Architectural Characteristics of Railway Station Water Towers in Korea - Focused on the Existing Railway Station Water Towers -

철도역사 급수탑의 건축적 특성에 관한 연구 - 현존하는 급수탑을 중심으로 -

The Industrial Revolution brought a variety of new forms of structure, and as a group they are usually called 'industrial architecture'. Steam engines contributed greatly to architecture with a unique structure called 'water tower' to provide water for steam engines, especially the adoption of it. This study is to examine the changes of the building materials and architectural features of the water towers of railway stations built in the early twentieth century in South Korea. This study also attempts to describe the modern features of the industrial architecture, which did not get a chance to be noticed. Through this examination on water tower, which is a part of industrial architecture with sheer integration of function and pure geometric form, we would like to find the meaning of modern architecture in Korea. As we can see in the Korean oldest railway station water tower constructed in masonry at Yeonsan Station in 1911, early water towers were divided into the masonry machine room and the steel water tank. However, the masonry structure was soon turned into concrete structure with its formal features maintained as it was. The steel water tank was also replaced with concrete structure. As a result, while its basic structure remained, concrete structure had substituted for the every components of water tower. Concrete-built water towers were the high-tech architecture of that time and the most perfect structures built in concrete. Nevertheless, the perfection of the water tower form and the technology it attained were not transferred to other modern and contemporary architecture in South Korea. Since the subject to railway station water towers was the Japanese government, and steam engines were replaced with diesels in the midst of a complicated domestic situation after the independence, the need for water towers in railway stations disappeared and therefore, it became ignored and was difficult to look over the architectural features and values of early railway station water towers.