[KS] Human-Oriented Architecture; What is a house?
Frank M. Tedesco
tedesco at uriel.net
Thu Jul 9 11:33:37 EDT 1998
> Shin Young-hoon Revives Human-Oriented
> Architecture of Korea
> > 07/08
>
> By Yang Sung-jin
>
> Staff Reporter
>
> Kunchongjon, the office where the Choson kings used to work
> at Kyongbok Palace in central Seoul, attracts numerous
> visitors from home and abroad. Yet few probably pay much
> attention to a large painting located behind the royal
> throne.
>
> Shin Young-hoon, however, thinks the painting is the fountain
> of inspiration, speaking volumes about the Choson Dynasty and
> its humanistic ideology.
>
> For instance, the sun and the moon in the upper part of the
> painting suggest the mysterious mechanism of universe which
> decides the fate of human beings. The five mountains in the
> painting indicate sacred places from which messengers of the
> heaven descended to earth to establish a nation _ a mythical
> notion commonly found in Korean folklore and nation- founding
> stories. The waterfalls in the mountains symbolize a vigorous
> life energy and the towering trees reflect the public's wish
> for the prosperity of their offspring. As a whole, the
> picture sums up a unique ideal about the ways of governing a
> nation, championed by the Choson kings and its people.
>
> ``Tourists should stay there for at least an hour in order to
> get a sense of how the Choson people lived. But there is no
> guidebook whatsoever introducing the Kyongbok Palace
> properly,'' said Shin, 63, who has devoted the last 40 years
> of his life to rediscovering the marvelous beauty and wisdom
> of Korean culture as an expert on ancient Korean
> architecture.
>
> His latest book, entitled ``Our Culture, Our History
> Exploration 1'' (Dae Han Printing & Publishing Co.; 311
> pages; 13,000 won) reveals what Shin has learned in the
> course of reconstructing and researching traditional Korean
> architecture. From Kyongbok Palace to Cheju Island to
> Okinawa, Shin explains the hidden history and underlying
> traditions of Korea which are embodied in the simple remains
> that are captured in the eye-catching photos of Kim Dae-pyok.
>
> Asked how many books he has written, Shin said slowly, ``I'm
> not sure, actually. Somewhere around 20, maybe?''
>
> The topics Shin has touched on in his books, the first of
> which, ``Korean- style House and its History,'' was published
> in 1974, are mostly related to ancient Korean architecture
> and its history. He has done the daunting job _ equal to the
> decades-long work of a college professor _ without ever
> receiving a university diploma. Surprisingly enough, Shin, a
> high school graduate, taught the history of Korean
> architecture to students at the prestigious Seoul National
> University last semester, which prompted a media rush to
> interview him.
>
> Fateful Encounter
>
> Shin's peculiar career _ he is at once a top-notch carpenter
> of ancient Korean houses and the author of numerous books _
> has often misled people, including a fortune-teller. ``One
> time, I talked to a fortune-teller, but she failed to
> identify my job because I turned out to be neither a
> full-time scholar nor a manual laborer,'' Shin said, smiling.
>
> His unusual career began when he skipped some classes at
> ChungAng High School in the summer of 1955. Instead of
> studying at school, Shin headed for Namsan in the afternoon
> to attend a private class in the Korean arts.
>
> The person who taught the class was Choi Sun-woo, then
> director of the Art Department of the National Museum of
> Korea. ``I liked the class very much, so I took Choi's class
> with my friend while skipping my regular classes at school.
> When I talked to him later, Choi suggested to me that I work
> with him after graduation. That's how I came to get my start
> in this field,'' Shin recalled.
>
> While Shin was working as an assistant to Choi at the
> National Museum of Korea, he had the chance to study further
> at a university. Choi urged him to study and Chon Hyong-pil,
> a renowned collector of Korean cultural artifacts, provided
> the tuition. Shin entered the History Department at
> Sungkyunkwan University.
>
> ``At that time, I worked at outdoor sites to learn the
> traditional carpentry. One day, when I came back from the
> field, I got a notice saying that my name had been removed
> from school registration because of my continued absences,''
> Shin said.
>
> That was the end of his short-lived schooling at college. But
> his experiences at the outdoor construction sites along with
> the teachings of Im Chon, an expert on ancient architecture,
> offered him a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
>
> ``I worked with 80-year-old laborers in the early 1960s. They
> were pretty old, and some of them worked on the
> reconstruction of Kyongbok Palace in the late 19th century. I
> learned from them about traditional architecture,'' Shin
> said.
>
> As time went by, Shin's name spread in the architecture
> field, which led to a busy life of supervising major
> reconstruction and repair projects, including Hwa-om Temple
> in 1961, Namdaemun in 1963 and a Korean housing project for
> Mexico Olympic Games in 1967 _ to name just three.
>
> Especially burdensome was the work abroad, not least because
> he had to do all the work himself, from basic carpentry to
> the building and decoration of Korean-style houses in museums
> and tourist spots. ``At that time, the government had no
> money, and I often had to work alone,'' Shin said. The harsh
> working environment forced him to learn every technique
> necessary for the construction of a traditional Korean house,
> all of which have contributed to making Shin an undisputed
> master in the field, with first- hand knowledge and
> unparalleled technical skills.
>
> Work By Day, Study By Night
>
> ``The problem was that the museum officials asked me to write
> a report after the reconstruction project was over. Actually,
> there was nobody who could do the job. So I had to study at
> night, reading books about architecture,'' Shin said.
>
> In fact, there was nothing else to do except read books
> because he was staying in a remote area while working on the
> reconstruction project. For instance, while staying for three
> years in Chinju Castle to renovate the ancient fortress, he
> found nothing to do at night. So, he read book after book,
> including ``The Annals of the Choson Dynasty,'' as long as
> they were related to the field.
>
> What Shin learned from his reading and the outdoor
> construction projects in which he participated over the past
> decades was that Korean traditional houses were very
> practically functional, a fact which has long been ignored by
> modern Koreans, who live in western-style houses.
>
> ``Only Korean houses, I mean traditional ones, have both a
> wooden floor and the ondol (traditional heated floor) at the
> same time,'' Shin claimed.
>
> According to Shin's explanation, the wooden floor is a kind
> of buffer zone between the cold exterior and warm interior of
> a house, playing the role of a bridge _ a unique structure
> which was developed in regions with warmer climates. The
> ondol, which effectively provided heat to the house, was a
> system that northern people fighting cold weather developed
> for their survival. The fact that both the conflicting
> features were combined in one house here suggests that
> traditional Korean houses reflect a ``creative'' and
> ``harmonious'' merger of two different cultures in a nation
> endowed with distinctive, four-seasons climate.
>
> Inspiration From the Past
>
> Modern lifestyles, contrary to the public's perception, have
> not been that effective in terms of preserving the
> environment, Shin said. For instance, the incinerator,
> developed to tackle pollution-causing waste, has also
> generated poisonous gas in the process. In contrast,
> old-fashioned Korean houses were equipped with multiple
> filtering systems from the ondol to the chimney, which
> emitted innocuous smoke called ``yonmu,'' which circulated
> around each village in the evenings.
>
> A much more troubling fact about modern architecture is that
> their harmful component materials often generate deadly smoke
> when houses catch fire.
>
> ``How long do you think high-rise apartments will last? 100
> years? Then what will happen after the life span of the
> apartment is complete? Yes, it will only be a pile of waste,
> which cannot be removed from our country,'' Shin said.
>
> For all the arguments in favor of the old style of Korean
> house, Shin does not insist on adopting the features of the
> past to present-day architecture. ``The ancient houses are
> ancient houses. The 19th century house of the Choson Dynasty
> was configured to a lifestyle in which masters had their
> servants. The old style goes against today's mode of the
> nuclear family,'' Shin said.
>
> Shin deeply resents the fact that the Saemayul Movement in
> the 1960s and 1970s transformed the country into an ugly
> place filled with monotonous and ``cheesy'' slab-like
> structures.
>
> ``Those concrete, ugly-looking houses in the countryside have
> nothing to do with Korean people. This is because the
> developers entirely neglected their own culture,'' Shin said.
>
> Shin stresses the need to look at our own traditions in
> building houses. For instance, a traditional house usually
> has eaves which are lacking in western-style houses.
> Furthermore, the halls of Korean temples are bright even
> though there is no electric light.
>
> ``The eaves were designed to protect Korean people's faces
> from the direct rays of the sun. Also, the temple's inner
> hall was constructed in a way allowed it to maximize the
> reflected rays of the sun. In short, the Korean people are
> tuned to the reflected rays in a house, not the direct
> rays,'' Shin explained.
>
> Interestingly, the mode favoring reflected rays is also
> demonstrated in the faces of Buddha images in Korea. Most
> Buddha images, whether they are paintings or bronze
> sculptures, have a line under their eyes _ the very
> characteristic of the Korean physique which is designed to
> protect their eyes from the rays reflected up from the
> ground.
>
> Human-Centered Architecture
>
> Shin pointed out that modern architecture, especially of
> apartments, disregards the essential fact that a house is a
> place where humans live. The low ceiling of the average
> apartment is not only suffocating, but is also bad for one's
> health because it leaves no room for the natural circulation
> of air.
>
> ``Humans need a minimum amount of empty space to have a
> pleasant, healthy environment. That is why the Silla people
> regulated the construction of their houses with a standard
> based on their needs as humans,'' he said.
>
> The law of the Silla Kingdom dictated that a room of a house
> should be built with its side corresponding to three times
> the height of an average person, a measure aimed at ensuring
> enough space to live comfortably. In contrast, today's
> standard of measuring a house, the ``pyong'' (roughly 3.3
> square meters) is totally unrelated to human realities.
> ``It's what the realtor
>
> arbitrarily decided in order to sell their houses,'' Shin
> said.
>
> Also the Choson Dynasty government required architects to
> allow for a storage space in the upper part of a house in
> order to accommodate the family possessions effectively,
> something that is absent from today's houses.
>
> In addition, colorful curtains ought to be reconsidered
> seriously, Shin maintained. The sight-blocking curtains are
> likely to emit dangerous gases if they are set afire.
> Instead, traditional screen paper is much more stylish and
> practical because of its countless advantages, including the
> soothing reflection of beautiful moonshine at night, he
> added.
>
> Shin's human-oriented perspective is largely the result of an
> abrupt, zen question posed by a renowned monk, Kusan _
> ``Jipee Mukko?'' (meaning `What is a house?' in Korean).
>
> The mysterious question was a mantra for Shin in his search
> for the ultimate meaning of architecture.
>
> ``Well, eventually I figured out that a house is where people
> live,'' Shin said.
>
> Simple as it is, the perspective he gained from the monk
> culminated in his marvelous reconstruction of traditional
> Korean houses and temples. The most striking example of a
> dwelling built by Shin is the three-story Potapsa Temple,
> located in Jinchon, Chungchong-pukto, which was completed on
> June 6, 1996 after three-year-long construction.
>
> The wooden structure, the largest of its kind in Korea,
> measures 42.75 meters in height, which is as high as 14-story
> building. In completing the awe-inspiring structure, which is
> propped up by 85 pine tree pillars and was made from 150
> truckloads of wood, Shin did not use a single nail.
>
> Chinese and Japanese scholars and experts on architecture
> were rendered speechless when they first laid eyes on the
> grand scale and intricate structure of the pagoda at its
> opening ceremony.
>
> Shin, currently the head of Haerasia Culture Research Center,
> which aims at rediscovering traditional Korean history and
> culture, plans to build another Korean-style wooden pagoda
> soon while continuing to write books and tour the East Asian
> region in search of the roots of Korean traditions and
> culture.
>
> ``While traveling, I have found so many unexpected artifacts,
> suggesting that our forefathers advanced into every corner of
> Eurasia. And that is the topic for my next book,'' Shin said.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> (C) COPYRIGHT 1998 THE HANKOOKILBO
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/14_6/9807/t4651240.htm
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