Seoul - City Hall

Spanish
En Seúl, hasta visitar el ayuntamiento conlleva algo de confusión. Llegas a una plaza muy grande y al fondo, hay un edificio renacentista que tiene toda la pinta de ayuntamiento. Pero al entrar, descubres que es la biblioteca?

Resulta que el edificio histórico fue construido durante la ocupación Japonesa y sirvió como Ayuntamiento de 1945 a 2012, cuando se terminó el edificio de cristal. El Ayuntamiento se movió al edificio nuevo y el antiguo, quedó instaurado como biblioteca de la ciudad.

Si os interesa la arquitectura, merece la pena dar una vuelta antes de entrar en Deoksugung, que está justo al lado.

English
The visit to the city hall is a confusing one, like everything else in the city. Behind a large grassy square used for various events along with a fountain that is safe for kids to play while beating the summer heat, the first thing to meet the eye is a Renaissance-style stone building. Which is actually not the city hall, but just a library?

This old building was built in 1925, during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It is an example of Imperial Crown Style architecture, and served as city hall from Korea's liberation in 1945, until construction of the glass building. Hence, the old building - now used to house the Seoul Metropolitan Library, is located right in front of the current modern Seoul City Hall building.




Following a competition for a new city hall, the jury awarded the commission to Yoo Kerl of iArc on February 18, 2008. Yoo said, "Major keywords for designing the new building are traditions, citizens, future. I analysed low-rise horizontal elements, curvaceousness, and shades of leaves in our traditional architectural characteristics, and I applied these to the design so I can recall comfortable feelings of old things."

We got a chance to visit a local photography competition inside the old building and to admire the actual city hall, from the outside.



Demonstrators continued to occupy the streets, calling US to preemptively attack North Korea.