The supporting policy for hanok (a traditional Korean house) in Seoul has been greatly expanded. Recently, the policy limited to the registered hanok in the area designated as a hanok area is expanding to the entire city of Seoul. In this process, the...
The supporting policy for hanok (a traditional Korean house) in Seoul has been greatly expanded. Recently, the policy limited to the registered hanok in the area designated as a hanok area is expanding to the entire city of Seoul. In this process, the Seoul government extended the designation of hanok concentration district with three increased area in 2016, and highlights the cultural heritage value of the hanok as a result. The modern hanok residential area in 166 Ikseon-dong has been designated as a hanok concentration area according to this social trend and is currently establishing a district unit plan as an expected preservation district in 2016. However, the hanok area of Ikseon-dong which has been more than 80 years since the foundation of the hanok village was introduced through broadcast media, and then has become a big issue and recently begun to undergo rapid changes. Over sixty residential houses, they have been changed to commercial facilities such as cafes, workshops, and restaurants.
The physical transformation of the original hanok has been preserved in the process.
This physical transformation is done without any legal prescription for the preservation of the hanok, and the hanok’s conservation value has not been also clarified. In this study, the conservation value of Ikseon-dong is analyzed from the following three points: ① roads and lots, ② persons related to Ikseon-dong, ③ the types regarding the composition of building plans and roofs.
This thesis notices the formation background and process of the modern hanok district in Ikseon-dong through the division of roads and lots, and, on the basis of old land registers disused, it reconstructs the foundation procedure of Ikseon-dong hanok area according to the passage of time. In this process, the social activities in the 1920s and 1930s of Park Young-Hyo and Jeong Se-Kwon identified as owners are investigated and their great effects on the formation of Ikseon-dong housing area. In addition, this research investigates the architectural characteristics of the Ikseon-dong hanok and then organizes the influence on the modern hanok district that has been formed since 1936.
Through this process, the value of residence in Ikseon-dong hanok can be summarized into three views.
The first is that the Ikseon-dong hanok area is the only “planned residence” that was built before 1936. All of hanok district formed before the enactment of the 1936 Keijo City Planning naturally occurred adapting the existing road and lot system. Of course, In Bukchon and Jongno areas, the large lot developments like Ikseon-dong were done, but, unlike Ikseon-dong, their applied scope is limited to the division of lots.
The second is that “the only settlement where the 1920s Keijo City Planning was realized” is 166 Ikseon-dong. In the 1920s, the Keijo Urban Planning Research Group will present three alternative plans for the Keijo City Planning. However, the suggested proposals could not be realized and just remain as plans. Nonetheless, the road proposed in the second plan is almost consistent with the road system of the Ikseon-dong district. In addition, the Keijo Urban Planning Research Group which presented these proposals seems to be closely related to the development of Ikseon-dong in social and political terms.
Finally, the value of the third residence of the Ikseon-dong hanok district is that it played an exclusive role as “a sample of the modern hanok residential area” constructed after 1936. The “assembled C-shaped” composition mainly in Ikseon-dong appears in different urban projects afterwards. The same house type occur in the house plans of Anam-dong and Bomun-dong in Donam district as the first residential area developed due to the land compartmentalization rearrangement project in 1937. In the case of Yongdu-dong built much later, the house plan of the more developed structure appears on the basis of this “assembled C-shaped” configuration.
To conclude, this study will provide a wide view of the formation background and process of modern hanok district in Ikseon-dong. The value of Ikseon-dong interpreted through this analysis will be a standard for preserving the Ikseon-dong hanok district in the future. Therefore, this study is expected to be a comparative study in determining the principle of conservation of hanok in Ikseon-dong and studying the relevant field of modern hanok districts in the future.