This study examines the design intent and the construction background of the UNESCO House in Korea planned in the 1950s, with a focus on the initial plans of the House by Kuzosa Architects & Engineers in 1959. To this day, the House has been evaluated as a representative example of an office building in the 1960s, and an early case of introducing curtain walls in Korea. However, only its technical characteristics have been explored with less emphasis on further research data. This study attempts to demonstrate the social and cultural expectations and the demands of the construction of the House by examining the documents produced at the time and the initial plan. This study also highlights the fact that the House was the first project of the architect Pai Ki Hyung to realize high-rise reinforced concrete construction in Seoul’s dense center. In the 1950s, the House was planned as a modern building with a complex of various cultural facilities and offices due to the character of activities of the Commission, and the lack of public cultural facilities in Korea. The plan of the Kuzosa Architects & Engineers was selected through a design competition held in 1959. The House was completed in 1967, which took about eight years from planning to completion with design modification in the 1960s. The initial plan submitted before the design modification shows that Pai used the vocabulary and logic of modern architecture and planned the House not as a simple office building but as a complex cultural facility.

This study examines the Gyeongju Seokguram Grotto restoration project (1961-1962) by architect Kim Chung Up (1922-1988) and introduces the documents he wrote at the time of planning. The study highlights Kim’s Plan attempt to adopt Buckminster Fuller’s idea of the Geodesic Dome, while inheriting the architect Pai Ki Hyung’s previous design plan which was nullified. As Seokguram Grotto’s water leak and deterioration issues have been brought up, the four-times survey was carried out by experts team between 1958 and 1960, under Ministry of Education’s direction. Pai designed an initial restoration plan based on the survey’s result, which was a double-dome structure with a concrete film on the outer periphery as a way to protect Seokguram Grotto in January 1961. However, as drawbacks, such as the heavy load of the concrete dome, and non-installation of entrance hall, have been indicated in the review process, the Cultural Properties Committee rejected the plan. Subsequently, Kim was appointed as the supervisor of the second restoration project. Kim drew up a process management schedule to be implemented from August 1961 to December 1963 and designed the conception plans for the second restoration design. This study analyzes Kim’s Plan by examining sketches, site plans, floor plans, and sections. Kim planned to maintain the idea of the double-dome structure proposed by Pai while applying Buckminster Fuller’s idea of the Geodesic Dome. Kim planned to lighten the dome structure by applying a steel-frame Geodesic Dome so that the dome structure could be supported by its own. The study is expected to reclaim the omitted parts from Seokguram Grotto's historical description and Kim's careers.

This study explores the application aspect of The detailed rules of Census (1896) through the change of Kan numbers in Gyeonpyeong-bang. Although Gyeonpyeong-bang was a high-priority area because of its location, it was difficult to trace the operation of the urban situation due to lack of data. This study is focusing on restoring space and society in the Gyeonpyeong-bang using the information on the type of houses and the number of Kan listed in the family register of Hanseong-bu. The detailed rules of Census sets out provisions for the family registry and the rules of making Tong. Especially when it comes to the rules of making Tong, this rule deals with the code of making ten Hos into one Tong. This study was conducted by dividing the status of the Tong into three types: uncompleted Tong, exceeded Tong without vacant Ho number, and exceeded Tong with the vacant Ho number. Since these three types of Tong are in the process of change towards the complete Tong with 10 Hos, they were thought to be able to demonstrate the specific application of the rules. This study will be meaningful as a case study that expands the point of existing research on the Tong making rules, which was not focused relatively on restoring urban conditions at that time, by looking at the changes in exceptions that deviated from the Sipgajaktong rule.

This study examines the restoration project of Sokkuram, and introduces its preliminary plans by the architect Pai Ki Hyung. The restoration project started in 1958 with an inquiry committee of the restoration project, and was completed in 1964. Despite having undergone extensive repair work under Japanese supervision from 1913 and 1923, the repair work caused water leakages inside Sokkuram, and regular cleaning work that began in 1933 caused a lot of damage to the sculpture. In result of the surveys, the top priority of this project was to protect the sculptures inside Sokkuram by improving the environment of the cave. At that time, the architect Mr. Pai participated as a head of the fourth field surveyors to plan the restoration project and to design the preliminary plans. He proposed the installation of a double dome structure to prevent further water leakages on the concrete addition that was built up around the grotto by the Japanese. However, in 1961, the Cultural Heritage Committee of Korea examined the plans of Mr. Pai and immediately rejected them. The factors of the rejection were the omitting of entrance design, system of new double dome structure that presses the existing structure, and these changes that had to be made outside of the drainage plans. The repair work of Sokkuram began in 1961, and the main construction was building double dome structure and entrance installation. In this we realize that Mr. Pai’s double dome structure plans were very important key concept of this project. This study attempts to demonstrate the double dome installations that Mr. Pai initially proposed, which ultimately remains as emblematic factors of Sokkuram’s legacy.

In 1961, the Republic of Korea’s first newly-constructed government building was completed. The government building, as ROK office, was erected as a twin with the USOM office in Sejong-ro. The reason why the ROK office and the USOM office were erected as a twin building is that the two offices were part of Foreign Operation Administration’s Seoul Buildings Project in 1954. Within the project, the FOA office and the ROK office were rarely separated, and naturally, the ROK office was built according to the US standards. The planning, design, and construction phases which led by the US government were involved in the US architecture, engineering-construction companies. Because those AEC companies were familiar with the US technology and standards. In the phase of construction, Korean companies took part in the process under the supervise of Vinnell Corporation. The US expected to transfer its ‘modern’ and ‘developed’ technology through this process. The completed ROK office was widely known as the ‘modern style (hyundae-sik)’ building, which was body forth as glasses and new facilities. These factors were what the US emphasized for exporting architecture. The modifier, ‘modern style (hyundae-sik)’, given to the ROK office in the 1950s was a synonym for any new feeling that had never been seen hitherto. The newness of the ROK office, the ‘modern style (hyundae-sik)’ building, was specified as materials and facilities that indicates modern technology while in the absence of adequate knowledge.

This study examines the site and erection of the Government Complex Seoul which was a project attempted to assemble dispersed government buildings in a certain place. The study focuses on the fact that the project is situated between the 1960s’ making of capital Seoul and Seoul urban planning, and the way how the project achieved symbolism in capital Seoul. The project, one of the 1960s’ Major Government Buildings, led both plan of capital Seoul and transforming city Seoul. The 1960s’ Major Government Building Plan had identical drive with the 1950’s Major Government Building Plan, however the 1960s’ had additional layer: Seoul urban planning. After restoration of the Capital building, Sejongro the capital street was planned to the site arranging government offices. The Government Complex Seoul was set to be a modern building on a site with historical context according to the plan. Because of the site, the Government Complex Seoul was constructed in aware of other buildings that represented a competitive high-rise atmosphere in the late 1960s, including the Capital building nearby. PAE International’s plan was completed through a series of design modification, and it boasted a vertical aspect, unlike the horizontal-looking plan that was already won after the design competition. The Government Complex Seoul tried to acquire the symbolism in the central space of the capital Seoul and high-rised city Seoul. “The new construction method” was a requirement to achieve the height.

This study explores the space and society of Seorin-bang(瑞麟坊), using the Hanseong-bu family registry from the Gwangmu period to demonstrate the urban organizational units used during the late J oseon dynasty known as Seo(署)-Bang(坊)-Gye(契)-Dong(洞)-Tong(統)-Ho(戶). It seeks to examine how Seorin-bang's space and society changed with time. First, the study offers approximate demarcation for Gye and Dong through spatial verification of Bang-Gye-Dong-Tong-Ho of Seorin-bang in late J oseon Dynasty, whose precise locations were formerly undetermined. Second, it explores the relationships between Bang-Gye-Dong-Tong-Ho which has been widely understood to be hierarchical by previous studies, and classifies the relationship dynamics between Gye and Dong into four types. Third, the study finds that Seorin-bang retained much of its urban structure including roads, plots, and streams and maintained stable population distribution under the Japanese colonial rule, and continuously served as place of residency for many throughout the Gwangmu period. This study has major implications in that it illustrates space and society of Seorin-bang by converting the family registry from the late J oseon Dynasty into spatial data, and observes its changes subsequent to the Japanese colonial rule.

This study examines the Singapore public housing supplied by Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in the 1950s. Focused on the Princess Elizabeth estate and Princess estate of Queenstown, this study surveys their construction backgrounds, site plans, unit plans, architectural designs and meanings. The Princess Elizabeth estate was the model estate for workmen’s flats. This estate showed mixed blocks of flats arranged around a large quadrangled open space for children. The Princess estate was a neighborhood of Queenstown, Singapore’s the first new town. At this Estate, there were some new architectural occurrences departing from the Tiong Bahru Estate. Those are the appearance of high-rise typology, and the increased specificity in the functions of open spaces. Thus the open space became to get hierarchy, and divided an estate to small neighborhood units. For the SIT, open space is synonymous with the improvement of urban environment. Through the purposeful creation of open space, the SIT intended to solve the problem of sanitation and to make a neighborhood unit which can be pleasant place for regional community.

Early 20th century Singapore was faced with the problem of overcrowding. The attendant problems of a rapid increase in population density, namely the lack of proper housing and sanitation, resulted in the issue of an appropriate residential environment emerging as an important task in urban planning. It was necessary to construct housing estates in order to solve this issue. At that time, the British colonial government attempted to transplant modern technology into the construction process of a residential complex system. However, Singapore’s climate and traditional lifestyle made it impossible to apply the British modern system in a straightforward manner, and in the process, a number of transformations emerged. With a specific focus on the Tiong Bahru estate, one of Singapore’s representative public housing projects, from the 1930s through the 1950s, this study intends to look at the way in which such residential estates were assimilated into local surroundings, and the effect of the transplantation of British concepts of modern housing theory. Therefore, the study is divided into an examination of the estate both before and after the turning point of World War II. This study confirms that the difference between the pre-war and post-war planning strategies for the Tiong Bahru estate were made according to the concept of ‘open space.’

Naejeon area at Chandeokgung Palace means the areas of Huijeongdang and Daejojeon area. Huijeongdang or Hall of Brilliant Rule is made for the king, and Daejojeon or Hall of Great Creation is made for the queen. These areas were located nearly and repeatedly burned down and rebuilt several times together, but their forms were largely unchanged. However in 1920, they rebuilt in a very different way. The purpose of this study was to estimate construction plans, progress and completion of Naejeon area’s rebuilding. They were reconstructed into eclectic structures as the exteriors were built using basic materials from Gyeongbokgung Palace. So they have traditional-looking appearances, but the interiors consisted of modern equipments and were built by applying foreign style construction techniques. The main floored room of Daejojeon and the area of Huijeongdang were built in standing style by installing radiators and French furnitures. Also, the porch, corridor, storage space and veranda were constructed under the influence of Japanese construction. After the reconstruction, there were changes in the usage of some spaces. Huijeongdang functioned only for Alhyeonso or audience chamber rather than Pyeonjeon or state hall. New organizations created by the Japanese such as Chansi or secretaries office and the Chief secretary’s office were included in Naejeon area.