Korean Job Discussion Forums

JacktheCat · Joined: 08 May 2004

Ever wonder about the monolithic Korean government architecture style?

Yongsan subway station, War museum, et al. So huge and overbearing. Way, way bigger than is functional necessary. So un-Asian in style.

And yet, so strangly familiar somehow.

I know I had seen buildings like this somewhere. Just couldn't quite place it.

Today, after many months, it finally hit me.
Idea

Albert Spear Idea

Korean government buildings are dead ringers for the designs of Albert Spear, the infamous Reich's Minister of the Interior and the Furher's favorite architect.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

Please don't insult Speer's memory like that. Thank you.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

The north Koreans are the ones who are really carried away with this style. The Independence Hall of Korea out side of Ch'oan is another one. Man is that place massive and over done.

That said, a lot of modern Korean culture is over done, over produced (ever watch one of those music shows?) and over hyped (hub of asia), and over rated (Korea's four seasons). It really is and over culture, but in a twisted way you learn to like it all.

JacktheCat · Joined: 08 May 2004

Oops.

Yes, his name is spelled Albert Speer. SPEER. And his post in the Third Reich was Minister of Armaments, not Interior.

See what i get for posting late late at night.

Brilliant architect and sadistically efficient administrator that he may have been, Speer was still a war criminal and was lucky to only get 25 years in prison at the Nuremburg trials and not the gallows.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

JacktheCat,
Go to the Independance Museum of Korea that is outside of Cheonan(an hour or so south of Seoul). It is a massive structure and very impressive.

Also very interesting i must say.

Dr. Buck · Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Location: Land of the Morning Clam

The buildings reflect the building materials:

Korea is the land of cheap cement, and like dwoenjang and gochoojang, they are applied liberally on everything. Korean architecture is as umimaginative and uninspiring as its culinary tradition. The landscape is a blight of dull cement.

And all of that cement being poured is this country's ecological apocalypse.

HardyandTiny · Joined: 03 Jun 2003

It's so sad, it's unstoppable, I gave up on it years ago. It kills me everytime I see them knocking down the old homes for apartment complexes. I gave up. No one understands.