[Letters] A granddaughter’s memories

Today, most people live in apartments. During last few decades, Western-style houses replaced most traditional Korean houses, known as hanok. The main reason was convenience.

But many experts are pointing out the value of the hanok, including its healthy and eco-friendly characteristics. Hanok only use natural resources such as wood, soil and stone.

Also, hanok are something new and fresh for foreign people. Therefore, developing them is one of many good ways to attract foreigners as tourists.

A number of European countries preserve their traditional houses right beside modern buildings. This is an ideal way to keep Korea’s cities culturally abundant.

Unfortunately, unlike those countries, we have built modern buildings in place of traditional houses.

So, we should start building more traditional houses, not only for looking at, but to actually inhabit. As our traditional home, the hanok has many valuable characteristics. What we should do is to add the convenience of modern houses to our hanok.

Also, it is time consider the traditional design in constructing important buildings such as governmental offices, since these are the examples of architecture that symbolize Korea to foreigners firsthand.

By adding convenience to our traditional hanok houses, we can find our cultural identity.

Cho Won-shik,

Student at Yangchung High School