware of the irregular rise from step to step, one is reminded of natures imperfections and the city as a place of formless possibility to mirror that of nature.

Seoul Formless_2

2010-01-15T00:34:00.000-08:00

Image reference SDI, 1961

Topography is at the heart of Korean consciousness and life. In a country more than 70% mountainous it is the lay of land that is a constant force against building, dwelling and urban form. In the recent past as seen in the image above from 1961, illegal villages and districts of Seoul were constructed in less than desirable locations, often to avoid inspection and notice from city officials. The results of which were meandering clusters on steep terrain, isolated and removed from the cities center.

Many such places have long disappeared but remain as documented reminders of how city and land form combine. Improvisation and necessity intertwined, rendering the city formless.

Seoul Formless

2010-01-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

Old and new collide in Seoul's layered core. Service industry and corporate interests shape the cities inner block structure where makeshift buildings and office towers stand side by side in contrasting function. The result is formless whereby urban organization dissolves in fragments. Order and structure give way to dissorder and a patchwork of yesterday and today.

The cities evolution couldn't be more clear in intersections such as these. At once time appears frozen in reflections of foundational industry and how these places established Seoul as a major urban center. The city around such places continues to evolve quickly in speculative transformations. The combination of these two conditions creates a complex and formless identity.

Condencity_38 urban rebirth

2009-12-30T00:10:00.000-08:00

Rebirth is metaphor for many things in life. The city of Seoul is itself being constantly reborn as old now becomes available and accessible. KIMUSA, today dressed in pink, is undergoing a radical shift, from secret military defense post to the future home of Seoul's new museum of contemporary art. This transformative rebirth began a couple of months back as temporary installations began to initiate the urban site as public and cultural ground. Secrets rarely last forever and KIMUSA is an urban testament to that.

The redevelopment and gathering of ideas for the site began in November with the start of an international design ideas competition for the new museum. Perhaps there is no more significant a place in Seoul as this site situated between the two main historic palaces and one of the last remaining historic residential quarters in the city. It is positioned at a crossroads of progressive culture and deeply rooted history.

City and life moving forward.

berkeley_99

2009-12-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

remember
berkeley after dark
paths cross
east to west
night cool under eucalyptus
walking, pausing

and at that moment i knew
i loved you

remember?

Formless city_ formless seoul

2009-12-06T00:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I gave a talk at KAADF here in Seoul. It is an organization which meets regularly to discuss the architectural design academic 'climate' here in Seoul and around Korea. I spoke on my past experiences as a student and professional. What I failed to discuss in my very brief introduction has been at the forefront of my mind these days, particularly with Seoul as backdrop for life. Its latent ideas were part of my talk yesterday, however never surfaced in my words with clarity.

To quote Italian urban theorist Tafuri.. in the city "it is the struggle for organization against the will of formlessness".. perhaps this can be no more evident than in a city such as Seoul. I can't help but think here that the future of modernism lies more in our ability to synthesize mass amounts of history and information; repositioning what are arguably environmental 'fragments' in less form dependant ways. We should be critically considering an 'invisible architecture', one that is absorbed by function and processess of the city at large.

Condencity_37 city revealed

2009-11-26T00:50:00.000-08:00

More than 2 million trips are made daily on the Seoul Metro. The Metro system is comprised of 9 main lines that reach the farthest corners of the Seoul Metroplitan area. It is one of the most efficient and extensive subway systems in the world. Over 70% of the subway lies underground and only moments of above ground visibility bear rider witness to the cityscape.

I spend my Tuesday's circling Seoul on the 'inner-cirle line'. Stretching for more than 60kms this trip in three segments takes nearly 2 hours. Raised track platforms reveal the city in small fragments. The visibility is but momentary as trains dive quick to metric depths below ground. I view the city in small glimpses and when submerged imagine the city above; keeping time with the speed of train below.

Seoul Today: momentarily

2009-11-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

My obsession is the city
absorbed by its folds and corners
hidden
Momentarily you are there
time may erase
but your image
is forever
on my mind

Condencity_34 reclaimed city

2009-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

For the better part of the past century there are historically significant locations in Seoul that have remained in isolation from Seoul residents and daily urban life in general. A number of these places have been associated with political and military activity of foreign occupation and interest. Over the past five years significant political shifts, and some such urban sites as this one in Samchungdong shown from above, (previously occupied by Japanese and US governments) have once again been returned to the city (at least in theory). While this location in particular remains concealed and impenetrable by a 3 meter perimeter stone wall, its redevelopment will soon introduce this 3.5 hectare area back into the complex fabric of Seoul after centuries of isolated mystery.

Condencity_33 dwelling

2009-10-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

I am currently buried in housing as project typology both academically and professionally. It is a topic pressing on many levels here in South Korea given physical conditions and ongoing debate. The cityscape in Seoul has been transformed by housing over the last 40 years. Dominant apartment blocks and developments stand uncontested. Comparable to the sprawling American suburb (the Korean apartment development is arguably a vertical 'suburb').

Today, strict laws and codes govern such developments in a manner that leaves little room for deviation. What results are homogeneous tower clusters primarily driven by economic speculation. Regulations are currently being challenged and the continued evolution of dwelling in Korea will certainly bring about another shift in residential life here.

Earth work memorial

2009-10-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Autumn is of memory here. The rural landscape in Korea is reminder of generations past and it is at this time, forms of earth [burial grounds] appear more pronounced in the mountainous terrain. At the annual harvest moon, families pay respect to ancestral sites overlooking vast valleys of rice fields and beyond [in many instances]. Like faces from the past these sculpted forms look to onward, forever burned in our memories.

Condencity_32 Seoul Transformations

2009-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

Image courtesy Seoul Government archives

To be once again living in a city with seasons brings to mind transformations on many levels. Autumn is quickly approaching here in Seoul and with this comes cooling temperatures, clearing blue skies free of haze and moisture and the shedding of summer vegetative growth. This was a summer of reintroduction for me (and certainly autumn will be as well). The transformative reality of life here in Seoul.

Over the past 40 years the shift and growth of populations has changed the face of the city. Residential areas, once dense horizontal clusters of urban 'Hanok's' have been selectively removed and demolished in areas of the city. Districts of housing considered Seoul's new 'suburbs' were home to many middle class families of the 1960's. The acceptance of speculative apartment developments has erased a number of these communities around the city leaving behind decaying pockets of this once common urban housing type.

The image above from 1966 in Dongamdong district in Seoul is fresh reminder of a past era of neighborhood life. Like many places similar, no longer in existence, the face of this city appears to change as quickly as the sifting of annual seasons.

1930's Seoul_ projecting forward

2009-08-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Hankok is a centuries old tradition of residential typology here in Korea. It's urban form in Seoul proliferated the city beginning in the early 20th century. It evolved from it's rural roots, providing a kind of suburban neighborhood to Seoulites until the multi-story apartment began to appear in the early 1960's. As a sustainable residential type it has evolved today as primarily an aesthetic and social icon, disappearing as a once functional neighborhood unit.

Today, while several districts of the Hanok remain, the transformation of social and physical realities are starkly real and these once vibrant places stand as quiet glimpses of the past. Dwellings are rapidly converted to commercial interest and the remaining residences stand empty as owners choose to live elsewhere with modern comforts and conveniences. Economics have further eroded communities and populations have sold in interest of profits or have been forced to leave due to rising values. What remains is a kind of frozen urban museum; raising questions of the future of a regionally timeless way of building.

Condencity_31 market transformation

2009-08-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Bangkok's markets transform the city day and night. When one pack's up for the day the next one (in some other remote district) is being erected for the night. It is a continuous cycle that momentarily changes the face of the city from district to district and from night to day. Populations and crowds shift from one area to the next in a kind of ebb and flow of urban activity.

Condencity_30 urban ruin

2009-08-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from Bangkok. It had been six years since I had visited the steamy tropic metropolis. It is interesting to see how cities such as Bangkok are progress and digress all at once. This could be the case for any city certainly but Bangkok's continuous (and evolving) ruin appears to constantly challenge progress.

Climate and stagnating capital contribute to crumbling pockets in the city center. Heat, moisture, rampant vegetation and pollution cloak these ruins in an accelerated entropic state. Side by side stand ruin and new. The city moves about blindly, oblivious to the beauty of ruin.

YTN Competition

2009-08-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

In collaboration with hAND architects in Seoul, we recently completed an international competition for a cable news broadcasting studio and headquarters. The project was an in-depth investigation of new technologies (construction and digital) coupled with natural processes. Our final proposal challenged typical high rise construction by carving out the core of the building allowing light and air to penetrate the entirety of the mass. What is commonly circulation and mechanical service becomes a common public area within the structure. Large voids open to the west and south directing views and light in dialogue with the urban context ('DMC') designated as the new digital media center of Seoul.

Julius Shulman 1910-2009

2009-07-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

Images courtesy the LA Observer

This week marked the passing of a truly fascinating man. His early photographs (and those throughout his career) sparked a movement of modern proportions. Images which continue to be burned in our minds eye, representing what modernism means in Southern California and beyond.

I had to write of Mr. Shulman today because as a student I had the great chance to meet him in his Laurel Canyon home and studio. He opened his doors to our class and shared his passion for teaching and architectural photography. At the time of our visit Mr. Shulman was about 90 years old however, his youthful approach to 'work' and life rendered his age irrelevant. His memory will live on through his archive of thousands of inspiring images and the lives he touched through education and beyond.

sa2009 Summer Workshop

2009-07-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Seoul Architects (sa) is once again sponsoring a summer workshop here in the city for students of Architecture. This summer's theme is 'collaboration with nature'. Currently we anticipate over one hundred students from Korea, Japan and China to attend. There will be about 30 tutors conducting the workshop. The summer program is in it's twelfth year (this being my first as a tutor).

Collaboration with nature intends to promote further dialogue of how we as designer's (from an eastern perspective) can continue to explore methods for sustainability in the built environment. My class section will be examining the traditional Hanok (Korean traditional house) as a precedent for designing in today's culture. Students will investigate and document ways in which the Hanok is sustainable and apply these early models to a new form of residential design.

http://collaborationwithnature.org/

Condencity_29 temporary permanence

2009-07-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Street side vendors in their mobile carts and structures have taken up permanent residence in many parts of the city. In some locations these vendors are situated face to face with ‘permanent’ commercial storefronts in designated commercial buildings. It is an interesting dialogue of two opposing conditions; one of supposed temporality and the other of stable fixture along the street front. Competing for customers as they face off, somehow each side manages to thrive.

As night falls the activities and bustle of such commercial zones come to life. In one such area I frequent here near Konkuk University the sidewalk experience fills with students, shoppers and those grabbing a quick bite to eat at any one of the street side vendors. The rush of bodies squeezes the sidewalk to a narrow passing lane. Negotiations along a cyclical path passing change from day to night. I look down to witness deflated vendor cart wheels and a grime crusted sidewalk at the underside of the food vendor cart; conditions suggesting a long term temporality. The street vendors have been and will be here for some time to come, competing in unison with the permanent city.

Architecture Education: Konkuk University

2009-07-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

site_body_synthesis was the theme for our graduate level architecture studio this spring semester. The students were challenged to think beyond form making in formulating a basis for a project. We are often forced to reconcile challenging information in establishing the framework for a project. The premise of the studio established a sequential structure for doing just that.

The studio began as an intensive investigation of a complex urban site in Seoul, combined with a selected apparatus representing each individual students perspective of site and the relationship of (apparatus) body to it. The students then synthesized these studies and ideas into a proposal for a fitness club suitable to the contextual establishment of similar commercial interests. The outcome, by nature of the semester long investigation, challenged the status-quo of typical fitness clubs currently existing in this complex part of the city.

Condencity_28 hangang

2009-06-20T04:11:00.000-07:00

The Han River (Hangang) in Seoul has through history had a profound impact on the city. For decades, like many other industrialized urban centers, the river boundary has been a source of sustenance and obstacle. In recent years the city has once again reinvested in a renewed waterfront after years of industrial neglect. The challenges of opening the rivers edge to public accessibility is a major undertaking as much of the river is now bound on both sides by primary freeways.

Yesterday I participated in a design review with my colleague Marc Brossa at Konkuk University in Seoul. His Graduate level design class spent the semester investigating the Han River. The premise of the studio was an interpretation of possible scenarios to rethink positions in urban, landscape and architectural design by creating comprehensive solutions to riverfront habitation and experience. The interesting thing regarding the studio was the genuine position of combined disciplines in urban planning (considered with landscape and architectural design) . Natural systems are integral in many aspects of what we do as designers in the built environment and rather than make disciplinary distinctions the discourse becomes inherently unified in approach. Furthermore, the foundation for the studio challenged students to consider more complex relationships with regard to starkly juxtaposed natural and built environments along the rivers edge.

While the projects seemed only to scratch the surface of design potential, the dialogue of ideas was rich with possibility and interest. One student project considered freeway infrastructure and a proposition to excavate beneath it to create a regenerated wetland and extended 'natural' edge. The notion of utilizing the existing transportation infrastructure and allowing it to function beyond its intended purpose (in this case a flood and water release control 'gate') represented the intentions of the initial studio idea.

Some of the work can be viewed at NETWORK + PROCESSES

Condencity_27 threshold

2009-06-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Low rise commercial buildings in Seoul give new meaning to the term 'mixed-use'. Any number of various programs fill small buildings (often 3-4 floors in height avoiding the requirements of elevator service) in the cities densely packed commercial zones. Many of the stores and shops on the upper floors are accessed through a single entry corridor and stair which, in many cases is continuously open to the street.

While these buildings are clearly private places corridor extensions of the public sidewalk create a gray zone not fully private and not totally public. These unconditioned spaces take on an urban appearance becoming caked and coated with the qualities and scars of sidewalk life. They present an interesting argument for an all together publicly accessible city intertwined within privatized constructs.

Seoul Modern

2009-06-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

Modern unassuming in Seoul.

Tucked away in the tertiary neighborhood streets of Gangnam is a residence and office mix. 'Tornado House' (as its dubbed) was completed about 15 years ago by Jun Sung Kim. Jun's work may best be described as elemental. A characteristic expressively clear in this structure. Jun is a master of carving space from weighted form and raw material. It is a dialogue of air, light and form giving way to humbling experience.

The front facade of the mixed use house is unassuming; a simple cube with recessed entry and radial wall. The entry conceals a complex internal organization only slightly hinted by the simple curved form on elevation. The portal entry opens to a split stair configuration. The entry landing as Jun has described poses a moment of choice for visitors- the option to go up or down in the seductively light filled open atrium. Each stair clings closely to two opposing, concrete arching walls.

Light penetrates deep through the central courtyard to the partial subterranean spaces below. Four court terraces link in serpentine fashion following the curved stair around the voided central open space. The delicate metal stair cast against the heavy concrete walls establishes an implied bridge between the current reality of structure and a memory of the once steeply sloped site.

The experience of space through light and form become metaphor for a new internalized landscape.

Gangnam_dusk

2009-06-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Rare early summer clear skies over Gangnam in Seoul.

With air that is commonly thick with humid haze, on this night the brilliantly clear blue sky touches the jagged city skyline. Saturated colors of sign-board commerce punctuate the side street experience. Tranquil calm comes momentarily amongst corporate towers and delivery service motor bikes.

Monumental City

2009-05-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

Beijing is a city of monuments.

The vastness of the city is punctuated with grand architectural marvel. Separate only by time and distance, numerous structures stand sybolically of a common inginuity. Scale and presense contribute to a saturated experience. With each long repetitive step through Beijing, we laborioulsy cross time with the projected idea of a place amitious to construct a city worth preserving.

Condencity_26 reclaimed city

2009-05-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

The Dashanzi Art District (also known as Factory 798) in Beijing is a decommisioned military complex and now home to a thriving artists community in Beijing. The sprawling district of long vacant factories inspires imagination and exhibits profound spaces once host to a Soviet Socialist work/live model and utilitarian architectural expression. In recent years government interest has taken control of the vast network of factory buildings with individual spaces being rented out by artists and exhibiting galleries (to the protest of some).

798 Space

Beijing

2009-05-15T16:30:00.001-07:00

is...
soft
covered
available
quiet
anything
yellow

Condencity_25 temporary city

2009-05-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

The recently completed Prada Transformer in Seoul is Rem Koolhaas's latest installation. Sited on the grounds of the historic Gyeonghui Palace in Seoul, the Transformer is an exercise in urban transformation. The idea behind the pavilion is to exhibit three different programs (fashion, film, and art) spanning an approximate three month period. With each new show the pavilion is rotated by crane, transforming the tent like structure to suitable position for each of the planned events.

I visited the Transformer on a bright Saturday morning recently. It is a simple steel structure wrapped in a tight elastic, translucent membrane similar to that used in industrial machine storage. On this day the taught fabric shimmered and danced in the brilliant mid-spring sun. The pavilion lightly touches down with steel pin connections onto concrete footings, mindful of the historic temple grounds close behind.

Like so much of Seoul, the installation represents a willingness of change and progress; a delicate balance of fragile history with the reality of today's unlimited possibility.

To read more about the project visit the official website: Prada Transformer Seoul

Condencity_24 opposing centers

2009-04-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

new center (left) old center (right)

I have been postulating on the complex development of Seoul's urban centers. While I can't pretend to be anywhere near understanding how this great urban mix has grown so quick, I do have basic observations from an outsiders perspective. I have been meeting and talking with a number of informed people lately on Seoul's rapid growth. It is an urban anamoly the likes of which have not been duplicated anywhere on the planet.

The image on the left (courtesy wiki commons) is of Seoul's new business center, Gangnam (South of the Han River). Amazingly, this view and district in the city did not exist 30 years ago. On the right is Gangbuk, the historic center of the city (North of the river) and cultural nucleus. While both pictures from an aerial vantage depict a modern, vertical city, the pedestrian experience is quite different.

I'm interested in Seoul's split identity; a struggle between two urban halves, divided by river boundary. It is a fascinating polarity exposing physical and social divide. As the city continues to evolve at its frenetic pace a recent interest in public spaces is bringing new life to the common grounds of the city; in doing so, bridging a divide that has given Seoul a double identity.

Konkuk Lecture Spring Series

2009-04-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

Awkward syntax...but you get the idea.

Local re_action 3

2009-04-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have written several times in past months about the work being done by design students from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Just this past week was a groundbreaking for the completion of their latest project. The students, using salvaged lumber from an aging and underutilized barn, reassembled the wood for an addition to a local restaurant.

This new addition recalls history of the town through material reference and construction technique. Its new form and function recapture in some ways what is fading from rural Canadian town life as people transition to nearby urban centers. Abandoned train and agricultural interests reappear symbolically as promising times to come.

The intensity of the process, from deconstruction of existing old structures through construction completion has relied on the resilience and dedication of both students and of local community volunteers. Amazingly, all of the Clearwater projects, including this one, took shape in a matter of days (after months of initial planning).