Interpretation of Korean Housing in the Period of Opening the Country to the West and its Modernity Focussed on the Civilization Theory

Since Korea open her ports to the West, she had undergone a great change under the alien influences both on the macro-social and micro-social aspects. This study aims to review the korean housing, corresponding with the everyday life, during the period of transition between the 1876 - 1910 and to interpret its process of modernization and the meaning of modernity. With regards to understand the holistic human relationship and place pf living through history, this study takes the Nobert Elias' Civilization Theory as a theoretical basis. References were therefore, made to various records of foreign missionary at the time, with respect not only to macro sociological changes but also to changes of everyday life. It is of course to take physical and structural aspects of housing architecture into consideration. These works, thus, led to presuming the housing culture of said period. In order to investigate modern character of korean housing, distinctively represented by spatial structure, considerations were made to various architectural examples according to the social and residential status both in urban and rural area. As a results, this paper came to the remarks as follows; 1. It is understood, that the process of modernization is a part of the process of civilization as synthetic process. It is integrated with the change of socio-cultural aspects and everyday life. 2. Korean housing in the said period shows various different residential status and grade of civilization according to the social status as well as economical status. Modern housing was not in general yet. 3. Housing for high classes and middle classes in Seoul shows a tendency of assimilation and imitation after western model. But some examples within the housing of high classes represent its own modernity, that is based on the rationalism and equalization 4. In the housing of lower classes, it was very far from the benefits of civilization. It could analogize from the immature control of disgrace, from undevelopment of individual territory and from uncultivation of rationality in the housing space.

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