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.

Seoul formless 2.2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.