ARCHITECTURE and HERITAGE

Seoul has had to cope with the burden of losing culturally specific and symbolically historic urban forms. The most recent example would be the demolition of the National Musuem of Korea, which was formally the central government building under colonial rule. Some people wanted it to remain as a historic landmark and other wanted it gone because of what it symbolized: "It has to go because it is eating away at the Korean spirit."

Government officals have explained the demolition as an effort to reclaim lost cultural heritage. They feel that in Korea's rush to recover from the war and push toward rapid growth, cultural preservation was overshadowed by economic urgency, like in the monotonous apartment complexes built to accomodate Seoul's shortage of housing.

Today Seoul is filled with western style architecture, post modern international skyscrapers, and corporate office buildings, as well as traditional Korean architecure in the forms of palaces, gates, and temples.

Seoul, a city that is on track to achieving world status, cannot afford to lose or forget the struggle and triumph that is symbolized in the landscape. The attempt to take away its great heritage was tried before. The remembrance and strength of a capital and country that has sustained a long and successful life comes through as nationalism. As Korea's involvment in the world economy and Seoul as it's link develops, this may be one of the most important things that will allow the city to celebrate as the distinct cultural, political, and social site it has always been.

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