Design in Korea: Week 5

감천문화마을 Village

Location: Gamcheon, Busan

This colorful cultural village is spread out high in the mountains of the southern tip of Korea. It is filled with tiny shops, cafes, museums, and activity booths. I think that this kind of happy chaos is characteristic of modern Korean design. Everything is still similarly structured and laid out in rows, but each building is unique in its color and content. When many unique parts come together as a similar whole, there is pleasure in celebrating the variety. While much older design is laid out in strict grids and repetition of uniform parts, current design trends show this same repetition used with parts that are all different in one key aspect, mixed together in a tasteful though sometimes disorganized way.