Séoul, Kim Sugŭn et le groupe Espace (Konggan) : 1960-1990

Overview & Synopsis

Our field of inquiry was designed as a triptych encompassing, 1) nationalism and cultural identity in contemporary South Korea, their origins, themes and actors ; 2) a prominent South Korean architect and the movement he founded, Konggan, that was influential in both the realm of cultural life and urban design ; 3) the urban landscapes of modern Seoul and what they do tell us from evelopment processes and social values, from the point of view of a would-be “Korean” urban identity -- between 1960 and 1990.Those three sub-topics tally with three major sections in the dissertation, two of which being assessed over the long run of Korean culture and city life.Through Kim's elaborate set of ideas, embodied in spatial and architectural icons that were borrowed from a re-designed classical civilization of Korea, we could make a connection between the nation and a city. Seoul, the six-hundred-year-old capital-city of Korea, was the main stake in this interaction between cultural symbols and material landscapes.Eventually we gave new insights into the function of cultural élites in the modernization of South Korea and the role of its contemporary cultural nationalism ; we portrayed an individual whose actions and ideas were instrumental in shaping Seoul's identity ; we reassessed the supposed disorder of city landscapes, which cannot be that simply put in the mold of a "tradition vs modernity" formula.