Seoul’s Hyehwa-dong has opened up the country’s first Korean-style dong office.
The hanok itself was built in the 1940s. Jongno-gu bought it in 2004 and remodeled it for use as a dong office.
I hope this isn’t the only one of its kind for long. Here’s a story with a map if you need it.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Very cool. These are the type of things that Korea needs to create more of for a distinct Korean style that will attract outsiders. Nobody is interested in what I term “communist row-style” buildings that have dominated the landscape up to now.
The big windows on the courtyard really open up the space, well done. It would be great if they renovated more of these instead of tearing them down.
Finally……….
That’s what it is?!
It’s on my street, so I’ve been passing it every day. There are a few old traditional houses left on the street (I even asked to see one when I was hunting for a place), which is surprising for an area of Jongno-gu.
The building in question is about fifteen yards back from the road (a very short distance up from Hyehwa-dong rotary, between Lotteria and the SK petrol station), so without seeing it closely, I had assumed it was being renovated as a traditional restaurant of some sort. It was nice to see them keeping the building, though I thought they could have done better than lay a concrete driveway up to it.
I just noticed, it’s not where it is on the map. (Koreans just weren’t born to do maps, were they?) It’s the other side of the road, under where the arrow is.
Can’t read ‘em, can’t make ‘em either. Due north doesn’t go at the seven-o-clock position.
Actually, that style looks more Japanese than Korean to me. Anyway, it looks good.
I’m afraid it would take a major act of government to get more wonderful buildings built like this. As wonderful as it may be, too many people want to cram as much as they can into existing space and they end up using lousy builders who only build ugly concrete boxes with some granite hanging on the outside. I have many new buildings (concrete boxes) in my neighborhood and when I go walking, I stare up mostly at the sky because the buildings are so damned ugly and soulless.
This is very nice and the right sort of direction in terms of cultivating the best of Korean culture.
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