Establishing Partnerships for Preservation of East Asian Architectural Heritage

Research Division of Architectural Heritage
HONG Eunki

Safety and Disaster Prevention Division
PARK Chanmin
KIM Sehyun

Together with China, Vietnam, Mongolia and other East Asian countries, NRICH has been striving to help conserve wooden architectural heritages in East Asia. With related experts and specialized institutions at home and abroad, NRICH has been engaged in joint research projects, workshops and seminars of various scales. It aimed at protecting cultural heritage from diverse damage and aging issues as well as from potential future disasters looming ever larger. These efforts have been contributing to the conservation of cultural heritage not only within Korea but also in other countries as well.

Joint Research with Mongolia on the Documentation and Safe Management of Cultural Heritage

Most architectural heritages are vulnerable to various environmental risks. Thus, their reasonable and effective conservation requires particularly thorough status surveys and assessments. Mongolian architectural heritage shares many similarities with its Korean counterpart. However, the former urgently requires conservation management due to deteriorating environments. Recently in Mongolia, the need for the repair, conservation, maintenance and application of cultural heritage has increased, which, in turn has led to full-fledged conservation and restoration efforts.

In addition to these efforts, the joint research team is seeking to collect basic data in a scientific and systematic way by utilizing diverse measurement instruments. The data is expected to help experts identify the cause, pattern, and characteristics of damage suffered by architectural heritage; predict future damage; and perform preventative conservation treatment before serious issues arise.

Joint Research with Japan to Promote Cultural Heritage Disaster Preparedness

To effectively protect cultural heritage from recent climate changes, earthquakes, fires, storms, floods, and other disasters, it is crucial to conduct case studies on the type of damage caused by real-world disasters and on how to prevent such damage.

Therefore, NRICH conducted a joint research project for three years starting from 2017 with the Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage at Ritsumeikan University, a research organization well-known for its disaster response studies. During the project, the two organizations shared the challenges Korea and Japan faced after disasters had caused damage to cultural heritage and discussed how they overcame such challenges. At the same time, the two organizations conducted joint field surveys in both countries, which allowed them to engage in constructive and practical discussions about cultural heritage disaster mitigation measures suitable for the respective needs of the two countries.