Understanding Architectural Heritage of Dosan Seowon and Assessing Its Spatial Significance

Understanding Architectural Heritage of Dosan Seowon and Ecological Assessing its Spatial Significance / Yoo,Y.C Josefina B.A Kim,G Understanding Architectural Heritage of Dosan Seowon and Assessing its Spatial Significance 도산서원의 건축 문화유산에 대한 이해와 공간적 의미의 평가 * ** *** Yoo, Yeong Chan Josefina B. Alfonso Kim, Gon 유 영 찬 호세피나 비 알폰소 김 곤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Abstract Dosan Seowon, one of the earliest and most prestigious private Confucian academies in Korea, is an example of a heritage property citizens wish to sustain for the benefit of future generations. It is recognized of its contribution to the Korean society and as an architectural and historical interest. This study conducts architectural and cultural research about Dosan Seowon by scrutinizing its evidential, historical, aesthetic and spatial values. By doing so, it is possible to recognize how appreciated qualities are vulnerable to harm through only understanding their heritage values without practical management solutions. That understanding should then provide the basis for developing and implementing management strategies (including maintenance, cyclical renewal and repair) that will best sustain the heritage values in a physical aspect. The conclusion suggests that communication about Dosan Seowon among those who are concerened is significant. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Keywords : Dosan Seowon, spatial values, heritage values, historical importance, management strategies 키워드 : 도산서원, 공간가치, 문화유산, 역사적 중요성, 관리기법 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. Introduction environment and space is a unique record of human activities of the past. Dosan Seowon is one of the best According to Usman Haque, the field of examples because of its architecture and landscape that architecture is very broad because people themselves tell the story about its past and its association with interpret, appropriate, design and reuse spaces within Toegye. Toegye is not just a historical figure, but a their own frames of reference. In his paper, dressing great teacher who made Andong the city of the shadows of Architecture, he believed architecture Yangban(aristocracy) and Seonbi(classical scholars). does not exist without people to inhabit, occupy, His contributions to Korean education, culture and perceive, interact or converse with it. The resulting history are commemorated in this splendid inspiring spaces don't merely enable people to develop their own place that people yearn to take pleasure in and sustain ways of responding, but they are actually enriched by for the benefit of future generations. their responses. As people become architects of their Dosan Seowon was a prestigious private Confucian own spaces(through use of the spaces) the word academy founded by Lee Hwang also known as "architecture" ceases to be a noun: instead it becomes Toegye. It is one of the major tourist attractions in a verb. Such architecture is explicitly dynamic, a shift Andong city, located in Gyeongsangbuk-do. The that opens up a wealth of poetic possibilities for complex served as school of Confucian learning is in a designers of space. magnificent forest setting, in the middle of cool pine One can imagine and feel the qualities of life many trees, steeped rolling terrain facing the northern shore years ago in a space associated with people and events of Andong lake. Its serene and relaxing position gave of the past. Therefore, architecture concerning historic it an advantageous learning and teaching atmosphere for both students and scholars. * 주저자, 안동대학교 건축공학과 부교수 ([email protected]) ** 안동대학교 대학원 석사과정 ([email protected]) *** 교신저자, 강원대학교 건축학부 교수 ([email protected]) 한국생태환경건축학회논문집 Vol. 8, No. 5 2008. 10 17 Understanding Architectural Heritage of Dosan Seowon and Ecological Assessing its Spatial Significance / Yoo,Y.C Josefina B.A Kim,G 2. Objectives of the Study of the south Korean 1,000 won bill from 1975 until today. The purpose of this study is to document the spaces In this school, the ancient roots of Korean private of Dosan Seowon, and to recognize them as an education lie. The Confucian civil service examination, important concept of Korean traditional design, and to through which privileged young men were selected to exhibit its special qualities. Because of westernization, work for the government, has been replaced in modern Korea has lost many of its traditional properties. times by the university entrance examination. However, Architects followed modern and western style, which the principle of private education for the purpose of does not articulate Korean culture; in contrast, Asian social advancement remains the same. ideas and traditions such as Zen and Feng Shui have been influencing western countries. 3.2 Communal Values This study also offers important information for Confucianism in Korea is a pragmatic way of understanding the Korean landscape, so their cultural holding together the country which was inherited heritage could be reflected, preserved, and be an from the Goryeo dynasty. It stresses the inspiration to upcoming generations. Ultimately, it could development of basic manners, habits and morality, be significant for generating design guidelines in the all considered necessary for living in a future. group-focused society. In Korean society, educating This study prompts comprehensive research about children in proper etiquette and ethics continues to Dosan Seowon, to understand its architectural heritage be one of the most crucial elements education. King and accesses its spatial significance. Both architectural Seongjong of Goryeo was a key figure in and cultural aspects will be explained by scrutinizing establishing Confucianism. This was facilitated by its communal, historical, and spatial values. By the establishment in 1398 of the Seonggyungwan, an understanding and articulating how, why, and to what academy with a Confucian curriculum, and the extent space has contributed to its heritage values is building of an altar at the palace, where the king in itself significant. It's only possible to recognize how would worship his ancestors. the qualities that people appreciate are vulnerable to Under Joseon Neo-Confucianism, or Seongnihak, harm or loss through only understanding the historical there was a greater encouragement of Confucian ideas importance of a place. and ideals such as Chung or loyalty; Hyo or filial piety; In or benevolence; and Sin or trust and was the 3. Analysis primary system of belief among the scholarly Yangban classes and generals. Korean Confucian schools, when 3.1 Historical Value built, all had foreign educated scholars, large libraries, Dosan Seowon, was known in the past as Dosan patronage of artisans and artists, and a curriculum Seodang, and was founded by Lee Hwang. Hwang, based on Confucian ideals. Thus, by the time of King also known as Toegye, was one of the foremost Sejong's rule(1418-1450), all branches of learning were Confucian scholars during the Joseon dynasty. He was rooted in this way of thinking although branches of one of the outstanding scholars in Korean educational Korean Buddhism were still allowed to grow outside of history, both as a school founder and as a great the major political centers. The Korean Confucian thinker and writer who helped Korean Neo- curriculum of 13 to 15 major works and exegetical Confucianism flourish into full bloom. After his death commentary was extensive. Confucianism in Joseon in 1570, his disciples continued his teaching and dynasty flourished most notably in the 16th century elevated the academy into a large Confucian school under the guidance of the country's two most and called it Dosan Seowon. prominent Confucian scholars, Lee Hwang(1501-1570) Dosan Seowon serves two purposes; to educate and and Yi I(1536-1584), often referred to by their pen commemorate. The site was well known in Korea as names “Toegye” and “Yulgok”. one of the leading academies and home to the Toegye School of Thought for over 400 years. Although the 3.3 Spatial Values educational function of the facility has long ceased, the The historic environment of Dosan Seowon is the commemorative ceremonies have been there twice a evidence of Korean's classical education and year. The ancient academy was royally chartered in aristocracy during the 16th century. Thoughts that had 1575 by King Seonjo, and was featured on the reverse influenced the space during the Joseon dynasty were 18 Journal of the KIEAE Vol. 8, No. 5 2008. 10 Understanding Architectural Heritage of Dosan Seowon and Ecological Assessing its Spatial Significance / Yoo,Y.C Josefina B.A Kim,G Confucianism, Feng Shui and the Korean lifestyle. the Jeongyodang region on the center. The (a) The simplicity of the structures shows the Jeongyodang region possesses a symmetrical site, but example of Tongue's philosophy of practical knowledge also closed characteristics as well. Next to and frugal lifestyle Toegye being a Confucian scholar Jeongyodang region, Sangdeoksa, a shrine contributed putting his beliefs directly into the design and to Toegye appears. This region is rather closed and construction of the structures. The structures are not non-symmetrical. highly ornamented but reflect his simplicity and When passing through those three regions above, directness of thought. These structures are a physical one may feel spatial rhythm. Such organic arrangement representation of both his ideas and the Confucian phenomenon is a characteristic of the traditional lecture discipline he believed in. hall. This demonstrates a noticeable

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