Constructing a 'miracle,' architecture, national identity and development of the Han River. A critical exploration of architecture and urbanism: Seoul, 1961--1988

The transformation of Seoul over the recent decades of rapid industrialization, in particular under the two dictatorial regimes of Park Chung-Hee (1961-1979) and Chun Doo-Whan (1980-1987), illustrates the ways in which the authoritarian state led the process of urbanization and provided a formative framework for national culture, politics, and citizenship. Within a single generation, the city of Seoul had grown to be not only a "global city," but also the national capital of South Korea. Even by the "Asian standard" Seoul had an unusually high concentration of people, wealth, and economic resources and therefore generated a particular form of urbanization, a postcolonial urban condition characterized by bolstered nationalism.;This period was also a time of emerging citizenship in the city where citizens of Seoul were mobilized by the state to achieve a national agenda of development. During this course both the State and citizenry witnessed the Han River emerge as the central focus of the urbanization. Recognizing this nexus, this study explores the relationships between citizenship and the state-initiated mega projects constructed along the Han River, the city's most prominent natural landscape.;This dissertation is composed in chronological order where each chapter explores the on-going "mega" scale state projects. What emerges is a reexamination of the past development of the Han River as a central thread for the narration of the South Korean nation. Chapter 1 introduces theoretical dimensions of urbanization in Seoul during the time. It discusses the state role that influences citizenship through the built environment. Chapter 2 focuses upon the formative years of the nationalist discourse surrounding a particular project, the Yoido Island development (1969). Chapter 3 extends this discussion of the nation-building project and debates the formation of Seoul's middle class in conjunction with the creation of GangNam (1968-75), the new city built by the fear of another war with North Korea. Chapter 4 returns to the state agenda that utilized inter-Korean rivalry towards achieving another grand proposal, the New Capital Project (1976-1979). Chapter 5 continues on to the Seoul Olympics (1988), where unrealized dream of the New Capital Project was partially fulfilled. In providing a profound legacy to Seoul's urban spaces, these four mega-projects become the backdrop for the story of Poidong in Chapter 6. This conclusive chapter discusses the current practice of citizenship.;Through these complex and even paradoxical cases, this study rethinks the constructed meaning of "nation" expressed in urban mega-projects along the Han River that have been fondly described by the popular South Korean catchphrase, the "miracle of the Han."...