Water Treatment Facilities as Civil Engineering Heritage from Guardian of Urban Sanitation to Symbol of Urban Colonial Modernity, in the Case of Ttukdo (Seoul) Water Purification Plant

Abstract

Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, built in 1908, is the first modern waterworks facility in Seoul and the first waterworks industrial heritage in Korea. Modern waterworks were established in order to resolve insanitary conditions of the city as a part of modernization projects; however, it had been developed with discrimination and colonial domination under Japanese occupation. This paper investigates how Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, a product of colonial modernity, became the representative modern waterworks heritage in both aspects of a colonial and civil engineering heritage. Based on archival research, this study analyzes the transformation process of Ttukdo Water Purification Plant, and the changing meaning and value with the historical background. As a result, Ttukdo Water Purification Plant has been characterized by the universal features of water industry heritage, continuity as a facility to produce clean water, and symbolic meaning as the guardian of urban sanitation. On the other hand, Ttukdo plant is regarded as a monument which was conceived under complicated historical conditions—at the confluence of modernization, colonial rule, and emergent urban needs.