• Journal of architectural history
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.95-105
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• 2023

Focusing on Hwaseokjeong in Paju, the work seeks to clarify the social production of Nujeong (樓亭: Korean traditional pavilions) space, which took place over the 1960s and 70s, and its cultural-political implications. To make the effort as such meaningful, a theoretical framework based not merely on the thesis of 'social production of space' advocated by Henri Lefebvre but especially on some discussions related to 'state production of space' is prepared, according to which Hwaseokjeong is analyzed and explained. As a consequence, two principal arguments are put forward: one is that Hwaseokjeong was a social space which had been built and constructed in accordance with the unique mode of production dominating Korean society at that time called 'the state mode of production (le mode de production étatique)'; the other is that what lies beneath the denotation of a 'social space of tradition restoration' that Hwaseokjeong appears to carry is in fact the connotation of 'infiltration of anti-communist ideology'. All of these claims are once again supported both by examining Roland Barthes's semiology and mythologies and by considering Hwaseokjeong's P yeonaek (扁額: a plaque or framed text) as 'the practice of naming power through Jesa (題詞: inscribing dedications)'. While providing a succinct summary, the paper finally evaluates what 'social production of space' implies to social practices of architecture and related criticisms by taking into account the relationship between visibility and readability of space including buildings.