Written by Peter Winston Ferretto, SNU Professor of Architecture

When things make sense they are inevitably boring. I am attracted to contradictions, to paradoxical situations: places, events that are different to what I have come to accept as conventional. Because I am an architect I inexorably connect these experiences to the city, but ultimately they all relate to dwelling, i.e. to living in the present.

When you live in a foreign soil your perception is sharper, phenomena that locals have become both accustomed and immune to, scream out at you. Invisible Seoul is a parallel Seoul, the Seoul that you all see and don’t think twice about. It has no structure; rather it lives as a series of disconnected fragments. I will here recount some of the fragments that have mesmerized me over the last two years.

Seoul in One_ Golf is everywhere in Seoul, from the minute I wake up and switch on the TV I am bombarded by TV instructors teaching me how to improve my swing. As I walk to the underground I see huge green netted mega-structures precariously poised above a petrol station, with very serious men dressed in suits pelting golf balls into the city skyline. In the underground I find specialized golf shop selling fluorescent orange tops and the latest golf clubs. Finally I reach my destination only to be told to wait in the VIP meeting room, where, you have guessed it, I find a green carpet with a putter and ball.

Pious Seoul_ Seoul has more than 48,000 churches; a staggering amount, possibly more churches than any other metropolis in the world. They come in all shapes and forms but are usually inspired by European Gothic architecture with their towering spires. These towers were traditionally used to house the churches’ bells but in Seoul they become vertical car parks. While in Europe the church is placed in the middle of the village with the town gradually expanding around it, in Seoul churches are like parasites, they colonize any site possible and in the process create a new form of hybrid architecture.

Wedding Halls_ Nuptial vows in Seoul are big business, a business that has developed into a specific industry with its own architecture. Marriage is not only a social institution but a business institution that is mutating the city. It is typical to find several large halls inside one Wedding Hall, in the manner of a Russian babushka doll. Each hall represents a different lifestyle: Hellenic, Modern, Traditional, Fantasy, even “Provence” are styles of weddings you can book and they all come with their relative studios, specific interiors, colour pallets, bouquet arrangements, sound tracks, aromas, materials, lighting atmospheres, menus and seating layouts.

Invisible Seoul is an endless catalogue of cities within a city, an infinite form of inspiration and ultimately the reason we all congregate in this very invisible city. My advice is to all readers is keep living in the invisible the visible is far less appealing.