Changgyeonggung Palace

A friend from South Africa is visiting, so yesterday we decided to go do some site seeing. First we went to the Seoul National Museum of Science, which turned out to be a children's museum. There were some interesting displays of physics in action, but over all it was pretty disappointing. Right next to the museum is Changgyeonggung Palace, one of the five great Joseon palaces in Seoul and actually one that I have not been to before. While the palace itself is pretty consistent with the other Joseon palaces, what stood out to me was the beautiful gardens surrounding it. It is probably one of the most peaceful royal retreats in Seoul. Since it was raining I didn't take photos of the gardens -- it's a bit difficult to hold an umbrella and shoot with the camera at the same time. I did, however, take some photos of parts of the palace buildings.

Ancient Korean Colours and Patterns

Thailand: Grand Palace

Some photos of the Grand Palace and surrounding architecture -- Bangkok, Thailand.

"By the Door" by Yann Kerloc'h

I liked this short video (about 2 minutes) by Yann Kerloc'h, posted at The Three Monkeys. It is simply a couple of shots of different angles of one of the grand doors at one of the palaces in Korea, presumably Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul. There is something relaxing about it -- as if you are a fly against a wall, or a CCTV camera just looking, but with no real objective or focus. You are just staring out in front of you. The fact that you are at one of the great historical sites in Korea seems somewhat accidental. At the same time the creaking of the big wooden door creates a sinister tension with the tourists that are going on their merry way, seemingly oblivious to the moans and groans of the ancient door.


By the door from Yann Kerloc'h on Vimeo.

Apgujeong, Café Tilt, and Kim Yuna

Yesterday I went to Apgujeong, one of my favourite places in Korea. A favourite, in part, because it is kinda my “hometown.” Those of you familiar with Korea / Koreans would know that a Korean person’s hometown has special significance. Usually your hometown is where you were born and raised. (If your parents moved a lot, some people choose their place of birth as their hometown, while others choose the place they spend the most time as children.) Korean people often return to their hometown on special occassions like Lunar New Year and Korean Thanksgiving. The first time I came to Korea I lived in Gangnamgucheon / Apgujeong area. Everytime I go there the familiarity has an hominess to it, so I’ve adopted this area as my Korean “hometown.”

I spend the day walking around, looking at the unaffordable beautiful clothes, beautiful cars, and beautiful people. Not only are the people in Apgujeong area particularly fashionable, they truly are more beautiful. There beauty is not surprising if you take into account all the plastic surgery clinics in the area. Seeing as I suffer from a light case of cacophoby (a fear of ugly things), Apgujeong is a wonderful place to hang around.It also features more interesting architecture than one would see typically in Korea.

One of my stops was at Café Tilt. I’ve been intrigued by this coffee shops ever since I saw the captivating architectural lines of the building the first time, around two years ago. I’ve always wanted to go there but every time I went to the area I had other agendas. However, yesterday I was in no rush to get back and decided to stop by the Café Tilt and just enjoy I nice cup of hot chocolate.
Unfortunately the captivating angled lines that make the building so mesmerising from the outside is not adequately repeated by the interior. While it is still a pretty decent coffee shop, the contents does not live up to the fancy packaging.

Be that as it may, while waiting for my hot chocolate some beautiful music was playing. An enchanting voice filled the room. I immediately asked the waitress who the singer is. Of course I did this in very broken Korean: 노래—누구에요? (“Singing—person who?”). She quickly checked and told me it is Kim Yuna (김윤아). Another client standing by told me that Kim Yuna is actually the vocalist for the band Jaurim (자우림), but that she also has a solo career.

In the YouTube-video below, Kim Yuna sings the song “Going Home” from her latest solo album, titled “315360.” (I have no idea what the numbers represent.) The second video is a song by Jaurim. I really like their sound. The third video features Kim Yuna with Drunken Tiger (드렁큰 타이거), Korea's foremost rapper.

Estetiese argitektuur en ander toertjies

Aanvanklik het ek nie veel belang gestel in argitektuur nie. Toe ek my honneursgraad in Engels gedoen het en ek 'n vak uit die Kunsgeskiedeniskurrikulum kon kies was Argitektuur een van die opsie. Wel, dit was geensins 'n opsie vir my nie. Ek het glad nie daarin belang gestel nie. Ek het eerder Drie-dimensionele objekte (Postmoderne beeldhoukuns) gekies. Maar hoe meer die jare aanstap, hoe groter raak my belangstelling in argitektuur. Onder is paar oulike fasades en interesante wolkekrabbertorings wat my aandag getrek het... wat enige een se aandag sal trek.

Staab Argitekte se FLARE-fasade in Berlyn



Ned Kahn's Technorama-fasade in Switserland:



Mader Stublić Wiermann se Uniqa-toring in Vienna:



Jacques Ferrier se konsepsiële Hipergroen-toring ("Hypergreen"):



Die Roterendetoring gekontrakteer vir Dubai; David Fisher se "Dynamic Architecture":

Gate

In this photo one can see another angle of the wall separating the outer and inner courtyards of a Korean palace. The grand structure in the middle with the curved roofs is a gate. The four pillars are similar to the pillars in the previous photo. Unfortunately, because of air pollution and bad photography the the upper roof is not too clear; however, note the little bumps on the roof. These are actually little critters, similar to gargoyles in Western architecture. If I remember correctly, these little creatures are called Haetae, and are mythological Oriental creatures, some of them recognisable as lions, monkeys, rats, frogs, and the like. And like gargoyles they are probably there as guardians, intended to ward off evil spirits. The curved roofs are unique to this architectural style and is supposed to give a balanced and natural feel, almost like the slopes of a mountain.

Palace Doors

This photo shows the humongous wooden doors separating the outer court from the inner court of a palace in Seoul. Note the rich terracotta-red colour, the distinctive colour used for these structures. In this photo it looks slightly more orange because the photo was taken at sunset. At the top of the photo you can see the decoration I spoke about in the previous post.

Dongdaemun

Apgujeong Architecture

While studying History of Art, architecture did not interest me much. But in the last couple of years this has changed dramatically. I suppose it was because I took architecture for granted. Upon my first Korea experience one of the things that seriously irritated me was the blunt and boring architecture. Everywhere one sees these creative-less slabs of rectangular ugliness. It was probably then that I started to appreciate architecture more.

So in the past two or so years I’ve started to take note. Look at lines and curves. Value shadows and reflections. Appreciate diversity and design. Following are some beautiful buildings I came across over the past weekend – all of them from the Apgujeong area.




This last building with its babelian curves is actually still under construction. I look forward to its completion. At the institute where I worked before, I used to look out of my classroom window onto the cranes on the horizon that were busy with the construction of this building. It was a nice surprise to return now and see what a beautiful construction they were busy with all that time.