ABSTRACT

This paper examines underground bunkers in Seoul and explores different ways of reusing spaces that have a problematic heritage. In particular, I look at three bunkers in Seoul – the Yeouido, Kyeongheegung, and Daebangdong bunkers – in comparison to subway stations and other underground spaces designated as potential shelters by the state. I divide the bunkers into two types: those that have been in disuse or used for non-military purposes in peacetime, a distinction that corresponds to two different ways of envisaging disused bunkers. I argue that, unlike in the US and Germany, where wartime bunkers offered a psychological defense, in South Korea, bunkers failed to instill a sense of security, and so they contributed to the absence of discourse in South Korea about a possible life underground or a “bunker society.” After analyzing the three bunkers and comparing them to more mundane underground spaces, the paper concludes that bunkers can be incorporated into everyday uses through small-scale design interventions that encourage resident participation, and this incorporation will not necessarily entail a loss of memory or a trivialization of traumatic historical events.

摘要

本文考察了首尔的地下掩体，并探索了对具有问题遗产的空间进行再利用的不同方式。特别是，我将首尔的三个掩体——汝矣岛、庆熙宫和大方洞掩体——与地铁站和其他被国家指定为潜在避难所的地下空间进行了比较。我将掩体分为两种类型：那些在和平时期已被废弃或用于非军事目的的掩体，这种区别对应于设想废弃掩体的两种不同方式。我认为，与战时掩体提供心理防御的美国和德国不同，在韩国，掩体未能灌输安全感，因此它们导致韩国缺乏关于可能的地下生活或一个“地堡社会”。