condenCITY_72 material Seoul

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

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

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

condenCITY_69 floating seoul

Aerial plan illustration courtesy of exinteriordesign.com

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

Looking back to the 1950's, the waterfront at that time was also doted with floating structures attracting visitors for leisure activities. Then, the yet-to-be tamed Han river was still in it's un-engineered state. With edges soft in vegetation and earth, unlike today's dredged and concrete lined artificial corridor. Yet, the floating structures in the black and white exhibition photos appear reflective of the small boat crafts of the river then- simple wooden fabrications for temporary, seasonal occupations. Perhaps as a reminder of the way river and city co-existed at that time. Today, city dominates river, as the new 'floating island' suggest, regardless of how much the local government wants to claim Han River 'Renaissance'.

  

condenCITY_68 end of a life

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

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

condenCITY_66 concrete city

Ai Wei Wei “Love the Future” (爱未来)

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.