ABSTRACT
South Korea offers a rich source for the study of modern architecture in formerly colonized territories. Applying the conceptual framework of post-colonialism to challenge dominant perspectives on inherited colonialist architecture in Seoul, this chapter examines the architectural style and historical context of the headquarters of the Japanese colonial administration, and the Government-General Building of Choson. Discussing a building built by the colonial Government of Choson as an icon of the Japanese occupation is a difficult task since the bitter memories of an older generation remain in both North and South Korea, and vehement, unresolved disputes about the colonial past exist between Japan and Korea. Local individuals cached colonial knowledge as part of their expertise and used it later for their own advantage and development. The desire to reconstruct the urban landscape using modern, Western-style architecture shows one of the many variable forms of colonial knowledge that the first generation of post-colonial Koreans contributed to and benefited from.
