Neocolonialism and Built Heritage by Daniel E. Coslett;

Author:Daniel E. Coslett;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 7.8 Corner of the GGB from Chosensōtokufushinchōshashashinzushū (Photo Album of the New Government-General Building of Chosŏn) (Keijō: Chosenkenchikukai (Association of Chosŏn Architecture), 1926). Photograph c .1926. Source: Lawinc82 [Wikimedia Commons].

THE INVOLVEMENT OF KOREAN ARCHITECT PARK GIL-RYONG

Even though the GGB was planned and constructed chiefly by European and Japanese architects, the workers were all Korean and Chinese.36 In total, Koreans worked approximately 2 million worker days on this project.37 Not all of the architects and engineers associated with the GGB were European or Japanese, however. In a letter written for the ceremony that commemorated the raising of the ridge beam to complete the framework of the roof (sangnyangje) on May 17, 1923, Korean architect Park Gil-ryong (1898-1943) was credited as a junior engineer (kisu). Park, one of the first Korean graduates from the architecture department at KyŎngsŎ ng College of Engineering in 1919, worked as a junior engineer at the Ministry of Communications, where he practiced while assisting Japanese architects. The college, established by the Japanese Government-General of Choso n in 1916, accepted seven students in the architecture department, but the courses were limited to draftsmanship and engineering. However, as Ahn Chang-mo notes, the school should be considered the first institution to provide a professional architectural curriculum identical to other engineering colleges in Japan.38 Park was promoted to Chief Engineer in 1932, and he opened his own architecture firm in Kongp’yŎng-dong, Seoul that same year. Park’s educational pedigree and practical experience informed his design approach, which combined the typical Neoclassicism of the GGB with modernist principles of plain, simple formalism devoid of ornamentation. After being involved in the construction of the GGB - the largest Western structure visible in KyŎngsŎng - he applied his knowledge to the design of the Namdaemun branch office building of Dong-il bank in 1931, the first notable public structure designed by a Korean during the colonial period. Even though it was much smaller in scale, he applied to the bank building the GGB’s style of copper dome with external ribs and pilasters. Park’s design for the Hanchông Building (1935), with its ground-floor shopping arcade, gave way to a classicizing treatment, but the flat roof, the use of reinforced concrete, and the rhythmic curtain walls decorated with uniform windows are typical of nondecorative modernist architecture. His preference for a mixture of a more classical Western style with modern trends was seen in his six-floor reinforced concrete masterpiece, the Hwashin Department Store (1937), where the current Chong-ro (Jongno) tower stands. Park Gil-ryong’s designs should not be viewed as simply European or Japanese imports, but as a mediated type of colonial modernism, one that integrated native traditions and expectations with Japanese modernism. Unlike the Japanese architects, Park Gil-ryong recognized and employed local geography, language, and the people of Korea, and he also suggested a way to meld Western and Japanese style houses and urban hanok (Korean traditional houses).39

Figure 7.9 The plan of the GGB’s first floor. Plan 1929. Source: The National Archives of Korea.

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