2005-2162

Korean Artist
are all the
traditional buildings?”
“Where
That’s the
question that ends up on the lips of
some foreigners who visit Korea for the
first time with high hopes of indulging
themselves in the trappings of old Asia.
Such a response is understandable
considering the massive and hasty
industrialization of the 1960s and ’70s
destroyed many of Korea’s traditional
houses, known here as hanok.
A reminder of old and impoverished
times past, many hanok were demolished
and replaced with modern, Western-style
apartment buildings, many
bleak and featureless.
Data show that more than 50 percent
of Korean people now live in these
apartment buildings. In Seoul alone,
home to more than 10 million people
caption — about a quarter of the country’s population
— only about 14,000 hanok are
known to have survived.
Yet in recent years, the old houses
have found themselves enjoying newfound
attention.
The central government has taken
note of their rich potential as tourist
attractions, certifying one hanok village
after another. Architects, meanwhile,
have fallen in love with their architec-
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