‘텍토닉’의 식민성: 베를린, 도쿄, 서울의 프로이센 고전주의 건축 유산

Abstract

For the purpose of testifying to the transience of each urban space, this paper deals with three modern capital cities, Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul. Their specific connections can be reconstructed by observing adurable cultural link, the sanctified canon of neoclassic architecture à la Schinkel. The Prussian publicarchitect Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s masterly architecture was transplanted into the heterogeneous culturalenvironments of East Asia: it contributed to a new spatial configuration of the imperial capital Tokyo, butalso to the creation of modern Seoul. As a heuristic instrument for this analysis is offered Schinkel’s idea of ‘Tektonik,’ suggesting that themodern architectural principle of a structural totality, concomitant with a harmony of form and function. This unique principle was revivified in the form of historicism, and sooner than later served as an ideologicalbasis for colonial power. Imperial Japan voluntarily adopted the prussian tectonics for the purpose of herown national regeneration. The juristic term of ‘Kokutai(national body)’ might well be defined as thecorrespondence concept of ‘Tektonik.’ A notable example is the ‘Plan for government center.’ Entrusted bythe Japanese Government in 1887, a renowned architectural firm in Berlin, “Ende & Böckmann,” set out theplan. Although it was not successfully carried out in the imperial capital, the main idea had a tremendousimpact on the colonial city, Seoul, as seen especially in the Japanese General Government Building. This gigantic building was located at the symbolic center of restructured Seoul. Its construction, itschanging role, and its subsequent demolition provide a compelling evidence for the yawning chasmbetween modernity and coloniality, which had never been reconciled by any logical instrument likeTektonik, Kokutai, whatsoever. The ineffaceable memory of a shameful past reveals a colonial difference,which a catch-all phrase of modernity cannot cover up.