A Historical Study on the Activities of the Presbyterian Pioneer Missionaries in Korea Protestant Mission Architecture

한국미션건축에 있어서 장로교 소속 개척선교사들의 건축활동에 관한 사적 고찰

  • 정창원 (동경대학 생산기술연구소)
  • Published : 2004.09.30

Abstract

The objective of this study is to clarify the early state of modern architecture, specifically mission architecture, with the introduction of the Christianity, and for the goal it deals with the architectural activities of pioneer missionaries. Especially it is a piece in a series of those researches after on Graham Lee, and it is focused on the other representative missionary, R. M. Wilson, A. M. Sharrocks, and C. A. Clark. Although coming in the capacity of a medical doctor or an educator, they should play all kinds of roles, such as carpenters, educators, and officers. For this mission, even they didn't have a professional knowledge for construction, they should carried on to establish mission compounds, only with their experience and informations. In this process they needed to be assisted by Korean carpenters, surely. The architectures born by them-selves are designed with a unique eclectic style compounded with those of Korean traditional and occidental. That is to say, the pioneer missionaries made a profound influence to create a new tradition of modern architecture in Korea, which is called as Korean-occidental eclectic style in the period of transition. Moreover, some pioneer missionary, such as Sharrocks, took a part in education of architectural skills. The educated carpenters seemed to be called from outside, and the unique styles could get spread away. On this point this paper has the meaning to clarify historically the continuous development of the Korean architecture through the survey on their activities, on the contrary of the existed recognition that Korean modern architecture has been evaluated to be imported from outside; therefore having a crevice with the its own architectural tradition.

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