Abstract
This study explores the sense of place in contemporary commercial spaces in South Korean cities by analyzing Shin-chon, one of the major commercial districts located in Seoul. While studies of "place" have grown alongside critiques of modernism and have played a significant role in fostering better understandings of built environments in the last few decades, the discourses of sense of place within dynamically changing metropolis remain relatively unexamined. Despite many criticisms of the distracting and placeless aspects of contemporary Korean cities, these aspects also reveal localized commercialisms, privatized public spaces, and material representations in everyday life. Advertisements are here perceived as the mode of communication and medium through which one can construct sense of place according to what one experiences. Signboards are the vehicles that reflect this psychological process. Through the application of Walter Benjamin's two concepts – flâneur and mimesis – this paper will discuss how the theory of signboards in everyday life is formulated, and how Shin-chon can be interpreted as a place where people find sense of place without being alienated from the built environment. Keywords: Korean Commercialism; sense of place; Shin-chon; Walter Benjamin; flâneur; mimesis 1. Introduction studies of regional identities, ethnic diversities, and "Sense of place" means "identity of place," or the home cultures in areas worldwide. Notable concepts physical and spiritual qualities of place in which one that have emerged from place studies include "Genius can find his/her identity without being disoriented from Loci," "Sense of Place," and "Critical Regionalism." the environment to which they belong. The studies of W h a t h a v e , h o w e v e r , b e e n l e f t c o m p a r a b l y place emerged after the failure of modernism around u n t o u c h e d a r e t h e s t u d i e s o f s e n s e o f p l a c e i n th the mid-20 century, and have continued to combat contemporary cities and "metropolis." Although the the homogenized and alienated built environment growth of cities fostered the alienation of urban life by creating alternative theoretical discourses and as the 20th-century modernism ended in a failure, it practices. Those studies seek to go beyond the formal, has also allowed people to familiarize themselves with empirical, and quantitative studies of built environment a vividly changing built environment. What is also and architecture, instead focusing on identifying found is that people now tend to feel accustomed to the their qualitative aspects as well as articulating the highly complicated urban environments. Identifying relationship between the human being and natural oneself is now inseparable from the everyday urban environment. Deeply indebted to the discourses of life, and this is the very porous realm that studies of "phenomenology," which concentrate on defining place have not yet explored. the relationship between the subject and the object With this in mind, this analysis offers a case study: through the notion of sensory experience, "place" how Korean cities can be perceived as places where studies sought to grasp "the mythic power and poetic one can build his/her identity without being alienated dimension in society" and tended to develop into in the commercialized everyday life-world. By doing so, this study formulates a theoretical perspective on sense of place in contemporary Korean and East- *Contact Author: Seung Han Paek, M.S. Yonsei University / A s i a n c i t i e s w h e r e " s i g n b o a r d s " a r e p a r t o f t h e M . S . U n i v e r s i t y o f C i n c i n n a t i , 5 2 6 R i d d l e R d , R o o m C , dominant urban landscape. Utilizing two concepts of Cincinnati, OH 45220 USA Walter Benjamin – flâneur and mimesis – the sense of Tel: +1-513-221-1840 Fax: N/A place in Shin-chon is articulated. What is specifically E-mail: deepened@gmail.com analyzed is: how small-scale signboards in Shin-chon ( Received April 8, 2008 ; accepted August 6, 2008 ) Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering/November 2008/200 193 can help one feel a sense of place with the near built environment. 2. Korean Commercialism and the Idea of Place 2.1 Small-scale Korean Commercialism and East Asian Modernism Small-scale Korean commercialism is defined as a peculiar urban phenomenon that is composed of a set th Fig.1. Passage Choiseul in Paris (19 Century) and Night of local commercial activities, which arose with the Streetscape in Seoul (2000s) country's rapid modernization in the 1960s. Contrary to the state-oriented large-scale economic activities, significant than a mere commercial phenomenon. Peter the main participants of small-scale commercialism Rowe (2005) astutely refers to East-Asian cities with are individual local shopkeepers and the public who myriad signboards as 'Neon Environments'. His remark do business with them. This Korean commercialism proves two things: 1) the signboards in East-Asian is often represented by the hustle and bustle of streets cities are an essential part of the urban environment w h e r e n u m e r o u s s m a l l s i g n s d o m i n a t e t h e u r b a n and everyday life, and 2) they reflect the effacing landscape. Throughout the chaotic and unorganized modernity in everyday commercialism in those cities. modernization of the country after the Korean War 2.2 Flâneur, mimesis, and the Theory of Signboards ( 1 9 5 0 – 1 9 5 3 ) , c o m m e r c i a l z o n e s w e r e l o o s e l y Once the prevalence of signboards in Korean cities designated by planners and government; what followed is established as a common phenomenon found in East- were individual shopkeepers' unrestricted commercial Asian cities as well, the next thing to be done is to ask activities, and governmental regulation had little or no how one could perceive and narrate a sense of place effect on them. in those contemporary cities. Two concepts by Walter Korean commercial districts are usually composed Benjamin, a dialectical Jewish thinker who lived in the th of pedestrian streets, small-scale commercial and early 20 century, are useful here: flâneur and mimesis. residential buildings with small lots, and multiple First, Benjamin's concept of the flâneur provides signboards upon those buildings. Whereas American an awareness of the psychological dimension of the shopping malls tend to be made of a single large mass, urban strollers in commercial space, beyond the socio- shopping areas in Korea are usually made of congested cultural discourses of it. Flâneur, a French term, means low-level commercial buildings and fragmentary a certain type of person who emerged in Paris' arcades urban fabrics (ranging from 130 to 330 square meters). i n t h e n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y. F l â n e u r a n o n y m o u s l y Critics of the Korean urban phenomenon often cite the strolls through the arcades and old-style shopping disappearance of a sense of place, asserting that one malls through a corridor between building blocks with can hardly find his/her relationship within everyday a triangular glass-roof and distinguished entrances, commercial spaces in Korea. where various commodities are displayed in display- Although Korean commercialism is a specific urban windows. They feel at home while not knowing each phenomenon that needs to be understood primarily other, silently detecting what is happening there. through the local, cultural and urban history, it has Benjamin describes those types of people as living in nevertheless a commonality among near regions: a "cross between a street and an interieur … world in the culture and city in an East-Asian continent. A which the flâneur is at home." city like Seoul is often categorized as an emerging Commercial districts and buildings in Korea can metropolis, with other cities such as Tokyo, Hong be similarly perceived: outdoor commercial districts Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai, all are the places for "dwelling" to Korean people, and of which went through rapid modernizations in past are more widely heterogeneous in terms of class, age, th decades. Historian Eric Hobsbawm finds the context and sex than 19 century Paris. To Benjamin, arcades of these urban phenomena in East-Asian countries are perceived as the new form of leisure space, and through the notion of 'Third World' (1994). He points flâneur is the new bourgeois social class that subverts out 'demography' is significant in understanding the the conventional power relations of previous centuries. Third World, and argues that the explosive population Contemporary Korean and East-Asian cities, although growth since World War II is the very condition that a different context, can likewise be understood as determines the congested urbanism in those countries. places where ordinary people can be temporarily free What is also critical in the understanding of the Third from social hierarchies, and be active participants of World is the emigration from the rural to the urban: the city-making. urban population concentration within a short period of What is secondly discussed is Benjamin's idea of time is one of many aspects that characterize the Third mimesis , which will help us to understand the deeper World. Signboards in East-Asian cities thus reflect implications of signboards through a dissection of the rapid socio-economic growth and prevalence of text and image. In the essay 'Doctrine of the Similar' consumer culture in everyday life, and are much more (1933), Benjamin explains that mimesis, or mimetic 194 JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek faculty, has "the very highest capability to produce he confesses that we really need a new perspective similarities." Mimesis is distinguished from imitation, in order to examine the meaning of place in a highly in that the former has always existed as a form of complex metropolis like Seoul, where the residues of language similarly corresponding to the textures of past memories keep disappearing and are substituted everyday life, whereas the latter is no more than a b y i n d i s c r i m i n a t e d e v e l o p m e n t s ; t h i s d e f i n i t e l y superficial copy of the precedents. Reinterpreting resonates with Benjamin's interpretation of arcades. He Benjamin's concept of mimesis, Neil Leach (2006) argues that Korean people now can find their identities argues that mimesis is "a constructive reinterpretation through the experience of 24-hour open street shops of an original, which becomes a creative act in itself." (Pyuneuijum in Korean), which are rarely perceived Korean commercial signboards reflect the idea as authentic places representing Korea but dominant of mimesis, in that it exhibits the public's desire for everyday spaces. consumption and its emancipatory function in material and linguistic forms. Language is particularly crucial 3. A Case Study of Shin-chon Commercial District t o B e n j a m i n . I t i s t h e c o n s t e l l a t i o n o f c o l l e c t i v e 3.1 The Physical Characters of Shin-chon memories made of similarities, which he considers Shin-chon is one of the most populated commercial as the repository of mimetic faculty – the collective districts in Seoul and has been the most disputed place unconscious. Benjamin's conception of collective in Korean urban history since the 1990s, especially unconscious, initially advocated by psychoanalyst C. because of the way its commercial activities dominate G. Jung, not only reverberates to the Jungian idea of the entire region. In the Korean Marketing Newspaper archetype (the content of the collective unconscious) (2004), Shin-chon is best described as having a "… within the personal psychic level, but the realization of daily in-and-out population about 150,000 – 200,000, mythic power in the present society of material culture. and more than half of the population is comprised In Dialectic of Seeing (1991), Susan Buck-Morss of the twenties because there are many universities. explains the implications of advertisements through a The main services in Shin-chon are restaurants, pubs, Benjaminian notion: "on an unconscious dream level, karaoke–bars, pc-rooms, and others, and the place the new urban-industrial world had become fully re- becomes full of people after six p.m., which is the time enchanted." It is imperative to recognize that the when university-students begin to leave schools. The concealed mythic power of advertisements can also time between six and eleven p.m. is the busiest period be emergent in the present industrial society, and its with people, and the ratio between men and women is mechanism is based on mimesis: the system of objects found similar." that reproduce similarities through the revitalized The spatial distribution of commercial shops in unconscious of the collective. Shin-chon is overlapped with residential areas that It might be argued that what Walter Benjamin sought surround them. Many buildings in Shin-chon are three with these two concepts – flâneur and mimesis – is to five stories tall, compactly abutting the pedestrian/ to grasp the dialectical moment in the ever-changing automobile streets, which result in a bleak exterior urban phenomenon through which one can construct space that looks like an interior at the same time. th his/her identity within the present moment. The 19 Although there is a functional distinction between –century arcades in Paris were therefore the field pedestrian streets and automobile roads, it is often of everyday life where he could achieve his goals. ignored by mixed use in everyday commercial practice. Although Benjamin did not specifically discuss the Bazaar-like pedestrian streets are the most dominant sense of place of the arcades, it is evident that he did elements that characterize the mode of urban and consider advertisements and signs as the significant architectural experience. medium through which one can construct a sense of attachment to what one experiences. While Benjamin was the pioneer who conducted the th psychoanalytic studies of urban life in the late 19 and th early 20 century European context, it is imperative to examine how his ideas have developed and been a p p l i e d t o t h e s t u d i e s o f K o r e a n a n d E a s t - A s i a n urbanism. Kwang-Hyun Kim is one of a few scholars who have sought to find a sense of place in Korean cities. In the article "Thin History and the Place of City" (2007), he questions how we can conceive of the meaning of the urban experience in the contemporary city of Seoul. Although the formulation of his idea of place was initially indebted to scholars such as C. N. Shulz, Edward Relph, and Kenneth Frampton, all of whom have extensively written on the issue of place, Fig.2. The Aerial Map of Shin-chon (2005) JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek 195 28 their professionals. In this sense, residing in Yonsei University, Cho seeks to find the elements by which she can construct the identity of contemporary Korean society. In the introduction, Cho begins with the question; "How do we define culture in relation to the issue of identity?" Culture is, to her, the consequence of two interactive forces – one as the overriding determinant assets, which transcend time, and the other as a more concurrent participation and sometimes rebellion of the individual mind, which negates some Fig.3. Night Scene and a Staircase of a Building (2005) part of it and creates the new fragments of culture. In line with Cho's interpretation of Shin-chon, Paek 3.2 Two Perspectives on Shin-chon similarly finds the meaning of urban experience and B e s i d e s t h e p h y s i c a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o f S h i n - sense of place in Shin-chon (2006, 2008). In a place chon, what make this region quite interesting and like Shin-chon, he argues that architecture cannot c o n t r o v e r s i a l a r e t h e s p a t i a l f o r m a t i o n a n d i t s be perceived without recognizing the very mundane cultural relation in everyday life: a mixture between experience of its commercial settings that is represented 'University-town' (of three major universities that by multiple signboards in the street. Signboards are have 43,047 students) and 'entertainment place', which here understood as the "textures" that decorate façades is a rare case even in the country. Critical analyses and urban landscape on one hand, and as "texts" that let of Shin-chon accordingly highlight a conflict between one communicate with shopkeepers on the other. Low- two different perspectives, which interpret Shin-chon's level buildings and continuous pedestrian-based streets consumption culture in both positive and negative thus provide a cozy, enclosed space where one feels as ways. if he/she is in an interior, as in the case of Benjamin's W h a t i s m o s t e v i d e n t i n e v a l u a t i o n s o f S h i n - arcades. Signboards in Shin-chon are the medium that chon are the vigorous criticisms towards it. Shin- provides sense of belonging to the visitors, who might chon is often described as "placeless," "distracting," be otherwise disoriented, surrounded by autonomous, "entertaining," "polluted," "absent of culture," and architectonic, or monumental symbolisms. "corrupted," all of which criticize the overwhelming By reviewing two perspectives on Shin-chon, this numbers of signboards, decayed night culture, and p a p e r c a n n o w a r t i c u l a t e t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p a m o n g the highly congested shops within small buildings. consumption culture, urban experience, and sense A student reporter in The Yonsei Annals, an English- of place in this region. Once commercial activities based monthly student magazine at Yonsei University are acknowledged as part of cultural praxis, one can (June 2006), criticizes the absence of bookstores and reconstruct an idea of culture that overcomes the satirizes the only remaining bookstore -Hongik Mungo- dualistic notion separating high from low culture. as "The last fortress, Acre of Shin-chon." Hyung- Culture in Shin-chon should therefore not only include Chul Kim, a professor in the philosophy department at artistic practices, but everyday commercial activities Yonsei University, likewise sees distracting signboards such as buying food in markets, having coffees at in Shin-chon as a severely corrupting presence and cafés, singing songs at karaoke–bars. Commercial suggests a strategy for regulating those signboards' buildings are thus the places where such activities modes of existence (color, size, number, and content) occur, and signboards are the milieu that represents the through his moralistic view (1996). Considering everyday life in Shin-chon. them as "wicked" or "treacherous," he suggests five administrative levels for controlling signboards and constructing a better society in Korea: for example, the absolute prohibition on excessive street advertisements, and conditional acceptance, controlled by the ministries officers with a regular supervision. On the other hand, positive interpretations of Shin- chon see it as a place of everyday life for Korean people. In "Our Everyday Space, Into the Shin-chon," (1994) Hye-Jung Cho argues that understanding the culture of Shin-chon is critical since it inevitably represents everyday life in Korea's post-colonial and post-industrial society. As an anthropologist, s h e p o i n t s o u t t h a t S h i n - c h o n i s t h e v e r y " f i e l d " Fig.4. The Exterior of a Commercial Building (2007) where anthropologists need to find significant and predominant cultural aspects that are often ignored via 196 JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek 4. Three Approaches for Narrating Sense of Place in structure, which is represented by five elements (paths, Shin-chon edges, districts, nodes, landmarks), mapping activities 4.1 A "Cognitive Mapping" of Shin-chon in Shin-chon do not echo the visual legibility Lynch I n S h i n - c h o n , c o m m e r c i a l s e t t i n g s n o t m e r e l y discussed. Despite the lack of exact measurement, dominate the way visitors experience the place, but below examples help one to become familiar with allow them to make a meaningful relationship with the everyday space that might otherwise remain alien what they confront through active involvement, which and merely functional. It is worthwhile to note that is prominently detected in "mapping." A map is usually Lynch's cognitive mapping is further developed by perceived as a tool for enhancing the understanding Fredric Jameson, a critical theorist of postmodernism of space through a Cartesian and mathematical way of (1991): "the representation of the subject's imaginary seeing, which is usually conducted by professionals relationship to his or her Real conditions of existence in geography and near science disciplines. A map is … to enable a situational representation on the part the nucleus of the rationalization of human faculty, of the individual subject to that vaster and properly 3 5 p r o v i d e s n o o p p o r t u n i t y f o r o r d i n a r y p e o p l e ' s u n r e p r e s e n t a b l e t o t a l i t y. " I m a g i n a t i o n i s , t o contributions, and is therefore merely functional and Jameson, considered crucial for solving the dilemma one-directional; it is a guide to the city that lacks any of disorienting (or totalizing) everyday urban space. interaction between producers and users. In this regard, What is rather significant to him is the formation of map is a "mechanical reproduction" that scarcely the socio-political "subject" who is capable of making recognizes the human values and residues of past his/her own voice in the institutionalized and media- times: a sense of place is overlooked through the map- oriented everyday life, and this goes beyond Lynch's making process, which echoes again Benjamin's notion formalistic approach for interpreting the legibility of of "the disappearance of aura." the city. Commercial settings become the field in which one (the subject) can find his/her identity in the ever- changing complex urban areas (the object). Here Jacque Lacan's concept of "mirror stage" is helpful. Lacan argues that what is concealed in every object is the mode of representation of human desire and his/ her identification (1981): an object is here perceived as the reflection of the subject's psychic dimension and its materialized form. Accordingly, it can be said that one unavoidably identifies himself/herself through recognizing the mirrored representation of Fig.5. A Food Map of Shin-chon and Series of Advertisements those objects. Similarly, the urban landscape becomes Inside the Coupon Book Cocofun (2007) the field in which such a mirror stage occurs. People construct their identity not only by passively reacting to the environment of Shin-chon, but by actively making their own voices throughout the "mapping." Cocofun, a free commercial coupon book, is here considered the representation of people's desire for "mapping" Shin-chon (Fig.5.). It contains information regarding many shops located in Shin-chon and, by doing so, utilizes the existing map on which images and texts of popular shops are overtly projected. Images of "foods" or "interior scenes" of shops are enlarged, inducing people to visit those places. The latter case shows a more active mapping of Shin-chon through personalized map-recreating activity than the former (Fig.6.). Free from the rigorous mathematical Fig.6. A Handwritten Map of Shin-chon (2006) measurement of the space, created by senior university (©: Sang-kyoung 2-ban, Yonsei University Students) students who marked some useful and favorite shops, this map promotes a better experience of Shin-chon to 4.2 Signboards as the Mode of Communication in new incoming students. Shin-chon Both cases of mappings resonate with the idea of the S i g n b o a r d s , i n p l u r a l , a r e n o t o n l y p a r t o f t h e "cognitive map" discussed by Kevin Lynch. Whereas urban landscape but the mode of communication Lynch's strategy in his project The Image of the City for the people who experience Shin-chon. Multiple (1960) was to theorize "legibility" in an existing urban signboards attached to the exteriors of buildings are JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek 197 major elements of architectural design no matter what vertical wall is a field where collective memories the initial design is. The everyday shopkeeper is the easily discarded are surreptitiously brought alive by designer who fills up the autonomous architectural the process of being derelict. Just as one can construct d e s i g n s o a s t o m a k e i t m o r e c o m m u n i c a b l e i n a richer identity by recalling childhood memories than e v e r y d a y l i f e . O n t h e s t r e e t - w a l l s , o n e c a n s e e merely focusing on the present, a close investigation advertisements that tell the updated information of o f t h e d i s a p p e a r i n g u r b a n p h e n o m e n a a l l o w s a exhibitions, openings of shops, performances, and significantly better mode of identification with the others. Images and texts of signboards reflect everyday built environment. In other words, the city is the place life through the transformation of familiar objects where collective memories are constantly being kept, and phenomena such as popular foods or hair-styles, and temporary advertisements play a crucial role in traditional landscapes, and parodies of fashions. reviving such memories, which are constantly being Despite the fact that all these images and texts are forgotten in everyday life. Advertisements are, in intended to allure people's eyes and make them spend Benjamin's notion, "fashion" that quickly responds their money, they also function as the media through t o t h e o n g o i n g c o l l e c t i v e ' s n e e d , a n d r e f l e c t t h e which the commercialized urban space is converted as collective unconscious which is concealed in each a more familiar place. person; he defines the advertisements of arcades in Due to the indiscriminately attached signboards Paris as "fashion" that reveals "the darkness of the upon the exteriors of buildings, architecture becomes lived moments" which belongs to the "collective a more dramatic field of communication than what unconsciousness" of the public. architects designed their projects with a communicative To seize vanishing, but "ever-returning new," past intention. Robert Venturi, a pioneer of postmodern moments in dispersed advertisements is different from architectural discourses, already diagnosed this fact, pursuing nostalgia through architectural projects: and formulated the comparative notion of "duck" while the latter is institutionalized and recreated from a and "decorated shed": the former is the autonomous selected and polished view of architects and designers, architectural symbolism of modernists and the latter the former is a more direct response of everyday is commercially driven architectural design intended commercial activities of the public. In this regard for the easiest communication. Venturi emphasized Christine Boyer (1994) deconstructs the collective the role of sign in architectural design, and Shin-chon memories recreated by architects and seeks to discover is a Korean version of his idea of sign–architecture, t h e u n r e p r e s e n t e d h i s t o r y, f o l l o w i n g B e n j a m i n ' s advocated in his seminal work Learning from Las idea of history: "To regain oppositional awareness Vegas (1972). The relationship between sign and in the contemporary city – an awareness sustained architecture, in Venturi's notion, is converted in the by a critical sense of history – we need to study the case of Las Vegas, a city of gambling: sign (decorated generative forces influencing their representational shed) is more powerful both in architectural design and forms." the mode of communication than architecture (duck). In Shin-chon, temporary advertisements show the Although it is difficult to directly apply his notion of residues of past memories of places. The exteriors of sign to Korean architectural context, it is nevertheless buildings cannot be purely cleansed from commercial useful as a communicative tool for evaluating the role activities in earlier times (i.e. the indication of the of signboards in commercial buildings in Shin-chon. slightly broken wall because of the nails penetrating Signboards function as communicative tools because the exterior: Fig.7.) unless existing buildings are they might be easily recognizable on one hand and entirely demolished. In addition, this kind of remnant can simultaneously remain camouflaged within the is dramatically evidenced by the overlapped posters/ near environment on the other. Signboards mimic stickers at street walls (Fig.8.). By identifying such the mode of existence of nearby ones. Throughout remnants with one's personal memories, one can such a process of "mimesis," one shop identifies itself familiarize oneself with the place, and a commercial with others, as the Lacanian concept "mirror stage" district can operate as more than a mere alienating explains. The reproduction of signboards is not a mere space. mechanical process, but shopkeepers' strategy for As Fredric Jameson defines the mass media as a survival by mimicking and communicating with others: collection of opportunities for recording/expressing Leach further explains "The action of mimesis, then minorities' voices in the public realm since the 1960s constitutes an approximation to the other, a process of and 1970s ("the emergence of the new subject" in becoming ever closer, but never quite incorporating the the "public sphere" which made possible the rise of 37 41 other." "media populism" ), advertisements in Shin-chon 4.3 The Redemption of Collective Memories in likewise reveal different voices in everyday urban Temporary Advertisements places. Furthermore, the power of street advertisements Advertisements in Shin-chon resonate with the past i n S h i n - c h o n i s a r g u a b l y m o r e e f f e c t i v e a n d memory of the place as well, through the residues of straightforward than mass media: whereas the latter is abandoned signs in the street. Every kind of outdoor controlled by the large and global capital, the former 198 JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek is primarily operated by the small and local capital Notes Edward Relph. Place and Placelessness, London: Pion, 1976, p.48: which is more independent than the latter. Street "… This is the attribute of identity that has been variously termed advertisements thus become the arena of ordinary 'spirit of place', 'sense of place' or 'genius of place' (genius loci) – people, where one can record his or her voice in the all terms which refer to character or personality. public realm relatively free from the effects of mass The seminal text that deals with the fundamental question of place is "Building, Dwelling, Thinking" by Martin Heidegger: media. Heidegger, Martin. "Building, Dwelling, Thinking" in Poetry, Language, Thought, (pp.143-159) Translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Johann G. Albrecht. "Architecture and the Disproportionate Development of Human Faculties", Journal of Architectural Education (pp.20-25), Spring, 1990: p.20. Although it is hard to summarize the various strands on "place" studies in few ideas, the following concepts are examined: "Genius Loci" by C. Noberg Schulz; "Critical Regionalism" by Kenneth Frampton; "Place and Placelessness" by Edward Relph; and "Sense of Place" by Fritz Steele. See David Seamon. (2000). Fig.7. Exterior Walls of Commercial Buildings Showing the A way of seeing people and place. In Seymour Wapner, Et al. Traces of Signboards in Shin-chon (Left: 2005, Right: 2007) (Eds), Theoretical Perspective in Environment-Behavior Research (pp.157-178). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers: Fritz Steele. (1981). The Sense of Place. Boston: CBI Publishing Company. K w a n g - S o o K im , A rc h it e c t u re o f H u g a - b a n g, h t tp : / /h o me . ewha.ac.kr/~sookim/seoulresearch/2.html http://home.ewha. th ac.kr/~sookim/seoulresearch/2.html, retrieved at March 9 2008: "Because the South Korean government did not have enough capital to develop larger scale public projects in Seoul, a 'Land Restructuring Plan' was introduced in 1966 that was designed to encourage the private development of large numbers of small scale, speculative residential and commercial buildings… The land divided up into these small lots were [sic] initially free Fig.8. Temporary Advertisements on Walls (2007) from public interest considerations, allowing private developers maximum programmatic freedom with a minimum of restrictions 5. Conclusion regarding such issues as density, height, and so on." See the daily newspaper Chosun-Ilbo (from the 1920s to the This study has explored how commercial outdoor present) published in Korea (http://srchdb1.chosun.com/pdf/ spaces in Korean cities like Seoul can be places where i_archive/ (Chosunilbo Archive), from the 1920s to the present. people actively construct a sense of attachment and In the case of Seoul's population change, Sung-Hong Kim says: belonging, and has evidenced this premise through "After the Korean War, however, the population growth rate rapidly accelerated, 1.6 million in 1955, 3.5 million in 1965, 8.4 the application of Walter Benjamin's concepts of million in 1980 and over 10 million in 1990." In Contemporary flâneur and mimesis. The singular urban phenomenon Korean Architecture: Megacity Network, by Sung-Hong Kim and represented as overpopulation and highly competitive Peter Cachola Schmal (Eds) Jovis Verlag, p.43. l o c a l c o m m e r c i a l a c t i v i t i e s r e f l e c t s E a s t - A s i a n Eric Hobsbawm. The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, modernisms that are hardly found elsewhere. Due 1914 – 1991, Vintage Books, 1994, p.346: "It is important to begin any account of the Third World with some consideration of its to the superfluous numbers of signboards in streets, demography, since the population explosion is the central fact of exterior commercial spaces are experienced as interiors its existence." where people meander around commercial streets like 9 T. G. McGee and Gisele Yasmeen. "Work, Space, and Place flâneurs. Signboards, which are the main target of this in the Cities of the East Asian Pacific Rim" in Culture and the study, are the very means of this experience, not only City in East Asia, p.67: "… the so-called 'Third World' has been urbanizing since the Second World War at a far more rapid rate. functioning as a first-hand communicative tool between The shift is also of greater demographic importance. Hundreds of sellers and buyers, but allowing passers-by to construct millions of people are involved in the shift from an agrarian to an a sense of place. The analysis of Shin-chon finally urban way of life". shows how signboards become part of everyday life Peter Rowe, East Asia Modern, p.129: "… the realm of what might and are positively utilized as a mode of identification be called 'Neon Environments' and places where no expensive holds seem to be barred typically occupy many of the outright in the built environment. Through the in-depth case public spaces along well-travelled roadways and outside major study of a Shin-choncommercial space in South Korea, transit destinations in East Asian cities" this study will contribute to the better understanding Benjamin, Walter. The Flâneur (pp.35-66), Charles Baudelaire: of the meanings of East-Asian urbanism and everyday A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, Translated by Harry Zohn, Verso, 1976, p.37. life through which the alternative discourse of the contemporary urbanism is suggested. JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek 199 12 33 Neil Leach, Camouflage, The MIT Press, 2006, p.250: "Benjamin Leach reinterprets Lacan's "mirror stage" in his book: Leach, p.137. developed this theory in two short writings, "Doctrine of the Kevin Lynch. The Image of the City, The MIT Press, 1960. S i m i l a r " a n d " O n t h e M i m e t i c F a c u l t y, " t h e l a t t e r b e i n g a Fredric, Jameson. Postmodernism, or the Logic of Late Capitalism, condensed reworking of the former." The Duke University Press, 1991, p.51. 13 36 B e n j a m i n . " D o c t r i n e o f t h e S i m i l a r " , Tr a n s l a t e d b y K n u t See Learning from Las Vegas by Venturi, Scott Brown, and Tarnowski, New German Critique, No.17, 1933, p.65. Izenour. 14 37 Leach, p.19: "What Benjamin is alluding to here is the theory of Leach, p.39. mimesis. For Benjamijn, the concept of mimesis allows for an Walter Benjamin. The Arcades project, Translated by Howard identification with the external world. … To reproduce something Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Cambridge: The Belknap Press is to step beyond mere imitation." of Harvard University Press, 2002, [K2a,4]: "Fashion, like Ibid., p.19. architecture, inheres in the darkness of the lived moment, belongs Jung, C.G. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, to the dream consciousness of the collective. The latter awakes, for Translated by R.F.C. Hull. New York: Princeton University Press, example, in advertising." 1969, p.42: "The collective unconscious is a part of the psyche I quote the phrase from Katz's article: Marc Katz. "Rendezvous … have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence in Berlin: Benjamn and Kierkegaard on the Architecture of exclusively to heredity." Repetition" (pp.1-13), The German Quarterly, Vol.71, No.1, 1998. 17 40 Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectic of Seeing, 1991, The MIT Press, Boyer, Christine. The City of Collective Memory: Its Historical p.254. Imagery and Architectural Entertainments, The MIT Press, 1994, Kim, Kwang-Hyun. Heubakhan Yoksawa Dosieui Jangso (Thin p.7. History and the Place of City), Journal of Architectural History in Jameson, pp.356-357. Korea, June 2007 pp.214-226. On other studies on the idea of place in Korean cities, see Kim, References Kwang-Soo. (2004) "Xell City" in City of The Bang: 2004 Venice 1) Benjamin, Walter. (2002) The Arcades project, Translated by Biennale 9th International Architecture Exhibition (pp.45-72), Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Cambridge: The Belknap Edited by Guyon Chung, Korean Culture & Arts Foundation. Press of Harvard University Press. "Changup Junbihaseyo? <4> - Shin-chon Sanggyun" (Are you 2) Benjamin, Walter. (1976) "The Flaneur" (pp.35-66) in Charles preparing the inauguration of a shop? <4> - Shin-chon commercial Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism, Translated power), Korea Marketing Newspaper, July 5 2004 (www.mknews. by Harry Zohn, Verso. co.kr): Translated by the author. 3) Benjamin, Walter. (1933) "Doctrine of the Similar", Translated by S e e S a - G a n g K i m . F o r m a n d M e a n i n g o f t h e O r d i n a r y Knut Tarnowski, New German Critique, No. 17. Architecture on Urban Streets. 4) Buck-Morss, Susan. (1991) The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter The number of each university: Yonsei University (19, 138), Ewha Benjamin and The Arcades Project, MIT Press. Women's University (16,124), and Sogang University (7,775): 5) Cho, Hye-Jung. (1994) Talsikmin Sidae Jisikineui Geulilkiwa Yonsei Annals, Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006, p.29. Samilgi: Hanoieseo Shinchonkkagi (Reading text and life of Yonsei University (19, 138), Ewha Women's University (16,124), intellectuals in the postcolonial age: from Hanoi to Shin-chon) and Sogang University (7,775), with the number of students: (pp.233-264), Ddo Hanaeui Munwha. Yonsei Annals, Vol. 45, No. 4, June 2006, p.29. 6) Fredric, Jameson. (1991) Postmodernism, or the Logic of Late See those essays on Shin-chon: Hye-Sook Kim. "Shin-chon Capitalism, The Duke University Press. Moonwha" (Shin-chon Culture), in Philosophy and Reality, 7) Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, no. 35, 1997, pp.89-93: Hyung-Chul Kim. "Kanpan, Idaero 1914 – 1991, Vintage Books, 1994. J o e u n g a ? " ( S i g n b o a r d , I s i t a s g o o d a s t h e n o w a d a y s ? ) , 8) Kim, Kwang-Hyun. (2007) "Heubakhan Yoksawa Dosieui Jangso" Philosophy and Reality, no. 41, 1999, pp.136-141: Young-No Ahn. (Thin history and the Place of City) (pp.214-226), Journal of "Hyuchunggurineun Shin-chon" (Shambling Shin-chon), Society Architectural History in Korea, June. Criticism, Nov & Dec 1992, pp.296-302. 9) Kim, Sa-Gang. Form and Meaning of the Ordinary Architecture The Yonsei Annals, Ibid., p.29. on Urban Streets, Master's Thesis, Yonsei University, 1999. H y u n g - C h u l K i m . H a n k u k s a h o i e u i D o d u k g a e h y u k ( M o r a l 10) Kim, Won Bae, Douglass, Mike, et al. (Eds). Culture and the City R e v o l u t i o n o f K o r e a n S o c i e t y ) , C h e o l h a k g w a H y u n s i l s a , in East Asia, Clarendon Press, 1997. 1996: "Jungbosahoieui Yunri" (Ethics of Information Society), 11) L a c a n , J a r q u e . ( 1 9 8 1 ) F o u r F u n d a m e n t a l C o n c e p t s o f Philosophy and Reality (pp.86-98), no. 30, Fall 1996. Psychoanalysis, Translated by Alan Sheridan, W.W. Norton. Hyung-Chul Kim. "Kanpan, Idaero Joeunga?" (Signboard, Is it as 12) Leach, Neil. (2006) Camouflage, The MIT Press. good as the nowadays?), Philosophy and Reality (pp.136-141), no. 13) Lynch, Kevin. (1960) The Image of the City, The MIT Press. 41, 1999, pp.138-139. 14) Paek, Seung-Han. (2008) "Commercial Architecture and Sense Hye-Jung Cho. Talsikmin Sidae Jisikineui Geulilkiwa Samilgi: of Place" in Regional Architecture and Identity in the Age of Hanoieseo Shinchonkkagi (Reading text and life of intellectuals in Globalization (pp.1343-1358), CSAAR Press. the postcolonial age: from Hanoi to Shin-chon) (pp.233-264), Ddo 15) Relph, Edward. (1976) Place and Placelessness, London: Pion. Hanaeui Munwha, 1994. 16) Rowe, Peter. East Asia Modern: Shaping the Contemporary City, Cho, Ibid., p.234. Reaktion Books, 2005. See Seung-Han Paek. "Commercial Architecture and Sense of 17) Ve n t u r i , R o b e r t , B r o w n , D e n i s e S c o t t , a n d I z e n o u r, S t e v e . Place" (2008): Study on Meaning of Architecture throughout Learning from Las Vegas, MIT Press, 1972. Architectural Experience in Shin-chon Commercial Area (2006). See Certeau, Michel de. The Practice of Everyday Life, Translated by Steven F. Rendall, University of California Press, 1984. S e e h i s e s s a y " T h e Wo r k o f A r t i n t h e a g e o f M e c h a n i c a l Reproduction" in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, Edited by Hannah Arendt and translated by Harry Zohn, New York: Schocken Books, 1968. 200 JAABE vol.7 no.2 November 2008 Seung Han Paek
Journal
Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering
– Taylor & Francis
Published: Nov 1, 2008
Keywords: Korean Commercialism; sense of place; Shin-chon; Walter Benjamin; flâneur; mimesis
