The lkl korea Trip 2010

Tuesday 4 May: Interviews, day 2

14. Seoul Design Foundation interview (40%) (Research on programme for the year, check against notes)

More interviews today. First, the Seoul Design Foundation. We enter an anonymous office block, and ascend to the ninth floor. Exiting the lifts, the signature colour on the wall is the fashionable lime green which seems to be used in all this year's kitchen design catalogues. It's a busy office, with lots of energy. We have come to meet Ken Nah, Director General of World Design Capital Seoul 2010. It's a job he manages to combine with his teaching responsibilities at Hongik University, where he lectures in design management.
What is the first thing you notice about Korean architecture as you make the long road journey into Seoul from Incheon? Probably the identical apartment blocks which cling to the side of the hills. Their only distinguishing feature is that they have different numbers on the side. To many visitors they seem monotonous, uninspiring and slightly tired. At the time of their construction the priority was to provide much-needed accommodation for Seoul's rapidly growing population, and in that respect they have undoubtedly served their purpose.
But as if to mark a break from this utilitarian past, Seoul's new design guidelines require all new buildings to have new features. Or put another way, no new property can be identical to another one. [Check with Nah. Is it a guideline or a law?]
It is a commonplace that Korea in general and Seoul in particular has changed rapidly over the past 50 years and continues to change rapidly. Ken Nah's task is to embed design in Seoulite's everyday life, a task which...
Seoul's last Mayor, Lee Myung-bak, started the improvement in Seoul's environment by getting rid of the Chonggyecheon expressway and reopening the stream as a breath of fresh air through the heart of downtown Seoul. Other urban projects to improve the environment were the greening of Seoul's forests. The current mayor, Oh Se-Hoon, has taken over where Lee left off, but while Lee's programmes had to bulldoze their way against protest and incredulity, Oh has made design and the environment part of the organisational structure of the city administration, with a Deputy Mayor specifically responsible for design. There is a green project (which speaks for itself) and a blue project – opening up the banks of the River Han for recreation and exercise. As a brief example, in the course of a light night stroll along the river I saw, where in London would be threatening youths loitering or skateboarding, an exercise area where ajummas and ajoshis were working out on the equipment. And where in London would be the eyesore of competing graffiti, under the road bridge was a portrait of Korea's favourite sporting heroine, Kim Yeon-ah. This may not be a direct result of the central push, but is indicative of [something]
Nah's aim is to embed design into everything that Seoul does, from a state where people are not interested in design or think it is a fancy optional extra, to a situation where it is part of the process of everything that is done and improves people’s lives.
I couldn't resist the question: if Seoul can care so much about its environment that it can pass a micro-managing regulation that every new building should be different from the last, why can it not pass a regulation to preserve some of the unique traditional neighbourhoods which used to add variety to the urban landscape but which are rapidly being lost for ever? This is clearly not Mr Nah's brief, though I can tell that he is saddened by, for example, the destruction of the Pimatgol neighbourhood. The fact is, that when a multi-storey building is worth so much more than a single-storey one, there is money to be made from knocking down traditional housing.
Garosu-gil in Agpujongdong

15. Meeting Ms Kim

Although I’m very proud of the organisation I work for – a multinational company with a long heritage - I try to keep my Korean hobby and my day job separate. But I thought that as I was in Seoul I ought to pay a visit to some of my local colleagues: one day I might need their help. So I arranged to have lunch with the local head of communications, Ms Kim (not her real name). She’s someone with a truly international outlook, having worked overseas for a European industrial company for many years. She’s now got the job of managing media relations, internal communications and corporate social responsibility for the Korean operations of the organisation I work for.
We have the normal get-to-know you conversation, and chat about the challenges and rewards of doing business in Korea. But it’s the third part of her job remit which interests me most: for corporate social responsibility includes things like art sponsorship.
One of the pleasures of running LKL is the occasional off-the-wall question I get asked by visitors to the site. When I first logged in to my email account on arriving in Seoul a few days previously I received the following random query:
“I am trying my hand at making Korean fighting kites. A friend is visiting Seoul on business in a week’s time and has kindly said he will try and get me the real thing. Do you know of the address of any shops or kite makers in Seoul where he could buy a traditional bamboo and paper Korean fighting kite, and especially, if any would speak English.”
A while ago in London the Korean Cultural Centre had an exhibition by some of Seoul’s finest craftsmen and women – holders of the city’s intangible cultural properties. I recalled that one of the exhibits was a traditional Korean kite.
And now Ms Kim was telling me that as part of her remit she tries to support some of Seoul’s intangible cultural property holders.
Before I know it, I have the name and phone number of the holder of Seoul’s intangible cultural property number 4 (traditional kite making) together with details of an Insadong store which sells his kites, which I immediately send to my interested reader.
Job done. And I had a very nice lunch into the bargain. Thank you, Ms Kim.