VOL.69/2024.04

 

[Book × Architecture]

The Dwelling Culture of Korea

 

2023.11.06

 

 

From hanok to apartments... Korea’s changing dwelling culture

 

In general, the fields that study dwelling culture the most are architecture and cultural-related areas such as cultural anthropology, cultural geography, and folkloric studies. Since the 2000s, however, many books on dwelling culture have started to be published in Korea, especially in the field of architecture. The foundation for this achievement was laid more than 40 years ago. The most important method of studying dwelling culture is “field survey,” which means researching in the field where dwellings are located, and the Korean Architectural Society has been actively conducting dwelling field surveys since the 1980s. In the 1990s, after a decade or so of such accumulated research, many thesis papers were published. In the 2000s, some researchers began to publish books based on decades of research that were also intended for the general public. In this article, I would like to introduce three books that discuss Korean dwelling culture - the history of research is one of the reasons why the writers (Han Pil-Won, Park Cheol-Su, and Jeon Nam-Il) are all architects in their 60s. As scholars who have consistently been engrossed in Korean dwelling culture, they have published a number of excellent books other than the ones introduced here.

 

 

Throughout history, people have created dwellings that are best suited to their region. Such was also the case on the Korean Peninsula, where local houses reflected the lives of the people in each region. It wasn’t until the 16th century that the dwelling type we now call “hanok” - built with a wooden frame and tiled roof over a floor of ondol (Korean floor heating system) and wooden flooring - developed and became the dominant form of dwelling in Korea. Throughout the modern era and into the 1960s, hanoks were the predominant dwelling type in Korea. Then, generally from the 1970s onward, hanoks were rarely built, and a new dwelling type, the apartment, took over. In the meantime, several other dwelling types emerged, including Western-style houses, multi-family houses, townhouses, and country houses. But, in less than a generation, apartments dominated the housing market. Now, even if you add up the number of hanoks and all the other dwelling units, they are no match for apartments.
These two words, hanok, and apartment, represent the long history of Korea’s dwelling types. Here, “type” is like a template, which enables repeated reproduction. And the force that enables this reproduction can be called “culture.” So, hanoks and apartments represent two extremely different types of Korean dwelling culture. In traditional Korean society, hanoks were the settlement units of villages and the spatial background or stage of dwelling culture. Correspondingly, in modern Korean society, apartments are the settlement unit and are the spatial background or stage of dwelling culture. Therefore, the dwelling culture of traditional Korean society can be understood most clearly through hanoks and villages, and that of modern Korean society through apartments and complexes. In this article, I would like to introduce books each on Korean traditional villages with hanoks and on apartments and complexes that represent Korean dwelling culture, and one book on the changes in Korean dwelling culture.

 

The value of communality and environmentalism in traditional Korean villages

 

In Search of Traditional Korean Settlements (Humanist Publishing Group), written by architectural historian Han Pil -Won (me) and published in 2011, discusses the traditional Korean dwelling culture embedded in traditional Korean villages and their many hanoks in terms of ideology, culture, society, and environment. With 12 representative Korean villages as examples, the book is based on the writer’s extensive and consistent research on hanoks and traditional villages in the field, making the reader feel like they are exploring the villages with the writer.

 

 

On the ideological side, the book explores Otgol Village in Daegu, which found clues for making space in nature; Hangae Village in Seongju, North Gyeongsang-do Province, which exhibits a spatial aesthetic that is alive with the spirit of scholarly practice; and Nagan Eupseong Folk Village in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do Province, which shows the archetype of a Korean city. On the cultural side, the book visits Seongyeop Village in Jeju Island, which demonstrates the equality of life in Korean vernacular housing; Hahoe Folk Village in Andong, North Gyeongsang-do Province, a cultural space where nobles and ordinary people coexist; and Ganggol Traditional Village in Boseong, Jeollanam-do Province, which captures the transformation of hanok in the modern era. On the social side, the book introduces Yangdong Folk Village in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, which showcases beautiful hanoks created by both competition and harmony; Dorae Village in Naju, Jeollanam-do Province, which integrates social relations and natural conditions; and Daksil Village in Bonghwa, Gyeongbuk-do Province, which reflects the self-regulation of a community and the order that lies within it. Finally, on the environmental side, the book talks about Wonteo Village in Gimcheon, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, which displays environmentally friendly solutions from history; Oeam Folk Village in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do Province, which demonstrates the wisdom of overcoming challenges in environmental conditions; and Wanggok Village in Goseong, Gangwon-do Province, which reminds us to think about sustainable living spaces.
This book explains that although Korean traditional villages are diverse in appearance, they all share the common values and virtues of a “communal living place where everyone lives in harmony” and an “environmentally friendly neighborhood where people live healthfully with nature.” Throughout the book, the reader will come to realize that the communality and environmentalism inherent in Korean traditional dwelling culture are virtues that modern people beyond Korea and around the world should learn from, whether in the past, present, or future.

 

Apartments turned communal living spaces into a capitalist object of desire

 

The book Cultural History of Apartments (Sallim Books), written by architectural historian Park Cheol-Soo and published in 2006, is small and compact (95 pages in total), but deep in content and intriguing to read. In this book, the writer critically reflects on the reality of contemporary Korean dwelling culture and contemplates its future. While the book covers the history and culture of apartments, it is especially interesting that it analyzes the image of apartments by period since the 1960s, through popular novels. Citing literary works by popular Korean writers such as Lee Ho-Cheol, Cho Jeong-Rae, and Gong Ji-Young, the book shows how apartments, which began as ordinary people’s dwellings, eventually created a uniform dwelling culture and landscape that lost their local character, and how urban redevelopment and reconstruction of existing complexes transformed Korean cities into overcrowded and harsh places. As a result, apartments have turned dwellings and villages from places of cultural significance into objects of real estate speculation.

 

 

The writer explains that apartments are not a result of the evolution of Korean lifestyle and culture, but a “symbol of revolutionary Korea” disguised as a forced modernization of lifestyle. He sees apartment complexes as a political legacy of the development dictatorship that began around the same time, the 1960s. He also looks at apartment complexes as pathological spaces of depression and autism, pointing out that even though they are in the city, they are separated from the urban space, and the people who live in them are isolated from their neighbors outside the complex. By choosing apartments, Korean society has gained convenience and financial returns, but at the cost of social illnesses such as depression and autism, and the silliness of viewing living space as an investment product. Both gains and losses could not have been imagined in the traditional society where people lived in villages in hanoks. Also, this book makes us acutely aware of the reality of Korean dwelling culture, where dwelling buildings and villages (complexes) have grown in size and grandeur, but the culture they embody has shrunk and become ill.
The dwelling culture of apartments (complexes) discussed in this book stands in direct opposition to the traditional Korean dwelling culture introduced earlier, In Search of Traditional Korean Settlements. While dwelling has been an important condition of existence and a cultural product in Korean society, it has become a consumer good with a high exchange value and an object of capitalist desire since the late 20th century. And the village, which used to be a community where humans and nature coexisted, has become a complex, a space of autism and disconnection. The writer emphasizes that “if the apartment complexes are the ones you can’t help but carry with you, it is time to heal the autism of the complexes and break their isolation from the urban space.” In the latter part of the book, Toward the Healing of Autism and Depression, alternatives and future tasks are presented to heal the distortion and degeneration of Korean dwelling culture. Unfortunately, the writer, Park Chul-Soo, passed away in February of this year, and we will no longer be able to read his eloquent and insightful writings.

 

 

The evolution of Korean dwelling culture seen through illustrations

 

The book Houses: How the Spaces and Landscapes of Houses Have Changed (Dolbegae) by architect Jeon Nam-Il, published in 2015, discusses the changes in dwelling culture following the transformation of Korean society. Using his own drawings, he explains the changes in Korean dwelling culture by dividing it into 3 parts: Changes in the Use of Houses, Changes in the Appearance of Houses, and Changes in the Way People Live Together in Harmony. It is a book that bridges the gap between the two books mentioned above, that is, between the tradition and modernity of Korean dwelling culture.

 

 

In the first part, Changes in the Use of Houses, the writer talks about how the use and meaning of different parts in a house have changed through changes in spatial elements such as the main bedroom, reception room, wooden floor in the open living room, kitchen, and restroom, as well as changes in facilities such as heating methods. Here, we can see that while there are some spatial elements that have been newly introduced in modern times, such as porches, and facilities for heating, cooking, and hygiene, have changed significantly from the past, most of the spatial elements that make up a house have remained the same from the past, changing their use and purpose. As the way of using space and its properties constitute dwelling culture, we can get a good look at the changes in Korean dwelling culture through this book.
The second part of the book, Changes in the Appearance of Houses, covers changes in the types of dwellings. It discusses the history of how Korean dwelling types have diversified from traditional hanok to urban hanok, western-style houses, multi-family houses, apartments, and townhouses. In particular, it provides a detailed explanation of how high-rise apartments became the dominant dwelling type in modern Korea in the context of urbanization and economic, social, and cultural dynamics.
The final part, Changes in the Way People Live Together in Harmony, explains the cultural changes that occurred as the spatial unit of communal living changed from villages to complexes. As a result of the breakdown of communities and the loss of communality in everyday life due to the changes in dwellings and villages, there are fewer things that Koreans can do in their dwellings today. The book concludes that the spatial scope of everyday life for Koreans has expanded or decentralized from within the home to outside the home. Now, Korean dwelling culture can only be understood by looking at how people live outside the home, in the city, alongside how they live inside the home.

 

 

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Written by Han Pil-Won (Professor of Architecture at Hannam University)