Well well, apparantly the Bukchon neighborhood, frequently profiled, shown in photos and discussed on this blog, has been better-preserved than most of us ever thought:
Seoul City’s project to preserve Bukchon, a village replete with hanok (traditional Korean houses) has won a UNESCO heritage conservation award, city officials said yesterday.
The “Hanok Regeneration” project has been honored with an Award of Distinction in the 2009 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards.
“The project has brought about a striking change in people’s attitudes to the city’s residential quarters. The large-scale project has raised awareness about the heritage value of the hanok and preserved an important traditional Korean architectural legacy,” UNESCO said in a press release.
This is something of a surprise to myself, one who has pleasurably wandered around there for a quarter-century now, and frequently serves as a tour-guide there for various international groups — witnessing a few changes going on, shall we say. Awarding the city for how it has been preserving its charming heritage had not actually crossed my mind…
The article also says that the City “has also bought 30 old houses and opened them to the public for cultural experience” — I had not known about this — does anyone know where these “open” hanok are? Is there a map or other info? Locked front-gates are mostly what i’ve recently found…
Last December, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon vowed to preserve 4,500 hanok in Seoul with a budget of 370 billion won ($300 million) by 2018.
It should be interesting to see what becomes of this pledge too… (are there really 4,500 hanok in Seoul in conditions/locations worth preserving…?)
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Dave, I am beginning to think that whenever a place becomes threatened with development, it eventually becomes a UNESCO site, as so many throughout Asia that are under serious threat of degradation or destruction from resource exploitation or from aggressive, unregulated tourism.
P.S. . . . Consider also the expo in Yeosu where Paul Kennedy will be talking (from the Yeosu expo site):
which is interesting when considering the government’s plans to develop Dadohae National Martime Park, which is very close to Yeosu.
Korea is infamous for having a lack of regulation regarding development and the impact of such economically-driven activity upon the environment. When I visit Boryeong (mud festival) beach during the off-season, I always end up taking a bag with me so that, during my walk on the beach, I take back all the plastic and trash that has been strewn all over the beach and the bag is always full.
I am pessimistic when I see how little concern or care is taken with so many issues like this and become alarmed when I see an obvious attempt to hide much under the mantle of something being more “green” than before. If there is no clear and lasting regulation — with teeth — to protect historical areas, greenspaces or natural resources, they will be eventually eaten by the politics of greed and expediency.
Dude, you go around the beach with a bag collecting the trash?
“NK” talk to Boy Scouts in the U.S. and they will tell you about what they do when they come out of some place where they camp. They pick up if they see trash so as to leave the place cleaner than when they came. They only pick up around where they are and not the entire woods, so no “dude”, I don’t walk around the whole beach picking up.
I share your concerns here, R.E. I do think that designation by a supra-national body such as UNESCO can assist a place threatened with heedless development, serious degradation, destruction from resource exploitation or aggressive, unregulated tourism to avoid those fates. I’m in favor of “development” in general, by only if it’s “done right” with near-maximum conservation of whatever’s worthwhile about the site and ecological-health considerations.
Asked recently about the pledge to preserve 4,500 hanoks and a copy of any plans or proposals as to how this would be achieved, City Hall said that no such documents had yet been prepared. All that was available was a leaflet proffering financial assistance for approved restoration work.
For over thirty years, Bukchon has enjoyed various designations (e.g. “Korean-style House Preservation District “) as an area where traditional hanoks are protected. Even so, on the Metropolitan Government’s own statistics, the number of hanoks in Bukchon fell from 1,518 in 1985 to 900 in 2007. Over that period of time, the character of the area changed from one where hanoks predominated to one where modern buildings form the majority of structures.
Despite the stated intentions of the Metropolitan Government, this erosion of hanok numbers has continued. This has not happened as a result of natural decay or the actions of rogue builders. The government itself has approved the demolition of hanoks, including many that were given high scores for both design quality and their state of repair in the Bukchon planning documents published in 2001.
The destruction has not always been random or incremental. For example, the whole of Gahoe-dong 1 district was shamelessly demolished to build modern villas.
Whether 4,500 of Seoul’s original hanoks still survive is an interesting question and one to which City Hall does not yet have an answer. In 2001, city planners reckoned that Bukchon was the last enclave of traditional hanoks in Seoul. One can only wish the Mayor good luck as he looks for a further 3,700 or so to meet his targets.
You can read more about all these matters at: http://www.kahoidong.com
Yup, that’s how i’ve understood the situation to be…
Thanks for the detailed info, David.
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