인간과 자연의 화해

Reconcilement between Human & Nature - Beyond the National Architecture

Modernity means the system of thought which separates human beings and nature. The masters of modern architecture believed that they could reconstruct human nature by remodeling space and environment people were living in. During the 20th century, the environmental determinism had directed the methodology of our architecture. However, this way of thinking could result in a cultural and political risk of manipulating human living through architecture. We should not forget that power, even the most violent one, had tried to justify its legitimacy and control the world by persuading people by constructing buildings and cities. Every society, especially the pluralistic contemporary society, is. not based on a single and permanent rule but on ever changing and deconstructing process. If we agree that the trivial everyday life becomes the factor of this change, the modernism way of thought should be overcome. The space of the contemporary era should be neutral and light. Architecture could achieve its identity in relation to the environment. Korean traditional architectures and cities are open to nature, which gives a good lesson to us. In this essay, I try to warn to the distorted tendencies to focus just on the symbolic forms of our traditional architecture forgetting the mentality and reality inside of it being blinded by cultural nationalism.