ABSTRACT
In the midst of rapid urbanization in Asia, urban landscapes are changing rapidly to the point of non-recognition. As Asian cities embrace projected futures, journeys toward them often come at the expense of rich histories built into the urban fabric. In Seoul, Korea, rapid urbanization in the twentieth century nearly destroyed 600 years of history (Kim 2010). A significant loss of this traditional urban fabric in modern Seoul is easily equated with the degradation of place and the loss of traditional culture. However, the experience of Seoul reveals, through the process of modernization – often viewed as Westernization and the erasure of the traditional society – that culture is not lost but evolves.
