The Marmot’s Hole

For the Flickr slideshow, click here.

Say what you will about fascism as a ruling ideology, but at least it left behind an interesting architectural legacy.

You know it when you see it. The scale. The focus on line and order. Austere edifices devoid of curves or ornamentation. A mixture of Art Deco and rational neoclassicism, this is architecture designed to intimidate and awe.

In Germany, little is left of Albert Speer’s work, although there’s plenty of Nazi architecture left to see. In Italy, much of the country’s fascist architectural heritage is still very much alive and well, for example in Rome’s EUR district and the work of Marcello Piacentini.

Japan, with a very different architectural culture from the Italians and Germans, didn’t erect as much “fascist” architecture as their Axis allies, although the “Imperial Crown” style of the 1930s (see, for instance, the Tokyo National Museum) comes pretty close in its philosophy and effect. Nevertheless, Tokyo was not completely cut off from the architectural currents in Rome and Berlin, and if you look hard enough, you can find Italian/German-inspired monuments to fascist greatness in Japan’s empire in the Far East.

In Taereung in Nowon-gu (northeast Seoul) is the campus of what is now Seoul National University of Technology (a.k.a. SeoulTech or, well, SNUT). Originally the engineering school of Keijo Imperial University and after independence the engineering school of Seoul National University, the campus is home to a number of clearly fascist-inspired buildings from the early 1940s. If you like stark gray architectural expressions of state power — and really, who doesn’t? — this is the place to come.

Dasangwan Hall

The most ominously fascist-looking structure is the Dasangwan Hall, the former Main Hall of Keijo Imperial University School of Engineering. With its long lines, unbroken rows of rectangular windows, imposing covered entrance, unadorned facade, sterile lobby and eight-story monumental clock tower, everything about this concrete monster screams “power” and “order.” It’s a building designed to make you feel very, very small, like a bug about to be squashed by a jackboot. For comparison’s sake, check out the similarities with the former Air Ministry Building in Berlin. Sinister… very sinister.

You might wonder why the engineering school was located so far from downtown Seoul, where the main campus of Keijo Imperial University (later SNU) was located. Well, as the Cultural Heritage Administration points out, you must consider why the engineering school was founded. In 1938, when the Government General of Korea enacted legislation adding an engineering department to Keijo Imperial University, Japan was fighting a war in China and preparing for an even bigger one in the Pacific. In 1942, Tokyo Imperial University established a second engineering department in Nishi-chiba, far from its main campus in downtown Tokyo. The second campus was designed together with a military base, indicating that its true function was military technology development.

Likewise, in 1941, the Government General of Korea finally ordered the construction of a seven-department engineering school in far-off Taereung. And wouldn’t you know it, there just so happened to be a major Japanese military facility nearby (currently the ROK Army Academy)! Here, in the middle of nowhere, busy scientists and students could research and experiment with new and pyrotechnically interesting ways to make things go boom (see also story in the Hanguk Ilbo).

The building is built in a square with an internal courtyard. Man, you have to love that clock tower — if it was good enough for SPACE magazine, it’s good enough for you. There’s certainly a touch of Art Deco in the design — with its message of youth and modernity, Art Deco was an important influence on fascist architecture, especially in Italy (and the Italian Empire, for instance, in the Eritrean capital of Asmara, the “Miami of Africa”).

Changhakgwan Hall

Next door is the Changhakgwan Hall, which was and still is the home of the school’s department of electrical engineering. Built in the same, menacing style as the Dasangwan Hall, the Changhakgwan Hall looks disturbingly similar to Albert Speer’s now-destroyed Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

Both the Dasangwan and Changhakgwan halls are listed as Registered Cultural Property No. 12, making them one of the first to be listed after the adoption of the Registered Cultural Property System in 2002. This was not entirely popular at the university, where school authorities complained that the designation of 30% of its classroom space as cultural heritage would hamper modernization efforts. They also wondering why such a legacy of Japanese colonial rule should be protected. The Cultural Heritage Administration, however, stood its ground, explaining that it had a mission to protect Korea’s rapidly disappearing early modern heritage.

The buildings have also found use as a film locale, appearing in a couple of movies, including “JSA.”

Daeryukgwan Hall

Not nearly as large as the Dasangwan and Changhakgwan halls, the Daeryukgwan Hall — originally Keijo Imperial University’s Department of Mining (and now home to the departments of design and woodworking) — was registered as a cultural property in February of this year. It’s a very modernist structure with a fantastic tower and Art Deco trim. Stand in front of the covered entrance, and you can feel how powerful it is. Sure, it’s a bit grimy, but nothing adds character to a building like grime.

Odds and Ends

Not a registered cultural property, but still clearly old, the Foreign Language/Continuing Education Hall has some great Art Deco-ish trim on the corners of the roof.

The campus power plant is obviously of much more recent vintage, but of such nice design that I’m pretty certain some notable Korean architect — an SNU architecture professor, I’m willing to bet — did it. A lot of love went into it.

Hwarangdae Station

A short taxi ride from the campus, just in front of ROK Army Academy, is Hwarangdae Station (not to be confused with the nearby subway station of the same name), a colonial era train station on the Seoul-Chuncheon line. Built in 1939, it was originally named Taereung Station and registered as a cultural property (along with several other colonial and early-independence-era whistle-stops) in 2006. It’s not entirely typical of colonial-era train stations, which usually have sharp gabled roofs, but it’s well preserved (including the interior) and surrounded by forest — it’s a country whistle stop in Seoul.

Getting There

Easiest way is either Hwarangdae Metro Station (line 6) or Gongneung Station (line 7).

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