A brand new strategy to saving the previous houses of Seoul

SEOUL | South Korea boasts hundreds of years of historical past, however save for a number of signature, heavily-restored websites like medieval palaces, vacationers in Seoul should dig deep to find the capital’s architectural heritage.

Within dwelling reminiscence, the majority of the town’s inhabitants lived in hanok, or conventional houses. These single-story, wood-framed, thatch- or tile-roofed cottages lined picturesque lanes, or golmok, granting Olde Seoul a timeless, uniquely Korean high quality.

With a lot of the millennial, rich, wired capital now a global “Everycity,” that high quality is gone.

Some districts have been smashed in avenue preventing in the course of the Korean War in 1950, however many have been untouched. But the true architectural game-changer was post-war growth.

As South Korea swiftly industrialized within the Nineteen Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, rural dwellers flooded Seoul for work and huge swaths of previous houses have been bulldozed to create space for contemporary infrastructure. Population density necessitated infinite blocks of high-rise flats — handy and cozy, however aesthetically barren — which now dominate the cityscape.

The second wave of destruction — one which continues to today — was sparked by democratization in 1987. Land homeowners vocally protested for his or her proper to develop, even in areas famous for concentrations of hanok housing. The motive was revenue: multi-story buildings are extra remunerative for landlords.

While Seoul has preserved and up to date monumental structure — royal palaces and Buddhist temples — the heritage of odd residents has been just about obliterated, and Seoul’s historic hanok in the present day teeter on the point of extinction.

Into this vortex has stepped American Robert Fouser.

“Unless the real estate development mechanism loses power, it will keep building — which means destroying everything in its way,” Mr. Fouser mentioned. “Seoul is going to end up a generic concrete jungle with no connection to Korean heritage or tradition.”

However, he sees hope within the rising technology of younger South Koreans, a newfound appreciation of the nation’s heritage, and in nascent modifications to long-held funding practices.

American champion of Korean cottages

Mr. Fouser, 61, is an writer and tutorial who divides his time between his residence base in Rhode Island and stays in Japan and South Korea. His love for conventional Asian structure was within the household.

“My father was in the U.S. occupation army in Japan,” he remembers. “He had studied draftsmanship, so was sent to Kyoto to do architectural drawings.”

Mr. Fouser’s father launched Asian components to his U.S. residence and informed many a story of the buildings and sights he witnessed whereas in Asia. It rubbed off.

Mr. Fouser himself spent a 12 months in Japan as a highschool alternate scholar. He then took levels on the University of Michigan and Trinity College, Dublin and relocated to Asia, finally spending 29 years abroad.

He has lived in three totally different hanok and printed 5 books in Korean. A pending work, overlaying architectural preservation benchmarks in Europe and the U.S., is ready for publication late this 12 months.

He delivers hanok lectures, presents excursions and writes columns in main in style media — he has even led visiting British royalty down little-known golmok.

He is following a lead set by the late Englishman David Kilburn, who died in 2019 and the late American Peter Bartholomew, who handed away two years later. In a rustic the place — not like the West — movie star endorsements of points are usually not customary, the three expatriates, with their ardour for hanok, gained a big and respectful following right here.

“We also believed in the values of our own traditions, so listening to them was confirmation,” recalled Hwang Doo-jin, one in every of South Korea’s main boutique architects, and a pal of Mr. Fouser. “But they were these very educated gentlemen from the West, so that was a different kind of confirmation.”

Mr. Fouser’s predecessors have been diehard restorationists, demanding utmost historic authenticity.

Both despised the observe of deploying City Hall funds to destroy frail previous hanok and lift new hanok of their place. That observe modified the face of Bukchon, Seoul’s most well-known — however now hardly historic — hanok quarter.

Neo-hanok properties are the brand new wave. Seoul City introduced in February a coverage to create 10 “hanok villages” city-wide. These will supply grants to property homeowners who elevate new hanok, or add hanok-style options to current buildings.in websites throughout the capital.

This strategy might reek of kitsch, however Mr. Fouser is versatile on authenticity. He calls himself a “hanok enthusiast” relatively than a “hanok activist” like his predecessors, each of whom suffered accidents by the hands of thuggish property builders as they pursued the preservationist trigger.

“Rather than follow the orthodoxy of authenticity and integrity, my line is to preserve or enhance as much of the cityscape as possible,” he mentioned. “If an old house cannot be repaired, I am OK building a new hanok.”

But it’s hardly ever about one residence when total neighborhoods may be on the event chopping block. Powerful, politically linked development corporations purchase out locals, then flatten neighborhoods to boost excessive rises.

Absent top-down change, Mr. Fouser hopes for a bottom-up answer associated to accepted funding practices which encourage property homeowners to develop and redevelop.

“There is no vehicle in Korea for growing your money except property,” he mentioned. “If you really want to preserve hanok and cityscapes, you have to have vibrant capital markets — then real estate could be more of a place to live.”

Speculators and markets

While South Korea is the world’s tenth largest economic system, the Korean Stock Exchange, or KSE, is the world’s fifteenth largest by market capitalization, in accordance to 2023 date from Robust Trader. The KSE is residence to mega manufacturers like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, however lags exchanges in smaller economies akin to Switzerland and Australia.

The consequence: A post-war historical past of bricks and mortar constructing emerged for a lot of as the one viable path to wealth.

“The older generation’s entire investments were real estate: They bought homes, and home prices always went up,” mentioned James Kim, a Seoul-based portfolio supervisor. “Koreans tend to put a lot more weight on real estate than on equities and other financial instruments in other countries.”

But with Seoul property capturing by means of the roof, change is afoot.

“The young generation is staying away from real estate as it needs a lot of capital,” Mr. Kim mentioned. “They are investing in small-cap equities and [crypto currencies].”

Mr. Fouser hopes that youth, locked out of property markets, will worth their hanok heritage in another way than their mother and father and grandparents, who thought of them old school, uncomfortable and unprofitable.

There are encouraging indicators. While Bukchon is a city-financed, official preservation district, one other Seoul neighborhood getting recent discover for its hanok inventory isn’t.

In Ikseon Dong, younger individuals have organically preserved hanok. Though many interiors have been gutted and are now not appropriate as houses, they’re sustainable, having been transformed into stylish cafes, bars, eating places and retailers.

Mr. Hwang, whose architectural agency operates a hanok observe, is a fan.

“Architecture changes with time,” he mentioned. “Even old buildings have to find a way to adapt to their new environments.”