INSIDE THE PUZZLE
首爾建築拼圖 MARK JONES explores new architecture in Seoul’s cityscape and what this reveals about the capital’s changing identity
MARK JONES hangs out with Seoul’s new breed of architects, artists and designers
Isat on the airport bus heading back to Incheon International Airport, trying to make sense of Seoul. It was sunset. The Han riverside was framed in the windows of the coach like a widescreen movie. An invisible cinematographer was busy creating an epic vision of rose- grey skies and fluorescent green meadows while the last of the sunlight caressed the mountain peaks and tower blocks.
Something struck me that doesn’t seem to strike visitors to Seoul very often: it really is a beautiful city.
It’s also a hard one to work out. I know Hong Kong calls itself Asia’s World City; but Seoul is like several dozen world cities in one. In the past few days, this single conurbation of nearly 10 million people has felt like New York’s Fifth Avenue and Brooklyn, a London village and a German suburb in addition to the more expected geographic allusions: a Tokyo sidestreet, a hip Taipei block, a Singaporean park.
This evolving cityscape can be seen as the result of creative energy mixed with changing social dynamics. Maybe close-up is the best view. With the help of Seoul and Hong Kong-based communications expert Fiona Bae, we went to five places in one slightly mad north-to-south trip which tell us something about Seoul old, new and shifting.
A TRADITIONAL HOUSE IN BUKCHON ( THIS PAGE)
Let’s start with a gentler side to Seoul’s aesthetic. Interior designer Teo Yang (left) lives in my favourite part of Seoul, the hilly, arty village of Bukchon. Today he’s opening his 1920s house to readers – pilgrims, really – of an interiors magazine. Teo’s house, like Teo, is rooted in the traditions of the hanok (traditional Korean house). But as a traveller who studied design in Chicago and Pasadena, he also has a den of treasures. Pride of place: his first pair of designer trainers in a glass bell jar, a collection of art manuscripts and a showhome kitchen where, today, an upmarket lighting company is showing off its wares.
Entrepreneurialism, heritage and the confidence to take what you want from the West and leave the rest: Teo’s is a very contemporary Seoul mindset.
黃昏時分，我坐場乘 機 巴士返回仁川國際，機場 嘗試整理一下自己對首爾的。印象 巴士車窗有如影院的大銀幕，正在放映夕陽西下的漢江景致。大自然有如隱形攝影師，營忙著 造一幕幕壯麗的，紅畫面 在灰色的晚霞映照下，青草地綠得發亮，最後一絲餘暉，正悄然輕撫一座座山嶺和高樓。
我驟然發現，首爾其實是個美不勝收的城市，但其他遊客似乎未有察覺。
同時，這個城市也難以讀解 。香港以「亞少國際都會」自居，而首爾卻似乎把全球多個國際市城 共冶一爐。在過去幾天的，旅程 我在這個人口近千萬的都會圈內看到不同地方的面貌：紐約的第五大道和布魯克林區、敦倫 某個村莊及德國的近郊風景。此外，還理所當然地有其他亞少芳鄰的，剪影 東括 京的小街、台北的型格建築，以加及新 坡的園。公 等
這個城市創意無限，社加上 會各階層的互動，正首爾 不斷出現變。化 也許要深入細看，才能得悉局全 。來自首爾、現居本的港傳訊專家Fiona Bae帶領由我北至南走訪五地，讓我在緊湊的行程中了解市的內 新舊變。遷
北村傳統韓屋（本頁）
讓我們由淺入深認識韓式美。學吧 室內設計師Teo Yang（左圖）住在山巒起伏的北村，這條充滿藝術氣息的村莊是我喜最 愛的首爾景。點 探訪當天，他開放自己建於1920年代的，居所 讓室內設計雜誌的讀者（其實可說是朝聖者）登堂入室參觀。的Teo 房子就如他本人一樣深受傳統韓屋文化影響，由但 於他愛四處遊歷，也曾赴芝加加哥及 州的帕薩迪納修讀設計，所以家中藏有不少珍品。最貴重的，要數他放在玻璃罩內的首對名牌球鞋、一系列畫稿，以及開放式廚房，今天有一家高級燈具公司正在裡面展出其產品。
Teo有靈活的生意頭腦，熱心保留古蹟以為，敢 韓學 體、西學為用，是當代首爾設計師的。代表
A LOUNGE AT RYSE HOTEL (BELOW)
Ryse is the hippest hotel in hip Hongdae. After a bracing Swindler Sour (sweet potato spirit, grappa, yuzu, sea salt tincture, orange flower water) we tour a place that seems ephemeral and clubby until we happen across the Print Culture Lounge, a corner full of niche magazines and art.
It seems the further east you go in Asia, the more bookish people become. In Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul, the bookshops are real meeting places, not mere Instagrammable backdrops.
The Ryse backroom office isn’t in a backroom at all, but right in the public area. It’s a glass-panelled space full of moodboards and anglepoise lamps. A few years back, it became fashionable to put the restaurant kitchen on display. In Seoul, it seems entirely appropriate that the hotel designers and marketing people are also on public view.
Ryse酒店的酒廊（下圖）
Ryse是弘大區最時髦的酒店。品嚐過口味清新，由番薯烈酒配意式白、、蘭地 柚子 少許海鹽及橙花水調配的雞尾酒Swindler Sour之後，我們到一個有如夜店般迷幻的地方閒逛，然後來到裡面擺滿小眾雜誌和藝術品、位於角落的酒廊Print Culture Lounge。
在亞洲，似乎愈往東走，當地居民便有愈濃厚的書卷氣息，無論台、北東京和首爾亦如是，人們到人氣書店並非只為拍照在社交媒體上分享，而是真的會在書架尋找心愛的書本。
Ryse的勤後 辦公室並非真的隱身人
前，而是位於公共空的方 當眼處。它採用了四面玻璃幕牆，設計 擺放大量情緒板可和
任意調校角度的械機 臂燈。幾年前，餐廳設置開放式廚房成為一股新潮流。而在首爾，酒店設計師和市少部人員在開放式辦公室內工作，亦為大眾完接全 受。
A BANK HQ THAT LOOKS LIKE AN OCTOPUS (ABOVE)
Kim Chan-joong (bottom right) is an academic – graduate of Harvard, visiting professor at Seoul – and his architectural practice, The Systems Lab, is maybe the most interesting in South Korea. His experiments with wafer-thin concrete membranes include the graceful, ethereal Kosmos hotel on the volcanic island of Ulleungdo – and this, perhaps the world’s strangest bank building.
The exterior of KEB Hana Bank Place 1 is covered with protruding, colour-changing portholes which so much resemble tentacle suckers that the building’s nickname was inevitable. It’s not an ideal spot for the trypophobic (those who fear clusters of small holes).
Inside, it continues to be unlike any financial institution you’ve ever seen. The underground car park has been decorated by a graffiti artist and doubles as a club and events space. There are bespoke retailers and a wonderful library and cafe.
This building changes things. Word has it that the country’s conservative corporations now all want an ‘octopus’ of their own.
外型酷似八爪魚的銀行總部（上圖）
Kim Chan- joong（右下圖）是畢業於哈佛大學的學者，也是首爾一間大學的訪問教。的授他 建築傑作The Systems Lab，堪稱南韓最富玩的味 設計。他利用薄如威化紙的水泥膜創出新意，驗實 作品括建於鬱陵島這個火山島上、外形優雅脫俗的Kosmos酒店，以及可能是世界上外貌最奇形怪狀的銀行大樓KEB Hana Bank Place 1。
大樓外牆鑲滿一個個向外凸出的變色舷窗，酷似八爪魚觸鬚的上 吸盤，難怪被人暱稱為八爪魚。如果你有密集恐懼症（害怕看到大量密密麻麻的細孔的）話，需可能 要迴避。
大樓的室內裝潢同樣與一般金融機構截然不同。地下停車場滿佈藝術家的塗鴉，傑作 可充當會所和活動場地。這裡有多間專為此地而設的，環商舖 還有 境舒適的圖書館及咖啡館，供人休憩和閱。讀
這幢大廈掀起了一股新潮流。據說現時連南韓作風最保守的，望企業 都希 擁有一座「八爪魚」大樓。
PERHAPS THE WORLD’S STRANGEST BANK BUILDING它可能是世界上最奇形怪狀的銀行大樓
S FACTORY, SEONGSU-DONG ( THIS PAGE)
Zinoo (right) has just come from his daughter’s christening. He’s wearing a white shirt, black tie, indigo raincoat, short black trousers, white trainers and a red baseball cap: it’s very much a pop artist’s idea of formal dressing.
We are in Seongsu- dong on the north bank of the Han, east of the city centre. For the past seven years, it’s been busy turning itself from a place of old warehouses and auto workshops into the hippest ’hood in town.
Zinoo, sometimes called The Andy Warhol of Seoul thanks to his pop art leanings and publicity panache, has come up with a very contemporary Seoul deal: in return for cheap rent from the developer, Zinoo throws epic parties and invites interesting creators and entrepreneurs to share his warren of studios.
After Zinoo has shown us around the exhibitions and workshops, we walk around Seongsu. It’s soon apparent that you’re never more than a minute from a mural. There’s not an inch of finished plaster in the place. It has places like Café Onion, where you sip your brew outside on an office chair salvaged from a scrap heap, or Co:lumn, where we drank craft beer under a coconut-matting umbrella in a warehouse. Brooklyn? No. Brooklyn style with South Korean characteristics.
聖水洞S Factory（本頁）
Zinoo（上圖）剛參加過女兒的洗禮儀式回
來他。 身穿白色恤衫和藍雨靛 色 衣，黑打 色領帶，配搭黑色短褲和白色運動鞋，頭戴紅色棒球；帽 對位這 普普藝術家來說，這就是隆重的打扮。
我們在漢江以北、市中心以東的聖水洞區。過去七年，這一區歷經 翻天覆地的變，化 過去倉庫和車廠林立，現已化作城中的潮人勝地。
Zinoo因為其普普藝術風格和高調的社交生活，贏得「首爾安迪．華荷」的稱號，
發商低展以 廉的租金出租地方供他使用，讓他舉辦大型派對，邀請富巧思的創作人和企業家共用他旗下的工作室，類似的交換和合作在今天首爾屢見。不鮮
Zinoo帶我們欣賞過各個展覽和工作坊後，我們在聖水洞區四處閒逛，不久少發現，壁畫和舊建築的外露磚牆幾乎到處可見。在Café Onion咖啡店或類似的地方，你可於戶外坐在從廢物堆內找來的舊辦公椅上，細呷一口香濃啡咖 ；愛喝手工啤酒的話，可像我們一樣光顧Co:lumn，這裡由倉庫改，建餐桌上高掛用椰子纖維成織 的傘型裝飾。
這裡是布魯克區林 嗎？非也，是帶有地南道 韓特色的布魯克林風格。
IT’S SOON APPARENT THAT YOU’RE NEVER MORE THAN A MINUTE FROM A MURAL不久你就會發現這裡到處都可以見到壁畫
A VERY BIG BOOKCASE (ABOVE)
COEX is not the place to visit if, like me, you suffer from ‘shopping legs’, a condition where over-exposure to retail outlets can rob the lower limbs of their usual locomotive function. There are 1,776,000 square feet of shops and it’s underground, adding to the creeping feeling that you may be doomed to spend the rest of your days in a prison of fluorescent lights, window displays and brand promotions.
The first jelly-like symptoms of shopping legs were just beginning to manifest, and I was wondering if I’d ever see daylight again, when there appeared – a library. Not just any library, but the Starfield library, an insanely grandiloquent temple to the written word in a complex otherwise devoted to the consumer dollar.
Imagine an airy railway station taken over by bookshelves the size and shape of small ocean liners. There are 50,000 volumes here: and if you can reach it, you can read it. People do. It’s a place where lost shoppers and intense students mingle and no one is there just for the selfie.
I emerged into the sunlight and descended again into my favourite urban underground train system. Within the hour, I was on that sublime sunset bus.
So that was a tour: from an urban village nestled in the mountains to the world’s largest underground mall. Seoul has given us Gangnam style and chiselled K pop star cheeks; but if you ever think it’s just a place of surfaces and gloss – take yourself into a quiet corner and read a book. There are plenty of places to do that.
The writer stayed at Ryse. rysehotel.com
超巨型書架（左圖）
若各位我像 一樣，因街度逛 過 、光顧多太 名店雙而 腿痠痛，步舉 維艱的話，就切勿踏足COEX。這個地商下 場面積達1,776,000平方呎，店舖之多足以奪你去 下肢的活動能力，令你無法離開這個招牌燈飾奪目耀眼櫥，窗商品琳瑯目滿 ，品牌推廣活動層出不窮的浮華界世 。
我開始感到下肢乏力，甚至懷疑自己能否重見天日的時候，一座圖書館然突 出現在我的眼前是。這 非比尋常的Starfield Library圖書館屹， 立於以消費掛帥的場商內，有如一座專為書本而設的宏偉廟宇。
眼所前 見，有如在一個龐大的鐵路車站內，擺滿大小和形狀可媲美小型遠洋客輪的書架。這裡有50,000本藏書，要只 你伸手拿到，即隨可 意。借閱 而的確亦有不少人這樣做，狂因瘋 購物而頭暈 轉向的顧客和用功的學生在此共享開卷之樂，沒有人來這裡只是為了自拍分享。
我離開商場，走上陽光充沛的街然道，後再鑽入地下，搭乘 我最喜愛的都市地下鐵路。不到一小時，我登上了那輛可飽覽醉人日落風光的巴士。
整趟旅程中，我位由 於山間的摩登村落，走進全球最大的地下購物商場。雖然首讓們爾我 見豪識 氣的「江南style」和韓流星巨 的標緻臉孔，不過若你為地以這方徒具光鮮外表的話，找請 個安靜的地方閱讀再說吧！在首爾市內，這樣的好去處多的是。
作榻者下 於Ryse酒店。rysehotel.com