Re-living the Concrete City

Existing Korean apartment into the Open Building principle

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Abstract

Korea had a history of wooden architecture for about 2,000 years before modernization. However, after the Korean War, the concept of modernist concrete high-rise apartments was radically introduced to solve the severe housing problem. In US, Charles Jencks declared the death of Modern Architecture, but it was a huge success in Korea. Apartments have become Korea’s representative residential type, and they call it Apatu. In addition, the phenomenon of demolishing old Apatu and reconstructing new ones every 30 years has become considered a housing culture until now. Instead of this existing reconstruction method, the principle of Open Buildings is proposed by reusing existing apartments into vertical infrastructure.