CONVERSATION AND CONTRAST IN THE URBAN CONTEXT: THE EMBASSY OF SWITZERLAND IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Songwol-dong was once a village that lay beneath the city walls outside Donuimun Gate, housing the poorer classes of the Joseon Dynasty. During Japanese colonial rule, as a result of urbanization and the installation of the streetcar, even foreigners had begun to move into this neighbourhood. Vestigial marks of this period are noticeable in its architecture: the urban , the red brick houses, and the Culture Houses (a Japanese-Western eclectic architecture). In the period following the 1950s, two storey high multiple unit houses were funded and built by the international aid from the United States. The history of residential architectural styles in modern and contemporary Seoul can be traced throughout the valley developments outside of the city walls. In 1974, the Embassy of Switzerland in the Republic of Korea also became a part of this landscape.
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