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Historical records on Seoul to be stored at single archives

Historical records on Seoul to be stored at single archives

Posted January. 19, 2015 07:11,   

한국어

The "Seoul Archives," a facility that can store up to 1 million pieces of records on the Seoul city administration, will open in September 2017 for the first time among the metropolitan and provincial governments in Korea.

The Seoul metropolitan government will assemble and store at the Seoul Archives documents, photos and videos that are worth permanent preservation, including blueprints of former Seoul City Hall building older than 30 years, major records from the city administration, and private-sector data. The 97,000 pieces of historical materials generated from the Seoul Metropolitan City have been separately stored at ward offices across the city and the "Cheongdo document archives" in Cheongdo County, North Gyeongsang Province.

The Seoul Archives will be constructed at the former site of the Korea Centers for Disease Control in Nokbeon-dong in Seoul’s Eunpyeong district, as a facility with two underground levels and five stories, which will have a total floor space of 15,920 sq. meters. The disease control center has been relocated to the township of Osong, Cheongju City, North Chungcheong Province. “Due to security reasons, it was inevitable in the past to construct the archives in Cheongdo, which takes more than five hours to reach,” said a source at the city`s information disclosure policy division. “Only a couple of people visit the Cheongdo archives a month. But when the Seoul Archives opens in 2017, any Seoulites and tourists can conveniently access historical records within the city.”

Among the archives design submissions by a total of 33 companies in a Seoul Archives design contest, "Land Monument" under the theme "Dialogue between the City, People and Nature" by Haeahn Architecture, was picked as the finalist on the day. “The design was excellent in terms of ideas on interlinking of interior spaces that takes advantage of surrounding topography, and the function of the flow in archival records as an information and culture space,” said Prof. Shim Jae-hyeon, architecture department at Sejong University who served as the chief of the review panel.

The Seoul metropolitan government will consider using the Cheongdo document archives as supplementary storage facility or museum even after the Seoul Archives’ completion set in 2017, rather that immediately selling it.