Critical Design Approach and the Emergence of South Korean Urban Design in the 1960s

Abstract

Rather than the simple adaption of Western design principles to the Korean context, this paper explicates how a unique critical urban design methodology evolved in Korea in the 1960s. Even as the era was a time of major transition and development, most research has offered limited discourse on the topic, imposing a straightforward reading where Japanese colonial influence is supplanted by Western logics. Through the example of the brief but intense activities of the Housing, Urban and Regional Planning Institute (HURPI), this paper offers a more detailed understanding that focuses on the 'how' rather than the 'what' of HURPI's significance. Through first-hand interviews with HURPI director Oswald Nagler and senior member Sung Chull Hong, the research of the institute is revealed as promoting dialectical 'critical design' methodologies that resulted in a sophisticated synthesis of diverse influences from Western, Korean, and Japanese Sources. Moreover, the modes of critical design methods are further analyzed in a recently discovered brochure on HURPI's defining research and pilot projects published by the Ministry of Construction.