History of City Foundation and Its Planning

　 Almostsix hundred years have passed since Seoulbecame the capital of Chosun Dynasty in 1394. Hansongbu, OId name of Seoul, had a hundred thousand population at that time, but has reached ten millions. AIso city boundary has expanded from 16.5k�u ｔo 605.95k�u．Seoul has Changed from a fortress town into a gigantic metropolis.
　 Being the pIace of Wiryesong，the capital of Baegche Kingdom, Seoul has been the most important geopolitical center in Korean history．As the town expanded and formed its rudimentary structure in　 KoryoDynasty,SeouI was also chosun as the capital city caIIed Hansongbu by the founder King Taejo in1394，and the history of the city of six hundred years began thereafter．
　This chapter will overview the buiIding process,including development in the port-opening in and colonial period as welI as modernization of the country of "Morning Calm"．

　 It has been as long as six hundred years since 1394, when Seoul became the capital city of Yi Dynasty. The city has grown more than ten times in its population, and expanded thirty eight times in its boundary.
　 It took almost four hundred years (during the period from the King Saejong's to Sunjo's) for 100,000 inhabitants in Hansongbu, the capitalcity of Yi Dynasty, to increase up to 200,000. At least 250,000 residents lived in the Kyongsongbu, the different name of the capital city during the period of Japanese occupation. It took 25 years for 250,000 inhabitantsto grow to 500,000 but it needed only 10 years to become 1 million. As the capital city of the Republic of Korea, Seoul has shown explosive population growth from 1 to 2 million in just l5 years, and from 2 to 4 million as well as 4 to 8 million in every consecutive lO years.
　 The municipal jurisdiction has been adjusted several times: l36k�u in l945, 268.35k�u in 1949, 613.04k�u in 1963 and 627.06k�u in 1973 and 605.95k�u to the present.
　 During such enormous expansion Seoul has also experienced drastic changes in its structure. It had to be rebuilt every time after frequent fires and foreign invasions. After the liberation of 1945, the city was once devastated in the Korean War, but with continuous economic growth and urbanization since the 70's Seoul has become one of the largest cities around the world.

Seoul before the Capital City
　 Many archaeological evidences in the Ham river basin show that this area has been the most important region in Korean peninsula not only in geo-political but sociocultural aspects. Like most ancient towns which took advantage of river, Seoul and its vicinity have been the site of pre-historical settlements.
　 In the early lst century, it evolved from the rustic villages into the capital town of the Baegche Kingdom.
Since it had been strategically important region, its territorial status changed frequently: the Wiryesong of Baegche was renamed Bughansanju, or Nampyong-yang of the Kokuryo kingdom. As political leadership shifted to the Shilla in the late era of three Kingdoms, it was again renamed Hanju or Hanyanggun.
　 It was from the Koryo Dynasty that Seoul had good appearances enough to be a capital city. By the completion of three capital city system in 1067, the 21st year of the King Munjong, Seoul was designated one of the capital cities called Namgyong or Southern Capital. The palace was constructed; people settled down in Seoul.
　The town began thereafter to form its spatial structure. During the late Koryo Dynasty era the government actually moved to Seoul, but returned soon to the old capital, due to poor administrative readiness and social unrest caused by the dreadful tiger incident and attempted assassinations.

Transfer of the Capital
　 King Taejo, the founding father of the Yi Dynasty or Chosun Dynasty, enthusiasti.cally drove the transfer of capital both for the purpose of restoration of people's support for the new government and for the purpose of severing the relationship with the former regilne. But it needed almost thirteen years'disputes to decide Seoul as the site of capital city. Among alternative sites were Mts. Kyeryong and Muak.
　The main criteria for the site selection for the capital was feng-shui or geomancy. The long discussions were focused on the interpretation of the alternative sites on basis of feng-shui theory. Finally in 1405, the bright and brave son of the founder, King Taejong selected Hanyang among three candidate sites. The eligibility of the city by its supporter were that it had the locational advantages for defense and transportation by the river and also had good geographical features of the feng-shui. Although King Chungiiong, a successor of the King Taejo, once returned to the old capital, Kaesung, but finally the government returned to Seoul in October 1405.
　This decision has many implications, meaning that Seoul has become not only the geo-political center but the hub of socio-cultural forces to put the history and culture of Three Kingdoms scattered since the Old Chosun Kingdom together into a completely united Country.

Construction of New Capital
　 The King Taejo started to plan the new capital city by establishing the "Planning Board and Construction Authority for the New Capital and Palaces" in 1394. The capital had been renamed as Hansong, substituting for Hanyang, and new administrative ward system had been set up in the same year, having 5 divisions and 52 districts. It had dual administrative systems of the inner city and the suburban residential quarters with range of 4km form the city.
　 In 1395 construction works started: ancestral and royal temple, palaces and government offices were built up first of all. The next was distribution of housing sites for government officers and civilians. The Chongmyo and Kyongbokgung were completed in September. In l395, the Construction Authority of City Wall began to build the tenii-fortification on the surrotlnding mountains according to the principles of feng-shui.
　 In spite of urgent need of the new capital for the new dynasty, the actual construction works were delayed due to several interferences, such as the King Chunfjong's return to the old capital. The substantial construction works began in 1405 when the King Taejong came back to Seoul, and it was nearly finished in 1423 by the completion of the royal shopping mall and other infrastructure like river works. The city wall was extensively reinforced; brooks traversing the town were cleaned. The city had remained its original form until 1592 when the Japanese invasion swept out the capital.

Seoul of the Mid-Yi Dynasty
　 After the peaceful period of two centuries from the King Taejo to Sejong, the city began to face with continuing wars and f'oreign invasions; original form of the city vanished. The reconstruction of the city devastated by fires, wars and internal turbulance took almost one hundred years from the period of King Hyojong to Yongio. The mid-Yi Dynasty could be said of ..the period of ordeal.''
　 The destruction scale during the war of nearly fifty years was so immense and nation-wide that it was almost unable to rehabilitate the city within a short period. It took again another century to restore the city to its original form after the period of King Yongjo.

Seoul of the Late-Yi Dynasty
　 The population of the capital drastically decreased during the three decades' wars, but it increased immediately afterwards. As population grows, the area within the range of 4km from the wall of the capital reserved for the forest protection had to be released for residential use.The quarters included the existing 5 divisions of administrative ward.
　 As the town kept expansions, so did commercial developments, forming its suburban. Among them Yongsan, Sogang, Mapo, Sobinggo, and Mopodong (currently Oksudong) were major nodal points of commodity innux, while Luwon (now Howond9ng in Uijongbu City), Songpa, and Gwachon were transportation nodes. The suburbs were nearly as large as the local towns in its population. ;

Port Opening and Occupation Period
　 At the end of l9th century, due to both the unwanted opening of ports and occupation by the foreign countries including Japan and China, Korea had to give up to remain a ''hermit kingdom.''Foreign residential quarters affected the'existing urban structure during-the early modernization period.
　 The southern part of downtown was then developed into military base by Japanese who lived in the Namchon (south village), with result of moving the existing urban core to the new commercial center of the colonial Seoul. Consequently, there was locational diversification of urban 'functions: Chongro district as a political and administrative center, Chunggu as an economic and commercial center, and Yongsan as a military district.
　 The presence of the streetcar was another factor to change the city's landscapes. Crossing the city from southwest to northeast, it forced to transform the city into a more mobilized city. The total length reached 39km by the last completion of the Uljiro line. The colonialgovernment carried out many city devq!opment projects from l912 to 1918.　 In 1926, the first city planning of Seoul was provided, and there were more proposals for city planning from l928 to 1930, all of which were unable to implement because of no financial support and working plans.
　 The new city planning act, was announced in 1934.　 Under this legislation, there were many land adjustment projects in Yongdungpo, Donam, Daehyon from l937 to 1944. Among the planning laws, Air Defense Law of 1937 was the most influential act, which had strong impacts on the future city planning of Seoul.

The Founding of the Modern Metropolis
　 The fifteen years between the liberation of I945 and the end of the first Republic government was the period of dynamic changes. Seoul as the capital renewed its legal status during the period: in l945 Kyongsongbu was renamed Seoul City, and next year it was changed into the Special and Free City of Seoul, then finally the Special City of Seoul.
　 Also it experienced rapid growth of pop'ulation due to the innow of overseas immigrants. But the outbreaks of the Korean War devastated almost entire urban structure.
　 After the truce, Seoul was recovered by continuous reconstruction projects. In l952 a new city plan was proposed at Pusan (which was a temporary capital city during the Korean War), but was not implemented.
　 In the 60's, Seoul experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization with implementation of the first and second national economic development plan(1962-7l). The influx of migrants into Seoul continued in this period. In l963 the planning jurisdiction doubled its boundary, extending toward Kangnam and the northeastern region.

Toward a Modern Cosmopolis
　 At the beginning of the 70's the city planning began to focus on the control of growth as the overconcentration caused a major problem. New substantial measures were proposed to control the concentration in the metropolitan ref,crion of Seoul and to induce balanced development for the whole country.
　The period after the 70's was a transitional moment toward a modern city. Bristling highiise office buildings appeared in the new urban areas, and Kangnam was developed with construction of many apartments.
Subcenters also grew: Chongyangni, Miari, Yongdungpo, Chonho-dong, Yongdong, and small cities including and small cities including Buch’on，Uijongbu，Songnam，Anyang，Panwol，and Kwangmyong began to formits citystructure.
　Consequently tbe previous twin pattern distinguished with south and north towns by the Cbonggye river and Chong−ro was enlarged and extended beyond the Hanriver，transfbming itself into a gigantic metropolis that had several satellite cities．
In the 80’s，'86 Asian games and，'88 Seoul Olympic Games activated once again urban development to aim at a "cosmopolitan"city. It was a "maintenance and construction period．
　

Change of Urban Structure
　 Seoul remained its original urban structure until the mid-Yi Dynasty. There were, however, gradual increase in population and commercial development after the l7th century, and in the late period satellite cities appeared in the suburbs. During the port-opening and occupation period of the late l9th and early 20th century, the previous urban residential and street pattern, which lying from east to west and pe.netrating through the city wall, changed into a north-south axis in its direction.
　 After the liberation, extremely rapid growth of population and urban sprawls that stretched far beyond the Ham river has brought about the presence of new subcenters and satellite cities around Seoul.

Transformation of the Street Networlk
　 The major network of the original streets remained unchanged until the end of 19th century. But at the beginning of the modernization period, Seoul had experienced with many structural changes in its circulation system. The ChongiO Street running from Tongdae-mum (Great East Gate) to Kyonghui palace was the major arterial.
　 In the early colonial period, new north-south axis was added, introducing city's southward expansion. The existing inner ring road was then completed in the late colonial period by the construction of the Toegyero.
　 Yulgokno, Sajik tunnel, establishing the similar form of the current road network of the downtown.
The transportation system of the early Hansungbu period was mainly for pedestrian traffic, and in the Kyongsongbu period the system was mixed with pedestrian and streetcar. Current transportation in Seoul depend upon subway and passenger cars as well as buses.
　 As a result, the street network has been changed to mass transportation system.

The Formulation of the Urban Pattern
　 Basic elements of urban form in Seoul originated from Hanok (the Korean house), which had organized pattern of condensed andhierarchical clustering of traditional houses in the '┓', '［ ', and '□ ' shapes. This urban tissue had been gradually dissolved and thus disappeared during several wars and rapid modernization.
　It can only be observed nowadays in some areas, but with big change from the original form. The original clustering patterns of '┓', '［ ', and '□ ' have been replaced with new two-story modern houses, apartments and condominium houses.,the official and commercial district along the SaejongiO has been transformed into new highiise government building complex. In the meantime, newly developed Kangnam has emerged in entirely different urban pattern with modern urban tissues like hit,crhiise office buildings, super block, wide roads.
　 Since it has been formulated by Korean, the urban tissue still contains some inherent properties of traditional culture, whether it isperceived in the visible form or not.