Banking facilities were deeply related to the colonial rule of the Japanese imperialism. This means architectural research on banking facilities can be valuable materials, which show the process of modernization and economic status of the city it stan...
Banking facilities were deeply related to the colonial rule of the Japanese imperialism. This means architectural research on banking facilities can be valuable materials, which show the process of modernization and economic status of the city it stands. In other words, architectural trait of banking facilities can be geared with the circumstances of the certain area. Existing studies on banking facilities were rather focused on banking history than building itself. This kind of tilted researches may blur the architectural value of the banking facilities and mistreat them just as “a place where banking activities were being made”. Therefore, we need a study showing the architectural characteristics while based on the understandings of banking history.
Since we have only a few studies on architectural traits of the period of Japanese occupation, research on currently existing banking facilities and establishment of research methodology should be preceded.
Accordingly, I’m going to suggest a multi-dimensional research, which spans from the formation process to the external trait of the architecture instead of remaining at the one-dimensional aspect of ‘unusual peculiarity’.
This study was made along research on size, arrangement, planar/elevational/structural trait of the architectures located in Gwangju, chonnam. The result of the investigation can be summarized as follows.
The banking system of Chosun Dynasty should be understood as the transplant of Japanese colonial policy rather than historical process of development. In this sense of framework, the banking facilities located in Gwangju, Chonnam had taken the role to boost the economy of the city with the development in agriculture and industry, after opening the Mokpo Port to Japanese trade. Many banking facilities were built but only 16 currently remain.
The first banking facility appeared in Gwangju, chonnam was the Gwangju Agriculture-Industry Bank, in August 6 of 1906. After this, the first local banking union was established in 1907 in Gwangju. Also, the Mokpo branch of Oriental Development Company was established in 1909, in Youngsanpo, according to the opening of Mokpo port to Japanese trade.
The architectural trait of the banking facilities is as follows.
1) Most of them were built along the coast, big market, or the shopping quarters where currency transactions were frequently happening. This shows size of the banking facility differs by the economic status of the region it locates.
The facilities have official residence and a night duty room as attached buildings. The arrangement was either 3 mass type or 2 mass type. The mid-sized 3mass type followed a Dutch-lab method, which the banking facility, official residence, and the duty room aligned in a straight line. Meantime, the large-sized 2 mass type was a front-rear arrangement, which includes the attached buildings as one.
2) Most of the plane of the investigated facilities were + type. It is because of the protrusion of the dual main entrance, rear side of the document room, and the vault. As the floor planning of the business place and floor ratio appears as 3:1, it indicates the facility was clerk-oriented rather than a customer-oriented plan. The other reasons may be because post-approval system was applied at that time, or because they aimed to get more profit by larger circulation of currency.
3) The elevation of the architecture was designed to draw attention while not being light since it was a banking facility. Accordingly, the concentricity was emphasized, thus, door, window, strip were placed symmetrically around the central entrance.
Decoration of the architecture may be divided as classical quasi-western style and compromising style in wooden structure.
4) The structural trait is as follows. First, most of the banking facilities located in Gwangju, Chonnam are worked in masonry. It might be because concrete became precious as the Japanese government announced wartime system. Therefore, concrete were only used partially for the floor or foundation of the wooden building or masonry buildings.
The roof was made by truss to protect from the damages caused by natural calamities. The bottom side of the roof was connected by wooden panel, thus, ventilating window was required for the roofing system. Accordingly, small-sized ventilating window appeared at the front, rear, and center side of the building.
In this study, I aimed to elicit the architectural trait based on practical survey on banking facilities of Gwangju, Chonnam. I hope this study can remind the architectural value of the buildings which have been damaged or removed due to lack of management. Furthermore, I hope it can be a basic material for planning of banking facilities. The weak point of this research is that the general traits were elicited from a few case studies. Also, I should have considered the character and aim of each building but due to the shortage of examples all was just understood nothing more than a banking facility. Therefore, further researches should consider the insufficient parts of this study.