Public residence, authoritarian legacy

Hahm In-sun
The author, a previous professor of architecture at Hanyang College, is the main architect for Gwangju Metropolitan Metropolis.

Just after Ahn Cheol-soo, chair of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee, blasted community residences for heads of municipal governments, consensus begun setting up rapidly to close official residences as a perk for some central government officers. Just after examining a recent JoongAng Ilbo sequence on the issue, which when compared techniques at house and overseas, I simply cannot but marvel if Korea is mature enough to be classified as a developed place.

If public residences are seriously wanted, they need to be offered to military services commanders who ought to be on warn 24/7 and have to transfer swiftly in emergencies. Praetorium — the Latin for battlefield tents for historic Roman generals in the commencing and barracks or fortresses in which emperors remain later — could be the start off of official home. In Korea, they are available to not only heads of local governments and improvement firms but also to judges, prosecutors — and even to heads of department places of work of the National Intelligence Provider (NIS).

Community residences in regions are the legacy of the authoritarian period, when the president available residential ease to officers who were being requested to do the job in nearby regions. Right now, nonetheless, if you are not community people, you are not able to run in nearby elections for leading municipal posts. Even if you reside in a distant spot, you can show up at conferences pretty much. Former U.S. Household Speaker Paul Ryan slept on a cot in his Longworth Property business throughout sessions from 2015 to 2019. Specified the out-of-date use of community home in Korea, the time has occur to end their use.

The father of exploiting community residence for fiscal gains is Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su of the Supreme Courtroom. He provoked community outrage soon after enabling his son’s spouse and children to are living in his community residence and allowing his daughter-in-law to use it for a meal social gathering with her colleagues at a regulation firm. The Main Justice’s public residence is nestled in the hills of Hannam-dong, Seoul, overlooking the Han River. The district also hosts seven other public residences of Military Main of Team (to be utilised as the president-elect’s residence), defense minister, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, vice commander of the ROK-U.S. Mixed Forces Command, commander of the Marines, Countrywide Assembly speaker and the International Minister.

The concentration of community residences for the elites in officialdom owes much to their proximity to the U.S. navy foundation and the Ministry of Nationwide Defense creating in Yongsan — and partly thanks to their simple access to the center of the metropolis and a great deal plots of land owned by the point out. The location of community residences for the heads of the legislative and judiciary branches can be attributed to safety motives, as prompt by a cluster of 54 international missions in Hannam-dong. Which is not all. Fourteen out of the 24 richest people acquiring shares well worth above 1 trillion won ($793.8 million) dwell there. Several famous entertainers also reside in the UN Village — the location for public residences for Japanese army officers during the colonial days — in Hannam-dong. The guard submit at the entrance of the village turns it into a fortress.

Immediately after Yoon’s presidential business is relocated to Yongsan upcoming thirty day period, a substantial patch of the district will remodel into a park for civilians. It is the time to close the authoritarian legacy succinctly reflected in the focus of international missions in Hannam-dong.

In the West, many previous manors owned by lords in the feudal days were reborn as civilian parks. Eight big parks in London — like the Greenwitch, Hyde, and Regent’s Parks and Kensington Gardens — are all royal parks, which were being employed as looking grounds or for banquets for British monarchs. The rights to a massive extend of land was handed about to the typical men and women after the establishment of constitutional monarchy in the 18th century. The Tiergarten in Berlin and the Luxembourg Yard in Paris also were being the moment a aspect of the estates of lords or a private residence of aristocrats.

City parks in the West played a essential role in stopping the Industrial Revolution from escalating to a proletarian revolution. But Korea’s cities have lacked this kind of a extraordinary transformation. The time has come to improve lavish community residences into parks or cultural place. If you incorporate the house of the Blue Property, Gyeongbok Palace and the Gwanghwamun Sq. in central Seoul, it quantities to just about a half of Hyde Park in London. The Serpentine Galleries in the park has turn out to be an international spot for architectural experimentation around the Pavilion. Why not use the primary constructing of the Blue Property for these kinds of functions?

General public office holders in Korea should wake up. Roman soldiers revered Pompey who lived alone in praetorium, but they cherished Caesar who shared his tent with them. Leaders of this country must shell out heed. 
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Everyday personnel.