condenCITY_80 Seoul from above 1.2

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_77 60's seoul Nakwon Sanga

Fall 2011; preservation or preservative? 

condenCITY_50 seoul adaptations 1.0

 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.

Condencity_41 dead ends

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. In one form or another it will persist in our memories and imagination.