Ganghwa Eupseong, a museum without a roof that will become a tremendous asset in a few decades,
small spatial organizations with accumulated ‘traces’ of life for a long time mix with adjacent ones to become alleys and villages, and when they gather and pile up, they become an urban community. I believe that the alley where life is wriggling is more beautiful than a splendid and ostentatious place. I like cities with more traces like this. We try to find the traces of life left in every corner of our city. We are happy to meet us living there now. <Editor’s Note>
To go to Ganghwa Island, you must pass through Gimpo Beol. The old scenery of the fields, which were idyllic in the open field of view, is now nowhere to be found. so inconvenient But that doesn’t seem to be all there is to it. It’s all apartments, so even if the roads are blocked, you can endure it. Rather than the inconvenience of coming and going, I don’t feel very happy, perhaps because of the weight of the island of Ganghwa.
Between Gimpo and Ganghwa, saltwater canal, famous for its fast and strong current, flows. The waterway serves as a natural moat. It is also geographically close to Kaesong and Hanyang. Because of this, the island used to get caught up in the turbulence of history instead of the crisis.
During the Mongol invasion in 1232 and the Byeongjahoran in 1636, the town was destroyed. Byeonginyangyo in 1866 and Shinmiyangyo in 1871 were persistent resistance. In 1875, the Unyoho incident occurred by Japan, which was trying to invade Joseon, and in February of the following year, the first modern treaty, the ‘Ganghwado Treaty’, was signed at Yeonmudang next to the west gate. With this unequal treaty, we face coercive modernization.
Every time you cross the bridge that crosses the sea, the island approaches you heavily. This is because the weight of history, which the country had to endure whenever it faced difficulties, is reflected in the muddy current of the canal.
Ganghwa, an island rich in cultural assets
, is a treasure trove of cultural assets. Every time I head to the island, I feel like I am being sucked into a distant time and space, like entering a museum. When you reach the island, it becomes calm. In a reality where speed is everything, you feel relaxed when you reach the old time and space where you can walk slowly. For this reason, it seems that Ganghwa Island is called a ‘roofless museum’.
It is cozy inside the four main gates of Ganghwa Eupseong, which is made up of basins. Passing east-west through the middle of the town, which is not very wide, only the road that divides the space from south to north stands out. If you deviate from this road, everywhere is narrow streets and alleys.
Some alleys are old roads reminiscent of the royal era. It is an alley that has been wiped out by footsteps for hundreds of years. Most of all, Ganghwa Eupseong is good because it is one of these winding roads. Ganghwa-eup city planning must have made a plan to straighten these crooked alleys. Rather, how about changing the frame in the direction of preserving the old road?
This space, no island, is a cultural asset. It is proof that they have endured many hurdles in history. On the contrary, this means that strong building regulations are in place. The paradox brought about by this regulation is that even though it imposes restrictions on property rights, it provides a comfortable view and view due to the low building.
Above all, it is good that there are no apartments that are so high as to pierce the sky. It can be said to be a city of healing. The atmosphere of the space created by strong regulations will surely become a tremendous asset decades later. This is the infinite potential of this space.
Due to this influence, Ganghwa-eup had to stay at a standstill for a long time. But is this just stagnation and decline? Building activity restrictions bound by regulations are now turning into valuable assets. This is because traces and achievements of urban regeneration are oozing out everywhere. On weekends, it has become a crowded city with many people looking for a retro sensibility.
Regenerating Urban Spaces
The key to urban regeneration lies in providing factors that attract visitors. Ganghwa-eup is one of the few places to take a step closer to this core of urban regeneration. It is also a result of the wit and creativity of an entrepreneur, not an official. It proves that who is the subject, after all, urban regeneration depends on creativity.
Ganghwa-eup was the mecca of Korea’s textile industry from the Japanese colonial period to before and after liberation. In Ganghwa-eup alone, there were about 60 large and small factories and workshops, and more than 4,000 people were employed. In the 1970s, cheap nylon pushed in, walking the path of decline.
Large-scale modern textile factories were built around Daegu, and chemical fibers먹튀검증 became popular. The reinforced fabric industry, which lost its competitiveness, had to close down inevitably. Workers and factories left the island one by one. Currently, only a few places in the form of cottage handicrafts survive.
Factories that were noisy with the sound of weaving machines lost their function and became trapped in the time and space of silence where footsteps were cut off. Some were abandoned like abandoned houses, and some only recalled the past when only parts of the buildings remained and prospered. One of these neglected factories breathes new life into the space, creating a butterfly effect. It is from the birth of Joyang Textile as a new space.
It was never a noisy demolition and redevelopment. The old factory building remained intact. It was just transformed into a new place by giving it completely different functions, such as a cafe and an exhibition. People who are thirsty for retro come here. Then, energy begins to circulate throughout the space that was confined in silence. In addition, people looking for Ganghwa stay and go. In other words, it provided a place to stay in Ganghwa-eup, which was busy passing by by car. It is the birth of a new cultural space.
This was an opportunity that increased the possibility of becoming a new breakthrough for Ganghwa-eup, combined with rich historical and cultural assets. With the rediscovery of old modern heritage, it empirically demonstrated that a city can be transformed wonderfully without tall apartments or buildings.
Since then, textile factories scattered throughout Ganghwa-eup have been transformed. Dongkwang Textile was reborn as a living culture experience center. Pyunghwa Textile is being operated as an experience center for making sochang, and Ihwa Silk Textile remains as a wall road, recalling people’s memories. The site of the Shimdo Textile Factory, which was said to be the largest, was created as Yongheunggung Park, leaving the tip of a tall chimney in the process.