• Architectural research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.125-134
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• 2017

Rather than the simple adaption of Western design principles to the Korean context, this paper explicates how a unique critical urban design methodology evolved in Korea in the 1960s. Even as the era was a time of major transition and development, most research has offered limited discourse on the topic, imposing a straightforward reading where Japanese colonial influence is supplanted by Western logics. Through the example of the brief but intense activities of the Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Institute (HURPI), this paper offers a more detailed understanding that focuses on the 'how' rather than the 'what' of HURPI's significance. Through first-hand interviews with HURPI director Oswald Nagler and senior member Sung Chull Hong, the research of the institute is revealed as promoting dialectical 'critical design' methodologies that resulted in a sophisticated synthesis of diverse influences from Western, Korean, and Japanese sources. Moreover, the modes of critical design methods are further analyzed in a recently discovered brochure on HURPI's defining research and pilot projects published by the Ministry of Construction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.27-45
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to trace the path of policy for urban parks and greenbelts (PUPG) pursued by Seoul Mayor Kim Hyeon-ok, who was a protagonist of Seoul's modernization and to reveal the policy's characteristics. A high modernism perspective was projected to advance his PUPG discussion. High modernism was an unavoidable phenomenon that appeared in post-war urban reconstruction projects and emerged in the form of a belief that the national elite creates the ideal social order and rational planning. Its characteristics were to build with legibility, immediacy, and convenience by power, with private participation and profit creation, while realizing the spectacle of "the city being built". As a high-modernist, Seoul Mayor Kim Hyun-ok's urban planning aimed to deal with the booming population and the expansion of Seoul's territory. Although his PUPG extended the parks to the outskirts of Seoul, he showed a dualistic attitude, diverting parks away from the city center. On the other hand, he induced the participation of the private sector to create parks. However, he showed the other side of modernization, eliminating the placeness and excluding related systems. The path taken by Mayor Kim Hyun-ok's PUPG was started to respond to population growth and resolve the encroachment of parks. The ultimate goal was to accept the realization of urban planning and experiment with non-financial methods. The characteristics of his PUPG reflecting high modernism were: First, elites were represented in the National Land Planning Association, HURPI, and Jang Moon-gi participated; second, legibility was ensured by using east-west and north-south axes, elevation standards, and rational planning. Third, parks were quickly released to respond to the rapid urban change. Fourth, it showed off events and spectacles to attract private capital.