"Cheong, Unfavorable as It Is the Governor-General's Residence Site... Many Good Places"… Focus on Moon's Close Friend Seunghyo-sang's Past Remarks

"Cheong, a Fake of Feudal Dynasty Architecture... The Envoys to Cheong Wa Dae Are Not Happy with Words"

Seunghyo-sang, Chairman of the National Architecture Policy Committee, is delivering a greeting at the Vacant House Management and Utilization Conference held on April 23, 2019, at the Francisco Education Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, under the theme "Filling Hope of Seoul in Vacant Houses." Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kang Wooseok] There has been a continuous debate over President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol's campaign promise to relocate the Blue House office. Amid this, architect Seung Hyo-sang, a classmate of President Moon Jae-in at Gyeongnam High School and known as a close friend for 50 years, has drawn attention for his past criticism of the Blue House architecture.

In a November 2016 interview with CBS, Architect Seung said about the Blue House, "Originally, that site was prepared during the Japanese colonial period for the Japanese Governor-General's residence behind Gyeongbokgung Palace to belittle our dynasty's legitimacy, so the place itself is impure." He added, "The current appearance was built during President Roh Tae-woo's era and looks like a typical counterfeit of feudal dynasty architecture."

He continued, "Our president's office and meeting rooms have extremely high ceilings and are enormous in scale," and said, "When you enter such a huge space, you feel intimidated. It might be fine if you enter once or twice, but if you spend your entire life, several years, in continuous daily life there, you have to adjust yourself to the grandeur of that space. Then your behavior, personality, and thinking change accordingly."

He further stated, "The Blue House was built borrowing the false consciousness of a feudal dynasty, so those who reside there inevitably carry that kind of false prestige. From what I have seen so far, I have never seen anyone who lived in the Blue House end up happy."

Architect Seung emphasized, "(The Blue House) must be relocated. It should be left as a museum, and the president's residence should be moved down to a place where people normally live." He added, "The Han River area would be good. Yongsan Park would be good too; there are many places to go."

Meanwhile, President Moon also promoted the 'Gwanghwamun President' pledge during the 2017 presidential election campaign to relocate the Blue House, but abandoned the plan due to practical issues such as security.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.