“The first thing I saw when I went there was
“It’s often the last we see of it.”

『A Philologist's Modern Korean Field Trip 1·2』 is a book that contains the field trip methodology and stories of the nationwide field trips of Kim Si-deok, a philologist who began his "city field trips" in the summer of 2017.
Kim Si-deok's field trip, which began with an interest in the urban areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi-do, soon extended to cities all over the country as well as rural, mountainous, and fishing villages, and took on the character of a kind of 'exploration of civilization theory.'
Kim Si-deok vividly captures the rapidly changing landscape of Korea in the early 21st century and the colorful lives of the citizens who have lived here to this day.
Without a driver's license, walking on foot alone.

Cultural housing, which was widely popular in the early to mid-20th century, began to decline in the late 1970s.
According to the results of a survey conducted in 1977 by the Korea Housing Bank (today KB Kookmin Bank) on 2,000 people who had purchased housing in Seoul, Incheon, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, Masan-si, Gyeongsangnam-do (today Masanhappo-gu and Masanhoewon-gu, Changwon-si), and Jeju-si, Jeju-do, 96.3% of the respondents answered that they wanted to live in “a modern cultural house with 40-60 pyeong (of land) and 4-5 rooms, a standing kitchen, and a flush toilet” (Maeil Business Newspaper, July 26, 1977, “96% Want a Single-Family House”).
Looking at that point, we can see that the demand for cultural housing was healthy nationwide until then.
However, starting with the Hangang Mansion in Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul in 1971 and the Model Apartment in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, strong competitors in cultural housing began to appear one after another, with the construction of Banpo Public Housing in Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu (then Dongjak-dong, Gwanak-gu) in 1974, Jamsil Public Housing in Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu (then Gangnam-gu) in 1978, and Hyundai Apartments in Apgujeong-dong, Gangnam-gu in 1982.
At that time, middle-class citizens in northern Seoul were agonizing over whether to buy a cultural home or move into an apartment complex, and we now know that their choice at that moment determined their economic situation for decades to come.
--- p.40~41, from “Cultural Housing”

Recently, a movement to appreciate windows aesthetically has emerged in places like Taiwan and Japan.
In Taiwan in particular, there is a movement to understand the bars that decorate windows as 'iron flower windows' (鐵花窓), that is, iron flowers blooming on windows.
In Korea, although not as many as in Taiwan, a wide variety of window designs can still be seen.
It is possible that each and every bar in a window was chosen and installed with aesthetic sensibility in mind, and this can be especially evident if multiple windows in a single wall have different bars.
You can also see cases where the window frames are made to protrude on all sides, a style that is common in modern Japanese buildings.
Even after Korea was liberated from Japanese rule on August 15, 1945, home builders throughout Korea continued to build buildings as they had learned during the colonial period.
Given these circumstances, Japanese-style houses can be found widely throughout the country, including in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province and Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province.
--- p.60~63, from “Citizen Art”

Especially when touring the city in July and August, you will often see grapes growing above the front doors of single-family homes.
The sight of green grape vines growing on the beautifully decorated main gate and bunches of grapes hanging in clusters wrapped in white paper makes for a unique and captivating sight on a summer city tour.
So far, I've seen examples of vineyards being planted above the front gates of single-family homes in Seoul, Incheon, and Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. I'm not sure about the southern regions, but it's a common practice at least in the central region.
--- p.79~80, from “Flowerpots and Jars”

One of the most frustrating moments while exploring a city is when you come across a beautiful building, but the photos don't turn out well because of the cars parked in front of it.
Every time this happens, I feel like lifting the car in front of the building with a crane and moving it somewhere.
But even if you don't go this extreme, if you find a nice building, I recommend going there several times to find a time when there are no cars around.
The neat building of the Oriental Medicine Clinic in Baedari Village, Dong-gu, Incheon, was something I was able to photograph by chance one night after visiting the area for several years.
As it happened, there were no cars parked in front of the building.
The most important virtue of fieldwork is persistence.
--- p.189~191, from “Commercial and Public Facilities”

People believe that the essence of culture remains in the geographical center, but in reality, it is in the outskirts that the most ancient culture remains.
It is for this reason that the ancient documents of the Tang Dynasty and the Neo-Confucianism of the Song Dynasty remain not in present-day Beijing, but in Dunhuang on the western border and the Korean Peninsula on the eastern border.
The most numerous and best preserved 20th-century Seoul tile-roofed houses are in Seongbuk-gu and Yeongdeungpo-gu, not in Bukchon or Seochon.
However, just as the movement to preserve Seochon's renovated tile-roofed houses was met with fierce opposition just over a decade ago, blocks of renovated tile-roofed houses in Seongbuk-gu and Yeongdeungpo-gu are being demolished in 2023 amid public indifference.
Recently, a block of triangular tile-roofed houses near Exit 7 of Gireum Station on Seoul Subway Line 4 in Gireum-dong, Seongbuk-gu was demolished for reconstruction.

--- p.140~143, from “Improved Tile-Roofed House”