Abstract

The Korean architect H-Sang Seung derives architectural necessities from two sources: the Korean tradition and the imperatives of territorial qualities he calls “landscripts.” The latter can be traced back to the Korean tradition of geomancy, which has consequences for the definition of design. Seung and his organizing team of the Gwangju Design Biennale 2011 express the necessity to rethink the definition of design by launching the paradoxical theme “Design is design is not design” (dogadobisangdo). A design process considering “landscript” disengages the notion of landscape from its strict association with earth and interprets it in terms of urban development. With his concept of landscript, Seung goes beyond the “naturalistic interpretation of the traces in the landscape” and considers “the social and political history that has shaped and inscribed these practices into that landscape.” In the article, I interpret Seung’s “landscript” based concept of design through Heidegger’s concept of “Gestell” (project) as well as through the Chinese notion of wen, which means pattern, structure, writing, and literature in Chinese. In Chinese history, wen is a “pattern of interrelating structures that emerge out of concrete situations and reflexively organize and regulate human life in the world.”

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