During the 1950s, the North Koreans rebuilt their capital—Pyongyang—as a modern city under the principle of Soviet urban design. One North Korean architect, Kim Jung-hee, has been widely credited since the late 1980s as the master architect of the General Plan of the city’s reconstruction. While Kim Jung-hee played a crucial role in its reconstruction, his heroic image as the founding architect of Pyongyang is considerably attributed to North Korea’s mythical narratives rather than his historical activities. This paper argues that Pyongyang’s postwar urban design was not a work made by a single actor, Kim Jung-hee; rather, it was a long-term collaborative project in which a team of North Korean architects and Soviet technical advisors took their respective roles. Beginning in the late 1980s, North Korea, which had been struggling with economic decline and an increasing sense of lagging behind in its rivalry with its Southern counterpart, used heroic narratives during the 1950s’ postwar reconstruction period as an important propaganda tool for their regime. In this mythical narrative of Pyongyang’s reconstruction, massive economic and technical aid from other communist countries has often disappeared, and the memory of the architects who contributed greatly to the reconstruction but later purged in North Korea have also completely vanished. Kim Jung-hee, meanwhile, remained in this epic as the founding architect who rebuilt the city in faithful accordance with the leadership of Kim Il Sung.

This study investigates the relationship of two architectures ‘Kim Sa-haeng’ and ‘Park Ja-cheong.’ They were the architects whose architecture were established and well known however they were not acknowledged by the people. Because they were not revealed under the large-scale national construction in complicated circumstances at home and abroad. The results were as follows; First, Kim Sa-haeng who was an overseas architect in Yuan dynasty stood out in all areas of architecture. Particularly in making royal tombs; His works were recognized as the most beautiful royal tombs ever existed and was later on followed by the Joseon dynasty. Second, Park completed the construction of Joseon's by faithfully reflecting on the discussed process of Neo-Confucian while coming after the time of the construction of Kim Sa-haeng. Third, although Kim Sa-haeng was a vassal of the Buddhist nation in Goryeo, he built the Moon-myo, a Confucian inspired temple of Joseon. Park Ja-cheong, who continued to build Kim Sa-haeng's architecture, reproduced Kim Sa-haeng's confucian's temple of Joseon dynasty while modifying it according to the situation in Joseon dynasty. The constructions of the two architects' monuments continues unabatedly. Their architecture has continued without massive changes.

This study examines the seismic failure of RC low-rise building structures having irregularities at the ground story during the 15 November 2017 Pohang, Korea, earthquake, Mw = 5.4, which is the second strongest since the government began monitoring them in 1978 in South Korea. Some 2,000 private houses were damaged or destroyed in this earthquake. Particularly, serious damage to the piloti story of RC low-rise residential building structures of fewer than five stories was observed within 3 km of the epicenter with brittle shear failure of columns and walls due to severe torsional behavior. Buildings below six stories constructed before 2005 did not have to comply with seismic design requirements, so confinement detailing of columns and walls also led to inadequate performance. However, some buildings constructed after 2005 were damaged at the flexible side of the piloti story due to the high torsional irregularity. Based on these results, this study focuses on the problems of the seismic torsion design approach in current building codes.

This study investigates the types and spread of framed structures of gable roofs meeting at right angle showed in old architecture and documentary paintings of houses, which were well liked in the early Joseon Dynasty. The conclusions of this study were as follows. First, the framed structure of gable roof meeting at right angle can be divided or recognized in 4 types according to their structure’s size and purlin’s position. Three of those types were noted to be in Seoul. Second, the framed structure of gable roofs meeting at right angle begun from the awareness of their independence from one another. Each space was divided based on their functions. Therefore, it could be extended in various forms, not only in the square plan physique but also in many different forms. And allowed free plan configuration regardless of column layouts or size of structure. Third, 5 purlins and 3 purlins crossing structure were preferred in Han-yang, the early Joseon Dynasty. It is related to the specific construction conditions of urban houses, such as the slope of land, limited land area, and economic power. Fourth, urban housing techniques were diffused throughout the country by officials who lived in Kae-gyeong and Han-yang at the end of Goryeo and early Joseon Dynasty. In other regions, framed structure of gable roof meeting at right angle households decreased, but in some regions of Gyeongsang-province, framed structure of gable roof meeting at right angle has maintained with Staggered purlin.