The Marmot’s Hole

When we think of Daehangno, we usually think of the neighborhood’s small theaters, romantic cafes and vibrant youth culture. For those with a keen interest in Korean history and contemporary architecture, however, Daehangno yields a few more gifts. Among the treasures located here are the former main hall of Seoul National University (originally Keijo Imperial University), an early example of modernist architecture and a creation of Park Gil-yong, one of Korea’s first modern architects, and two beautiful examples of early Western architecture from the Daehan Empire — the beautiful neo-Baroque former Daehan Hospital, one of Korea’s earliest Western-style hospitals, and the massive National Industry Institute, a German-style wood structure that is the only remaining example of wooden Western architecture from the Daehan Empire.

Former Main Hall of Seoul National University

As the name would suggest, Daehangno was the site of Seoul National University (SNU), Korea’s foremost institute of higher learning. What Tokyo University is for Japan, SNU is to Korea.

SNU was born as Keijo Imperial University in 1924. Established by the Japanese government, the school was in part a response to growing pressure from the more nationalist-minded to found a separate, Korean university. At the time, it was the only four-year university on the Korean Peninsula. A number of locations were discussed for the new imperial university, but Yeongeon-dong/Dongsung-dong was eventually selected, given how the Government-General Hospital (see later) was already there. A medical school was built in Yeongeon-dong, where the hospital was, while a law and literature school was built on some 25,000 pyeong of Dongsung-dong real estate that was originally a Benedictine monastery, oddly enough.

After Liberation, Keijo Imperial University became Seoul National University, and in 1975, SNU moved to a new campus in Gwanak-dong, south of the Hangang River. SNU Medical School is still located in Yeongeon-dong, but most of the original buildings have long since disappeared. The exception is the former main hall, now used as the headquarters of Arts Council Korea. Completed in 1931, construction was overseen by a Japanese architect with the Government-General, while Park Gil-ryong — granddaddy of modern Korean architecture and the man behind the since departed Jongno landmark Hwasin Department Store — did the designs. Park loved simple, modernist, rational designs, and the main hall reflects this — very little in the way of decoration (classical arch at the entrance aside) and simple lines. This was quite revolutionary at the time.

It’s a beautiful little structure located right next to Marronier Park. It’s definitely worth a look at, if for no other reason than to get a look at an important piece of Korea’s educational and architectural history.

Arko Art Center and Arko Arts Theater

Surrounding Marronier Park — built on the former site of SNU — is the Arko Art Center and Arko Arts Theater, both run by the hard-working people of Arts Council Korea. If these red-brick buildings look familiar, they should — they were both designed by the late Kim Swoo-geun, the greatest architect Korea has produced and one of the few men who would motivate me to travel all the way to Masan to take pictures of a building built after 1945.  The buildings are good examples of Kim Swoo-geun’s architectural philosophy — from the Arto Art Center homepage:

Arko Art Center is one of the red brick buildings which show the architectural world of Kim Swoogeun. It has a large transitional space on the ground floor, so that inside and outside of the building might be linked naturally. If one ascends the stairs which are linked directly to Marronnier Park, one encounters a large space on the ground floor. The space is similar to the main floor room of a traditional house, where the inside and outside are not clearly divided. Such a relationship between the inside and outside of the building makes up for the modern architecture which divides inside and outside as separate spaces or regards the latter as a result of the former, because the lack of space which links between the inside and outside resulted in the separation between the two spaces.

Arko Art Center, designed by Kim Swoogeun in 1977 and opened in 1979, is a kind of gateway or passage rather than a building. What he had in mind most when he designed it was the meaning and context of the site in the city. The architecture consists of two buildings linked together, and the first floor which links the two buildings connects and allows communication between Marronnier Park in front and Naksan(Mt.) in the rear.

There you have it. If you’d like to learn more about Kim Swoo-geun and his work, see my post from January.

Daehan Hospital

The former Daehan Hospital, located just in front of Seoul National University Medical Center, is one of the most beautiful buildings in Seoul and a true gem of Daehan Empire-era architecture.

Daehan Hospital was created in 1907 when the royal (actually, imperial) government merged three existing medical centers, the Gwangjewon (one of Korea’s first Western-style hospitals, founded in 1899), the training hospital of Gyeongseong Medical School and the Red Cross Hospital (then administered by the royal household). Placed under the administration of the Uijeongbu (the government ministry analogous to today’s Ministry of Home Affairs), it was Korea’s best medical institution, and played a role similar to that played by the university hospitals of today.

The Uijeongbu eventually selected the Hamchunwon — a hilltop outer garden of the Changgyeonggung Palace — as the site for the Daehan Hospital. Construction, meanwhile, was entrusted to the architecture bureau of the Takjibu, the royal finance ministry. A Japanese architect employed by the Takjibu (this being the Daehan Empire, a lot of foreign experts were employed by the royal government) did the design.

Made mostly of red brick and granite with a roof of copper plate, the building has a neoclassical bilateral symmetry that emphasizes the monumental nature of the structure. The most impressive feature, of course, is the neo-Baroque clock tower, while other notable elements include the front entrance — designed so vehicles could come right up to the door (it was a hospital, after all) — and the bulbous dome on the right annex.

In 1910, following Korea’s annexation by Japan, Daehan Hospital became the Government-General Medical Center, and in 1926 it was incorporated into Keijo Imperial University as a university hospital. After Liberation, it became SNU Medical Center, but when a new, more modern hospital was opened nearby in 1979, most of the old Daehan Hospital’s structures were torn down, save for the main hall, which is what you see today. The building is now used as the SNU Museum of Medicine.

Old Daehan Hospital is a wonderful place, but because it’s located smack-dab in the middle of SNU Medical School, it doesn’t get as many visitors as it probably should. If you make the walk up the hill, however, you’re rewarded with a rare example of Daehan Empire architecture.

Former National Industry Institute

Across Daehangno from SNU Medical School, on the campus of Korea Open University, is the former main hall of National Industry Institute.

Like Daehan Hospital, the National Industry Institute was built in the Daehan Empire era — 1908, to be more specific — and its design was overseen by the architecture bureau of the Takjibu, the royal finance ministry. Also like the Daehan Hospital, the building was designed by a Japanese architect.

After the conclusion of the Protectorate Treaty of 1907, a two-tiered system of administration developed in Korea. On one hand, you had the royal government of the Daehan Empire, and on the other you had the Japanese Residency-General. Officially, the Agriculture, Industry and Trade Ministry of the Daehan Empire established the National Industry Institute, but in actual fact, the Residency-General was quite influential, with Japanese engineering professor Hiraga Yoshi — an industrial policy adviser to the Agriculture, Industry and Trade Ministry — playing a major role.

When it was founded, the National Industry Institute had six departments — architecture, civil engineering, applied chemistry, metallurgy, dyeing and ceramics. Its first class had 74 students, and at the time, it was Korea’s highest industrial institute.

After Liberation, the institute became an industrial research center attached to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and is now an annex for Korea Open University.

The building itself is a large, German-style Renaissance structure built entirely out of wood. In the early days of Japanese imperialism, Japanese architects were partial to building Western-style buildings out of wood, although they’d employ other materials as time went on. As one of the earliest examples of Western architecture in Korea and one of the few remaining examples of Daehan Empire-architecture designed by the Takjibu

Be sure to check out the Flicker slideshow.