CSM trip to Seoul, South Korea

Last week I went to Seoul with 9 students and a fellow tutor on a project about the Seoul City Walls. We are working with IDAS/International Design school for Advanced Studies, Hongik University in Seoul. The idea is to produce a series of ideas for projects which can help develop Seoul's tourism and help redefine Seoul's image.

I had no expectations of Seoul - rather more negative than positive, but in the event I was very impressed. The City was flattened in the Korea War in 1953, and it rebuilt itself first as a shanty town and then as a modern City. It is now the 5th biggest City in the world with upwards of 15m people and is a vibrant and dynamic City. The dynamism is seen in the amazing signs on each and every floor of every building. What stops this being visual pollution is the sheer number of signs, the bright colours and the beauty of the Korean script.

From our limited experience Seoul seem perhaps a little self-effacing about its achievements - it is a City that made itself, rebuilt itself from scratch - the energy of the city is also seen in the speed with which buildings are built. This is probably understandable for a small country that is geographically surrounded by China, Russia and Japan, in a country that was occupied by Japan, and split in half after World War 2. At this point in time, Koreans wonder whether their model on which they have built their industrial society is running out of time. They see their strength as having been in replication - taking existing technology, stripping it down and finding a way of doing the same thing but cheaper. They see this as not innovative - although the scale of their achievement in taking on established manufacturing countries is impressive. With China now taking over the rule of centre for cheap manufacture, the Koreans see that they have to emulate the west and become innovators in a knowledge based economy. They see the problems that have damped Japan's growth in recent decades and have concerns that the transition to a post industrial society might be difficult.

From a visitors point of view one can't help but feel that the dynamism of the place will mean they will successfully develop their economy. Also perhaps the Koreans need to change their viewpoint from worry about being surrounded by rival economies to exploiting their role as the central point in a vibrant economic area.

One symbol of the Korean ability to think through and implement large scale change is the City Wall - it was built in 1396 with the deployment of 118,000 men from all around the country. they built the circuit of 18 km in a couple of building campaigns of 49 days. Another symbol is the invention of the Korean Script in 1443 - they changed from the chinese ideogram system to a logical phonetic alphabet with 14 consonents and 10 vowels. The shape of the letters are based on the movement of the tongue and mouth and it is a very logical system which is ideally suited to the qwerty keyboard. It is also very beautiful - it makes Chinese letters seem old fashioned while Korean letters seem like icons - they are bold, clear and as in a modern typeface.

This all suggests that the Koreans have a logical mind which they can apply to provide elegant solutions to problems they face. I have no doubt that they will face the challenge of changing from an industrial to a post industrial society with a logical and dynamic determinism.

The City Wall project provides a change to see the beauty that surrounds Seoul - the 18 km wall takes a hilly course around central Seoul linking Seoul's mountains. It provides spectacular views of the City, and access to parts of the city that have survived the last 20 years - giving an insight into what the City was like immediately after the Korean War.

One aspect of Korean life that makes tourism very difficult is the lack of street names in the City. This also means that the Koreans appear appalling at creating street maps - where they have them they are fairly useless, partly because of the lack of street names, partly because the lack of street names encourages them to create maps at a scale that is far too small to be useful and partly because the need to put in english and korean names means that you often need a magnifying glass to make out any details on the map!

One aspect that makes a visit to Seoul wonderful is the food! The food is fantastic both in the street booths, and in the traditional restaurants where you sit on the floor. Kimshi is a national treasure.

If I were in charge of rebranding Seoul I would begin with a campaign to name all of Seoul's streets and would then produce an AZ guide of Seoul with tourism maps for the central areas. Without decent maps, finding the City wall is going to be well nigh impossible for tourists.

I would then build my campaign on the following:

1. the Korean alphabet
2. the glorious profusion of signage
3. the City that built itself
4. the City surrounded by Mountains
5. An ideal base from which to visit Japan and China
6. wonderful food

To see more slides of Seoul and a short video click here