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Friday, October 15, 2010

The fastuous and the furious : trimming down Seoul city's most embarrassing projects

Good riddance. Seoul city council, now dominated by the Democratic Party*, tuned down OH Se-hoon's least sustainable projects, starting with the opera house planned for 2014 on Nodeul-do : the gizmo was designed by architect Park Seung-hong as part of the Han River Arts Island with the outspoken ambition to make a splash (Sydney Opera or Guggenheim Bilbao style).

Does the upper half of Seoul need a world class shell for performing arts ? Certainly. But the whole concept needs reconsideration, and 'design' is neither the starting point nor the aim of the game.

I won't shed any tear on the embarrassing Namsan gondolas project either. If foreign tourists are at last flocking into the revived Korean capital, the Vegas line certainly won't sell in the long term.


Seoul Village 2010

* see "
Oh Se-hoon V2.0"

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