DAY
Seoul Architectures 9 hours
Tour Highlights
- Bukchon Hanok Village
- Myeongdong Cathedral
- Yeouido Architecture Tour
- Gangnam Architecture Tour
Seoul (- - -)
Your exploration this morning begins with a driving tour of Seoul, featuring sites such as Seoul Plaza, City Hall, Cheonggye Square and pedestrian-friendly Gwanghwamun Plaza that is hemmed in on three sides by rushing traffic. The plaza is lined on each side with 365m long streamlets, two centimeters deep and one meter across, the stone bed of the plaza's east side waterway engraved with important events in chronological order from 1392 to 2008.
Standing high on a stone pillar is a statue of Yi Sunsin who had engaged in twenty-three naval battles and emerged victorious in all of them during the Hideyoshi invasion (1592-1598). King Sejong who propagated the Korean alphabet in the 15th century is also honored with prominent statue. On August 16, 2014, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in this plaza to beatify 124 Korean martyrs. Near the southwest corner of the plaza is Korea's Kilometer Zero, marking the distances to 64 cities around the world, including Seoul's antipode, Montevideo, Uruguay, 19,606km.
You will experience a unique view of Bukchon Hanok Village as you wander through the maze of alleys that wind and twist between houses, making you eager to see what you will find next. The quaint neighborhood hangs on tenaciously to its traditional past. The sight of a number of houses built next to each other, sharing a wall and touching each other's eaves is a fascinating glimpse into the friendly and open-hearted lifestyle of Koreans.
You will pass by Cheonggyecheon, a 5.8km creek that tumbles gently through downtown Seoul, providing a much needed source of peace and relaxation for the citizens of this fast-paced city. Restoration work began in 2003 to free the stream from the layers of concrete and roadways that had covered it since the mid 1950s. At the head of the stream stands a sculpture, a shell rising upward like a pagoda, created by Coosje Van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg.
Then visit Myeogdong Cathedral that sits on the north eastern edge of the fashion, shopping and entertainment area in downtown. Designed by French Father Goste and completed by Poisnel in 1898, it is the Korea's first Gothic building and an important milestone in the country's architectural history. Neighboring block is high-end department stores filled with carefully laid-out merchandises. Beneath these stores are the huge underground arcades that offer a fascinating subterranean shopping experience.
On an introductory driving tour of Yeouido, an emerging residential neighborhoods and commercial developments including some of the significant buildings, you will see Full Gospel Church possibly the largest in the world, the massive National Assembly Hall built in the mid-1970s, towering 63 building and S-Trenue, a landmark skyscraper with its Bundle Matrix, Stocky Tower and Podium Tower topped by Sky Garden.
While in Gangnam, explore a number of modern buildings. Urban Hive is the winner of the grand Seoul Architecture Award 2009. With 105cm-diameter holes on the white concrete walls, the building looks like a hive. The building exposes its concrete structure, exposing the many holes inside which resemble a sponge.
As you drive, see Kyobo Tower majestically rising in Gangnam's busy intersection, a typical of the works of Mario Botta. Gwell tower with its 32 office unit having an outdoor space that creates a unique "eroded" appearance is a very simple glass curtain wall tower, giving each its own characteristic.
Boutique Monaco is an office building designed to have more exterior surface and corners for more natural light and better views. The spaces created by the missing matrixes are landscaped with trees that are visible from the inside and outside of the building.
Then pass by Samsung Headquarters. Inspired by the symbolic joinery represented in traditional Korean woodworking, these complex curtain wall systems allow for maximum control by the occupants over day lighting and natural ventilation, minimizing the amount of artificial lighting, heating and cooling required by the buildings.
Later, enjoy a driving tour of the 3.5km-long Teheran-ro, or Teheran Boulevard and see various Korean and international financial and business institutions including POSCO, Offices and Banks. Some of Korea's tallest skyscrapers and most expensive real estate are largely centered here.
