By Kim Se-jeong
Bukchon Hanok Village, a historical site in Seoul near Gyeongbok and Changdeok Palaces, is a major tourist attraction. But an expert on heritage conservation warned that if policy is geared only towards promoting tourism, the village will eventually lose its value.
The village is a neighborhood of Korean-style houses, or hanok, that were built during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). In Korea’s rapid growth days, the traditional houses grew less popular as Seoulites favored living in high-rise apartments. Retained by a small number of its advocates, the village is expected to draw more than 200,000 tourists this year, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
Donovan D. Rypkema, president of Heritage Strategies International, a consulting firm based in Washington, D.C., said “Policies should be for the residents who are living in the area not for tourists,” opposing a possible expansion of commercial shops.
He was invited by UNESCO Korea, which organized an international forum on the preservation of urban cultural heritage, Tuesday. The Bukchon Hanok Village received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific heritage award last year.
Rypkema’s firm gives consultations on conservation of heritage and economic development to clients that range from the Dutch Embassy in Vietnam to the Ministry of Culture in Brazil.
He stressed that the value of heritage and economic development is closely correlated, although they may seem contradictory.
Looking down from the 19th floor of a hotel in Myeongdong, he said, hosting torrents of high-rises is never a good option, yet that’s what many rapidly growing cities in Asia such as Seoul did.
“The three mountains in Seoul should be able to be seen from any direction in the city,” he said, for they define the character of the capital.
He opposed the idea of building artificial replicas. “You wouldn’t have the wall that was touched 1,000 years ago,” and that means losing a connection with the past.
Korea’s rapid development is often mentioned as an example for other developing countries. However, when it comes to heritage conservation, Korea holds a notoriously bad record.