Humble architecture

Abstract lines and collage aesthetics in South Korea.

When I first visited South Korea in 2010, I felt overwhelmed by the high-rise apartment buildings, their scale frightened me. Over the years, I became used to the massive blocks, even stopped noticing them at times. Instead, I grew attached to the small humble structures tucked in back alleys. Fragile and resilient, sometimes assembled in a clumsy manner, they had their own silent language, speaking of the lives contained within.

“Architecture is not the destruction of memory. It is the delicate restructuring of people’s lives on top of a sketch of those memories.”

(At Dusk by Hwang Sok-yong)

Pictured cities

Gimhae, Gwangju, Seoul.