• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2016

As the first public park in Korea, birth place of the march first independence movement, and a representative space of leisure of old men, Tapgol Park contains diverse symbolisms and meanings. In 2000, Seoul authorities selected the symbolism of the March First independence movement, and carried forward the sacralization project of Tapgol Park. They eliminated facilities, including vending machines, and restricted most of the leisure activities in the park such as drinking singing dancing, speech, playing chess, writing calligraphy, etc., and loitering. Also, they changed the park's design into a less available space with green areas and switched wooden benches to granite stone. Since the project finished, a representative phenomenon was the elderly men's exodus to Jongmyo Park, where the restrictions were not strong as in Tapgol Park. As a result, the numbers of users in Tapgol Park decreased sharply. However, overcrowded(more than 3000) Jongmyo Park is also in the middle of a sacralization project now. According to an investigation including observation and in-depth interview, most of the elderly men who use the parks almost everyday were in the low economic class. They just visit the parks everyday and chat with their peers, gaining comfort from each other. These phenomena can be interpreted as a social exclusion in society, which made the elderly men move to another place. Meanwhile, although fifteen years has passed since the project was completed, many people still regard the Tapgol Park as a place for elderly men instead of the birth place of the March First Independence Movement. This study focused on such problems and vague place identity, which is neither a memorial place nor a public park. The study discovery the fact they missed the symbolism that Tapgol Park was the first urban park of Korea. Also, it stresses that the monumentality does not need to be sacred, reverent, or inflexible. With this point of view, this study discussed public aspect and everydayness, which are included in most of the urban parks. Finally, this study suggests Tapgol Park as an urban park that has an identity that embraces the condition of monumentality, everydayness, and publicness all together.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.1-14
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• 2022

The ancient North-East Asian royal garden is divided into three types, located in the north inside the palace, in the north outside the palace, and in the south inside or outside the palace, depending on the location relationship between the royal capital and the royal palace. The first is a typical royal garden that follows the ancient Chinese court system of the Chao-hu-chim(前朝後寢). The second is a royal garden located independently of the royal palace, which extends to Geumwon(禁苑). The third is located in the south of royal palace and is the royal garden specialized in Yurak(遊樂) or Hyangyeon(饗宴). The types of ancient North-East Asian royal gardens are classified according to the relationship between main palace(正宮) and secondary palace(別宮), detached palace(離宮), and Geumwon(禁苑), and each has unique characteristics. The first has been established as the garden of the main palace, including the royal garden at Wanggung-ri site in Iksan(益山 王宮里 遺蹟), Han Chang'an capital(漢 長安城), BeiWei Luoyang capital(北魏 洛陽城), Jiankang capital in Southern Dynasties(南朝 建康城), and Daminggong(大明宮) in Tang Dynasty. Here, the royal garden is divided into Naewon(內苑) inside the royal palace and Geumwon(禁苑), outside the royal palace. On the other hand, the second is the royal garden that the royal palace and Geumwon(禁苑) are united. The third is the royal garden that forms part of the royal palace or is independent of the royal palace, and has been specialized as a secondary palace(別宮) and detached palace(離宮). China created the model of ancient North-East Asian royal gardens, and based on this, Baekje, Silla, and Japan of Korea influenced each other and developed a unique palace by showing their originality. The royal garden at Wanggung-ri site in Iksan(益山 王宮里 遺蹟) was influenced by royal gardens of Wei-Jin and Northern & Southern Dynasties(魏晉南北朝). And royal gardens of the Sabi Capital(泗沘都城) were influenced by royal gardens of Jin(秦), Han(漢), Sui(隋), and Tang(唐), and royal gardens of Silla(新羅) were influenced by the royal gardens of Baekje(百濟) and Silla. However, each of these royal gardens also has its own unique characteristics. From this aspect, it can be seen that the ancient North-East Asian court had different lineages depending on the region. Anhakgung Palace in Pyongyang(平壤 安鶴宮) is more likely to be viewed as the Three Kingdoms period than the Goryeo Dynasty. However, it is difficult to raise it to the 5th and 6th centuries due to the overlapping relationship and relics of the lower part of Anhakgung Palace(安鶴宮), and it is generally presumed to be the middle of the 7th century. The royal garden at Anhakgung Palace is a secondary palace(別宮) or detached palace(離宮) that corresponds to the palace of Jang-an capital(長安城) in Pyongyang and is believed to have influenced Dongwon garden(東院庭園) of Heijokyu(平城宮) and Donggung(東宮) and Wolji(月池) in Gyeongju. From this point of view, Dongwon garden(東院庭園) of Heijokyu(平城宮) seems to be related to the palaces of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. This study has many limitations as it focuses on its characteristics and transitions due to the location of the palace in the large framework of ancient North-East Asian royal capital. If these limitations are resolved little by little, it is expected that the understanding of ancient North-East Asian royal gardens will be much wider.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.115-134
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• 1997

We now live in the new era of globalization which implies the functional integration or increase of inter-dependency between internationally dispersed economic activities. As globalization impacts our various activities and daily lives, social sciences, including, geography, attempt to approach social phenomena from a global perspective. From this point of view. new regional geography, which has been articulated in recent social theory since the 1980s, also must adjust to these new world realities. This paper aims to search for a suitable methodology or approach to area study or regional geography in the era of globalization and to suggest the field of area study that Korean geographers should be concerned with in the future. This paper has reviewed the existing various methodologies of regional geography such as the ecological approach, the landscape approach. the areal differentiation approach, the system approach, the structuration theory, the spatial division of labour, and the world-system, which have deviced in the traditional and new regional geography. Peter Taylor's regional geography of world systems among them has an appropriate rationale of area study in the globalization era, because world-systems theory explains well globalization. However the regional geography of world-systems must be revised to become more suitable to the area-study approach in the globalization era. Firstly, the regional geography of world-systems explains that regions(historical regions) are made by general mechanisms of the capitalist world-economy that operate through social, economic, and political agents within regions such as individuals, households, social classes, economic enterprises, states, political movements, and many other organizations. But these mechanisms can also act through other regional agents of geographical location, natural conditions, and cultural characteristics. Therefore, the generating process of regions needs to be explained by locational, natural, and cultural elements in addition to social, economic, and political elements within regions. Secondly, Taylor's world-systems approach does not express composite characteristics of regions, because it focuses on the economic characteristics or position of regions within the world-economy. Regions incorporated into world-economy systems are not only changed economically, but also changed spatially, socially, culturally, and politically. Hence the world-systems approach must try to analyze these composite characteristics and their change of regions. Thirdly, The world-system approach proposed that the geography of regions within world-systems could be divided and analyzed as three regional types at the geographical scale such as international regions, state regions, and intra-state regions. However such a regionalization is usually not identified distinctly, because the geographical range of regions in world-systems shaped by economic boundaries of the general mechanisms of the world-economy is fluid and also occasionally overlaps with other political regions. Hence I propose that the world-systems approach should choose political boundaries of states and local autonomies in addition to economic boundaries for objective regionalization and systematic areal study. The revised regional geography of world-systems that I have suggested in this paper can be more effectively and properly applied to regional geography or area study in the globalization era. Globalization intensifies competition between states and also between local autonomies in the world. Therefore we must make efforts to study such areas or regions through the revised regional geography of world-system.