Just a few pics from Changsin-dong, just to the north of Dongdaemun, in the park that runs along the wall.
And a little something from the Dongdaemun Design Plaza.
My typical view on the way to the subway in the morning.
Category: architecture
A couple of days ago, temperatures in Seoul plunged to around minus-14 or so at night. Not fun. But, on the flipside, that means the streets are much less crowded than usual. And unlike other years, the pollution out of China has not been very bad.
Here are a couple of pictures from the Cheonggyecheon, during my lunchtime walk.
And the DDP looks rather mysterious with a little layer of snow on it.
And another view of the DDP, from a couple of days earlier.
Here’s a view of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza that I took this morning through a dirty window.
And another from last night.
Well, it looks like Yongsan’s electronics market, Jeonja Land, has seen better days. I took a walk there a couple of days ago, looking to pick up a couple of things, in what was probably my first trip there in five years. It wasn’t pretty. I guess the Internet age and online shopping has pretty much killed the need for a giant cluster of electronics (especially overpriced electronics sold by surly, dodgy shopkeepers).
On the other hand, there are more old vinyl shops on the second floor than ever. That’s pretty cool.
Yongsan’s old main building (where, if memory serves, I bought a 166 MHz computer for around $1,000 back in 1998) is all closed now. It is only open so you can access the walkway to Yongsan Station.
Here’s the biggest building in Korea.
Well, it would have been, if the development project hadn’t fallen through.
Even the new electronics market in the main Yongsan Station building is not in very good shape. The area set aside for electronics keeps getting smaller, while other types of shopping move in and take up the slack.
After shopping I did some walking around in the stretch from Yongsan to Seoul stations. Most of the old colonial buildings are gone now (not that they were in great shape before), but you can find a few here and there. I think what I like most about that neighborhood is the random things you run across. Like this Lotte E&C site, which apparently uses some old building.
It’s a neighborhood full of these sorts of little alleys, with a mix of old buildings and exposed wires.
And, as an added bonus, here’s a great door. Yes, up there on the third floor, with the little gate in front of it. I can only assume there used to be a fire escape there or another building or the like that was torn down.
That’s all. Just a random walk and a bit of shopping in a cool part of town that has seen better days.
I don’t want to say much about the Ailee photo “scandal” (because embarrassing photos are not really a scandal). But I will add two things:
- The website that broke the “news” was neither ethnical nor journalistic. But, then, they started as a K-pop troll site, so people shouldn’t have expected anything different. Best to ignore them and move on.
- I’m quite impressed how Korea seems to be lined up squarely behind Ailee and against the people who leaked and published the photos. Ten years ago, maybe that wouldn’t have been the result. Way too many foreigners (dumb foreigners) really misread how Koreans would react (yet again).
As for some real news:
- The newest branch of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art — Seoul has just opened. There are some pretty funky looking exhibitions, and the building itself is pretty wonderful. Well worth checking out. But demand is expected to be high, so you might want to schedule a reservation at the MMCA — Seoul website before going down, at least for the next couple of weeks (Korea JoongAng Daily).
- MMCA — Seoul English website is here. But I don’t think the reservation option is working on the English section yet.
- There’s a new issue of the MMCA’s magazine Art:Mu. Which includes a translation of their interview with actor Lee Jun, star of Rough Play. (Art:Mu)
- The last issue of Art:Mu also had translated interviews with MMCA curator Yoo Joon Sang and architect Choi Moon-gyu (who did the Ssamziegil complex in Insa-dong)
- And, since I’m on an Art:Mu kick, here are interviews with Face Reader director Han Jae-rim and actor/director Ha Jung-woo and artist U-Ram Choe.
- Sorry, one more Art:Mu link — I had no idea the people behind Salon Jebi in Hongdae were part of such a big urban community, Cultural Topography Research.
- Interesting interview with Seoul mayor Park Won-soon (not Art:Mu … it’s the Korea JoongAng Daily)
Hard to believe that the Busan Cinema Center is finally opening. I think I first wrote about it — and its ambitious architecture by Coop Himmelb(l)au — way back in 2005. But despite the odds, Busan actually built the $143 million movie haven, pretty much as first envisioned. You can read about it here (with some good video) and here (more pics). And plenty of pics here, of course.
Here are a couple pics of the Cinema Center under construction. Doesn’t it look like the USS Enterprise in dry dock?
One of the more interesting artistic spaces in Seoul, imho, is Kunsthalle, the stack of shipping containers located close to the Dosan Park Intersection in Gangnam. And they are having their one-year anniversary party this weekend, April 8-10.
Each day from 5pm until 3am will feature events, music, dancing and plenty more. Saturday will also have brunch from noon to 5pm. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Kunsthalle has hosted a wide range of artistic events and other cool stuff since it opened last April (it was event host to the Korean Music Awards on March 30). Set up by the Berlin artistic group Platoon (they call themselves a “movement”), this is an attempt to blend the artistic and the political into a seamless entity. Or, I suspect, it is a cool way to meet girls. Whatever, I think it is worth checking out and supporting.
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Oh, and over at my main website, I talk about Seoul Fashion Week, the recent article about it in the New York Times, and Korean design in general.
In keeping with the architectural theme today over at the Marmot’s Hole, I thought I would link to the March issue of Wallpaper magazine, which featured a look at 19 major buildings in and around Seoul, either in the works or recently completed.
Another link is here (almost the same, but also includes a link to a gallery about the Seoul Design Olympiad of last fall). And here is one more story from that issue, but that I could not find on the actual Wallpaper website.
Don’t forget, Seoul is on deck to become the World Design Capital in 2010, taking over from Turin, Italy.
Hey there, aspiring architects. Korea’s coolest architectural house, Mass Studies, is looking for interns. Come work at the firm that is designing the new Seoul City Hall (and oodles of interesting stuff all over the world).
Young-hee and the Pullocho
Young-hee stumbles into a magical world, where the fairy stories of her childhood are real and all the frustrations of her everyday life fade away — until her little brother is kidnapped by a goblin. The only way Young-hee can save him is by finding a magical plant called a pullocho, but little does she realize the fate of a whole world hangs in the balance.
On sale now at:
Amazon
Pop Goes Korea
Pop Goes Korea: Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture (2nd edition) is the only English-language book to examine the whole of Korea's entertainment industry and how it became such a powerhouse over the past 20 years. With profiles of many of Korea's top stars (including Lee Byung-hun and Rain), Pop Goes Korea features chapters on movies, music, television, comic books, the Internet, and more.
On sale now at:
Amazon.com
Kobo eBooks
And hopefully more ebooks stores very soon.
The original edition of Pop Goes Korea is now out of print.
K-Pop Now!
K-Pop Now! takes a fun look at Korea’s high-energy pop music, and is written for its growing legions of fans. It features all the famous groups and singers, and takes an insider’s look at how they have made it to the top.
You can buy at:
Amazon.com
Chapters Indigo
Tuttle (my publisher)
Kyobo Books (in Korea)
Goodreads (not for buying, but still a good link)