• Journal of architectural history
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.47-58
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• 2022

The purpose of this research is to understand Ko Yu-seop's perception of 'contemporary emerging architecture' in the West by investigating into his two early 1930s' articles: 'On Emerging Arts, Particularly the Cutting-edge Architecture' (Jan. 1931) and 'Russian Architecture' (Dec. 1932). As a result of the investigation, it is argued that he attempted to systematically describe his contemporary architecture, fromthe concept of 'modern' to representative architectural theories, and his suggested reference list is considered meaningful since it illustrates one aspect of how modern architectural knowledge was transferred to Korea at that time. As his limitation, however, it should be pointed out that a significant part of his writing was a verbatim translation of the Japanese critic Takao Itagaki's New Art Acquisition (1930). Nevertheless, the two articles give us a valuable understanding related to his socialist tendency, his preferred commune-type city-cum-architecture that reflects the ideology, etc. Hereafter, this understanding needs to be further discussed in both study areas of art history and architectural history in Korea.