HERE BE DRAGONS

URBAN MOUNTAIN RANGES

The following is an article by Mr J. S. Gale written in 1900. He was a presbyterian missionary who spent eleven years in Korea, and also wrote the Korean-English Dictionary (Yokohama, 1897)

Mountains are all personified in Korea. They are dragons usually, and according to their formation, graves situated on them are propitious or unpropitious. It never does to build a house upon a moving or flying dragon. If the personal influences of a hill site be too strong, there will be many goblins, and the house will come to destruction...There is always associated in the native’s mind the idea of guardianship with the mountains. Seoul, the capital, has to its north its guardian mountain Sam-kak-san the three-horned mountain... Graves too must have their guardian peaks or the family will not prosper. A common saying in geomancy, “Dragons do not see stones, me do not see dust (in the air), dogs do not see snow, tigers do not see paper.”

People are born according to the formation of the hills on which their ancestors’ grave are situated. A craggy geomantic formation brings forth warriors, a smooth well-rounded formation brings forth scholars - a pointed formation brings forth writers - an opposing formation brings forth robbers - jade peaks bring forth beautiful women. Of course all of this must be viewed and tested by a geomancer, to know what forms are destined to appear.

Mr. Sin-Ki-Sun, the present prime minister of Korea, remarked recently that Korea could never be independent, because she had so many mountains. “Mountains,” said he, “depending as they do on each other, denote dependence.”

The mountains are unavoidable in Seoul, and no matter how far the city spreads, there will always be the tip of a mountain looming in the skyline. Few cities have such an available opportunity to look back at itself. Given this, and the importance of mountain to the culture of Korea, it no wonder that so many people choose to climb them every weekend. In doing so you are given the chance to see yourself within the city, where your home is, and where your friends and family are - your place within the world. They may be a heterotopia unique to Korea, a antithesis to disorienting effects of travel by subway.

URBAN MOUNTAINOUS

In recent times, new shapes has risen out of the ground obscuring the old mountains and perhaps creating new ones - the APTs. It is doubtful that these have the same resonance.

MOUNTAINOUS URBAN

The view of man to mountain and mountain to man has always been an important one. It is a shame the view of man back to mountain is becoming increasingly rare.

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BUNDANG MEMORIAL PARK

Bundang Memorial Park is one of the larger active cemeteries in and around Seoul. It offers a range of solutions for burial, providing a modern interpretation the traditional Korean burial site, increased in spread, and in density where required.

BUNDANG MEMORIAL PARK

Graves range in type, from the more traditional, to the standardised, to the individual, to the collective and yet personal. These do differ in price, which may not be especially egalitarian but at least does offer the opportunity of an enviable grave site for almost everyone.

MODERN INDIVIDUAL

COLLECTIVE MODERN

TRADITIONAL INDIVIDUAL

INDIVIDUAL MODERN

Bundang Memorial Park is undeniably attractive, and in many parts have a level of considerate design that shadows even  the National Cemetery in Seoul, but look a little closer and there are cracks in the veneer. Some are issues are not limited to this site alone, but others perhaps particular to this example of a contemporary, commercial memorial venture, that leave a rather bitter taste in the mouth.

SEPARATIONS

Give or take a few hundred metres, the cemetery is 18 miles (29km) from the centre of Seoul. This is a similar distance between the London Necropolis (Brookwood Cemetery) and the centre of London. Brookwood Cemetery was the largest cemetery in the world when it was created in 1852, had its own dedicated railway line direct from Waterloo station, and is still the largest cemetery in Western Europe. It was proposed when London filled its local burial sites and had to look outside the city limits for a solution.

Seoul has attempted to solve its own sprawl by the creation of vast satellite cities along its boundaries. At the same time its remaining active cemeteries have begun to sprawl across the mountains they occupy. As fewer and fewer have the space to expand the number of active sites becomes smaller as they grow larger. Koreans increasingly compete for space for the dead as well as the living. The same implications of high demand and low supply apply to both.

NOT A BUYERS MARKET

Only half of these burial plots are occupied. The rest represent a series of options for potential buyers, of colour and shape, with potential oppurtunities to upgrade just up the hill. Its important to give the impression of a fully occupied plot, any otherwise would just look barren. They're modern and convenient, and should you want to retain that traditional charm, well that's just another optional extra, at a premium of course.

PICK A COLOUR, ANY COLOUR

Once the transaction has been confirmed, and the property occupied, should the required rent not be maintained in perpetuity, the resident will unfortunately have to be evicted. Space is at a premium, and there are plenty of people willing to pay good money for a choice plot in such a popular location.

NOTICE OF EVICTION DUE TO UNPAID RENT

Commercialisation does have its benefits. In order to compete, a higher level of service has to be provided, albeit for a higher price, and in the case of Bundang the upgrade is a better service - showing what could be possible if a certain level of design was applied.

Why though, should this be limited to those who can afford the pay scale? Where only the rich can afford some kind of cultural relavence and the others scramble for a hole in the ground, just to avoid what lies at the bottom of the barrel.

EITHER

OR

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SEPARATIONS

SEOUL NATIONAL CEMETERY

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