• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 1998

The purpose of this study is to find out how the urban landscape of Korea, especially Seoul, changed during the last half century since 1945. The modernization of Korea, which had begun in 1960's after the chaotic period caused by Korean War, influenced the rapid growth of cities and the radical changes of its structures. But the Western-minded planning theories based on rationalism and positivism was directly applied in developing our traditional cities and consequently the modern urban landscape including urban pattern, architectural style, and commercial and residential landscape revealed disharmony, discrepancy and inconsistency in skylines, streetscape and so on. The findings are summarized as follows. 1. Because the urban structure and pattern changed in undesirable manner in terms of land use and traffic circulation, cities as a whole resulted in exclusive and heterogeneous landscape, and citizens lost their identity and felt alienated. 2. Because the architectural forms of important and monumental buildings which influenced the character of streetscape were not so successful in inventing contemporary Korean Style in true sense, we still have difficulty in creating the urban landscape of originality and legibility. 3. Because from the beginning of this era almost all highrise buildings were designed by modernism-oriented western architects, the commercial landscape of central cities did not evoke a sense of place, and after the introduction of postmodernism this tendency is ore striking even in everyday ordinary streetscape. 4. The newly formed residential landscape which was mainly composed of highly dense and highrise apartment, not only evolved very overwhelming and ugly visual impact but also exposed many social problems in living condition, neighboring and face-to-face contact. In conclusion, in ordr to define the 'Koreanness' of our urban landscape, we have to struggle to combine traditional architectural heritage and native townscape with Western shape, thought and theory, no matter how difficult it may be.