Plastic Space: Temporary Impossibilities in Seoul
by Christian Schweitzer


Architectural design and discourse in Seoul employs the same terminology used in the western world. Yet on closer inspection, these terms have a very specific and far more radical meaning in the Korean context. In other words, both what we know and do not know has no relevance in Seoul. Everything is “sucked up” and “swallowed by” this overwhelming urban organism. Seoul stretches what we think we know about architecture to a point where that knowledge dissolves into an abstraction, disconnected completely from any pre-determined terminology.

Time: In Seoul time is not linear. It seems to exist only as a highly compressed single moment where everything happens simultaneously. The very idea of creating a building is already laced with obsolescence. Indeed the speed at which the city is built and rebuilt makes terms like constancy or continuity irrelevant. Here the architect has to provide a solution to a problem before it is even uttered. A similar disparity is encountered when considering the lifespan of a building in contrast to the value of the ground on which it sits. Compared to its site, the value of a building is so low that it has no influence on its very right to exist. In this regard every building in Seoul may be thought of as a temporary structure.

Context: On first glance, in Seoul the ‘existing’ radically withdraws itself from economies of design communication and difference within an existing context. On second glance an all-embracing sameness is revealed despite an ostensible heterogeneity where everything refuses to relate to anything, only focused on itself and its own advantages. In Seoul thee is the endless repetition of the same building being programmed to whatever current user behaviour is needed. Therefore every building in this infinite chain becomes exchangeable, never leaving a gap after its replacement. Such endless repetition reduces the notion of context ad absurdum.

Function: Seoul is flexibly multi-functional. The function and program of a building might change at any time even during construction. The Seoul built environment is able to adapt to anything and everything only to abandon its course in the very next moment. Therefore Seoul is widely indeterminate: functions shift, overlap and exchange in complete disconnection from built structures. This disjunction insures the extinction of any specific function. Building, designing and developing has to be flexible to let anything happen anytime or anywhere. Otherwise a building becomes an interference factor in the city.

Space: In Seoul space seems flat. Space is reduced to basic development limits, from the standard thickness of a wall to the barest separation between interior and exterior. No other form of space seems to exist. Even walls are opportunistically utilized as information carriers, or storage, or privacy screens, shifting the idea of a wall from the spatial to a reductively functional – not only separating its self but disconnecting between the spaces on either side of it. Consequentially Seoul seems like a continuous interiority, making impossible any reference point for one to see oneself in relation to the city. In Seoul, if you are inside a building you are anywhere and nowhere at once. The quality of space is not relational but an abstract idea of space relating only unto itself.

Form: Form-generating methodologies developed for un-related contexts are applied in Seoul almost randomly, disconnected from any underlying theoretical motivation. In this regard form is no longer generated, but rather it is applied. This begs a subtle but crucial distinction. Form as the expression of an idea is reduced to form as the expression of form. Therefore it might be said that Seoul has abandoned the question of form in urban architecture. Form disconnected from content, idea, and methodology, self-determinedly excuses and excludes itself from the architectural design process. Form in Seoul ‘just is’, whatever the implications of that might be.

Material: In a multifunctional, indeterminate environment such as Seoul the question of material becomes a purely circumstantial one. Material might be used according to availability, and not necessarily even in terms of price. Simply, the possibility of material expression is undercut. Because a building exists only in the present moment, questions of durability, sustainability, or long-term maintenance do not arise and an unbridled palette of materials can be applied. Ironically given the coupling of seemingly infinite choice and a diminished responsibility to deal in, say, tectonic ethics, Seoul has vastly expanded material vocabulary. For example, a simple plastic foil has the ability to outlast conventional materials and to communicate more freely and more relevantly than established ones.

With these observations in mind, fundamental questions arise. How can one design a building that does not want to be anything, that does not want to relate to anything, that does not want to represent anything? How can one design a building that essentially has no function, no economic life expectancy, or no value to anyone?



published in studioplex volume 1: architecture, a timely matter,
pp. 220-227

ソウルでは、設計や論文における建築専門用語は韓国の
文脈に極めて固有的である。ソウルでは我々の知識が抽
象概念に分解され、既定の用語から完全に切り離される所
まで拡大解釈されている。

時間：ソウルでは時間は直線的でなく、すべてのことが同時
に起こる、高圧縮された唯一の瞬間として存在するように
思える。建物を創造するということが既に古い考えである。
都市の更新が速すぎて、不変性や連続性はもはやない。

文脈：ソウルにある既存建築物はそれぞれ個性があるのだ
が、包括的にはよく似ている。建物使用者が絶え間なく変
わり続けるので、この連鎖の中にある建物は交換可能とな
り、交換後にいかなるズレも残さない。こうした繰り返しが
文脈の概念を滑稽なまでに減少させている。

機能：ソウルには柔軟な多機能性がある。建物の機能と計
画は、建設中でさえ変更される。ここで建設された環境
は、ありとあらゆるものに適応が可能である。建築設計に
はいつでも・何が起こっても良いような、柔軟な対応が要求
される。さもないと、建物がその町の障害要因となる。

空間：ソウルの空間は均一に見える。壁でさえ、ある時は
情報媒体、あるいは単なるプライバシー用仕切りとして日
和見的に使用されており、壁についての考え方は空間的
機能から両空間の連絡を絶つような変換機能へと移ってい
る。その結果ソウルでは内部性が連続しているように思
え、人が都市に対して自分の基準点を決定することができ
ない。

様式：ソウルでは、文脈とは無関係に開発された様式生成
方法が、根底にある理論的動機から切り離され、ほぼ不規
則に適用されている。様式の生成と適用には決定的な違
いがある。発想の表現としての様式が、様式の表現として
の様式に縮小しているのである。

材料：ソウルでは材料の問題は全く付随的である。材料は
利用可能性に従って使用され、必ずしも価格面で決まるこ
とさえない。建物が瞬時的現在にのみ存在するため、耐久
性、持続性、あるいは長期間の維持管理の問題が生じず、
束縛のない材料が適用可能である。

これらの所見を考慮に入れた上で、目標となる姿、事実上
の機能、経済的な寿命、人々に対しての価値、これらが皆
無な建物を、あなただったらどのように設計しますか。