Till Jan 3: Indo-Korean exhibition “Tall Storey” portrays vertical growth of apartments in Seoul, New Delhi
While differentiating a hanok from a haveli is obvious, it is difficult to do the same with a high-rise apartment in Seoul and one in Delhi.
New Delhi: The exhibition ‘Tall Storey’ has traveled to New Delhi to showcase high–rise construction in urban settings of India and Korea.
Open for public view till January 3, the exhibition is in-depth research on high-rise living in sister cities Seoul and New Delhi and is envisaged and curated by Yang Seunghee, Urbanist, and Manasvini Hariharan, Architect & Urban Planner.
Shin Bong-kil, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India formally opened the exhibition for public view at Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) recently.
The exhibition ‘Tall Storey’ shows a clear picture of changing housing styles in India and Korea and has captured in-depth details on similarities and differences. High-rise living has become a global phenomenon and now is discernible across the world.
Korea and India are two peninsulas in Asia but have significantly different geography, climate, scale, and culture – a difference that is reflected in its traditional architecture. Two countries whose traditions of housing were easily distinguishable merely a century ago, now have the high-rise apartment as a common expression in mainstream housing construction.
Tall Storey documents housing construction in the two capital sister cities – Seoul & Delhi. While differentiating a hanok (Korea) from a haveli (India) is obvious, it is difficult to do the same with a high-rise apartment in Seoul and one in Delhi. This homogeneity of housing typology, which is drastically different from the situation just a century ago, is what we present in Tall Storey.
This exhibition is a product of the research by Yangji & Co., Seoul-based urban planning, design, and research agency. It is a part of its initiative to promote Indo-Korean dialogue by Korean Culture Centre India
Yang Seunghee and Manasvini Hariharan both are part of Yangji Co., Ltd. A company that has worked on the research, planning, design, supervision, safety diagnosis and management of national infrastructure in South Korea since its establishment in 2000.
The exhibition presents various maps, images, films and miniatures of various houses of India and Korea. The exhibition shows maps of Seoul and Delhi, not by their administrative borders but by their road networks. Looking at cities through just its road network allows one to look at its urban fabric through a different lens. Here the exhibition shows Seoul and Delhi’s urban road networks.
Often in cities, building footprints alone can help form the map lines are usually drawn. Building footprints tell about the density of cities and metropolises. Here the comparison is in between the densities of Seoul and Delhi through its building footprints to show the urban situation.
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High Rise Branding in Seoul & Delhi – Some of the most poignant messages about high-rise culture can be understood from the ads that the companies publish through various media platforms. In India, newspaper advertisement space is like prime real estate companies pay a premium to be on the front page and to get full-width advertisements published.
In Korea, these advertisements are apartment-branding to sell lifestyle as a product. Whether in India or Korea, we observe common, recurring themes in these advertisements. This section is a collection of various posters and advertisements for high-rise living compiled from newspapers, online platforms, developer press releases and model houses.
The exhibition also had a short film on high-rise production in Seoul – a Reality/Aspiration which documents the high-rise situation in Korea today. It shows the omnipresence of the typology and a look into apartment-living. It shows the scale of apartment construction sites and how the typology is prevalent in the city fringe.
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It also offers a look inside the open-viewing of a model house, a popular day for potential buyers to get a first-hand experience of high-rise living and shows how the high-rise is presented and marketed to customers.
