GUARDIANS OF HERITAGE
Balancing Beauty and Precision Over the past five decades, Kee Heung-sung has produced countless miniature models of architecture – both ancient and modern, from East and West. But the crowning glory of his peerless endeavor is his exquisite replicas of traditional Korean structures. Heo Yun-hee Reporter, The Chosun Ilbo
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Ha Ji-kwon Photographer
he Kee Heung Sung Museum, located in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, about an hour’s drive from Seoul, is an intriguing miniature world. Its creator and director, Kee Heungsung, showed a talent for drawing and making things from an early age. His father wanted him to work in civil engineering, saying there would be a surge of public works if the two Koreas were reunited. Kee was born in 1938 in Ongjin, Hwanghae Province, which is now part of North Korea. His family came down to the South shortly after the Korean War broke out in June 1950. His model-making career dates back to 1967 when, as a rookie architectural designer, he grabbed the attention of Kim Swoo-geun, (1931-1986), a pioneering modern architect and then senior vice president of Korea Engineering Consultants Corp. The company was commissioned to build the grounds for a trade fair. 46
Kee Heung-sung looks at a miniature model of the nine-story wooden pagoda of Hwangnyong Temple, which was the largest Buddhist temple of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935). When building models of ancient structures, he does not use nails but follows traditional dovetail joinery techniques.
Kee made models with scrap material in his office. When Kim saw them, he exclaimed, “Where did this demon come from?” That was the moment Kee’s long and successful career took off.
Unmatched Talent
His hand was deft and precise. He would be finishing a model when others were still making sketches. And so, having gained Kim’s absolute trust, Kee was promoted to team manager at age 31. In the 1970s, in the midst of the country’s rapid industrialization, he built almost all the presentation models used for national development projects. In a sense, his work bore witness to the history of Korea’s economic development. “Back then, I was like a relief pitcher at briefings for the president. Drawings have certain limitations in explaining buildings. My models made it far easier to understand the design,” said Kee. He worked on a continuous series of government projects, including the construction of the Gyeongbu (Seoul-Busan) Expressway and development of Yeouido, an island on the Han River that is home to the National Assembly. He worked hard day and night, taking quick naps on a cot in his office. The skills Kee had polished in creating miniature models of modern architecture came into their own when he tackled historic buildings. The turning point came when the National Museum of Korea asked him to make a miniature replica of the legendary nine-story wooden pagoda of Hwangnyong Temple, built in the seventh century during the Silla Kingdom. This had been Silla’s largest Buddhist temple, founded to pray for the Buddha’s protection of the country, but it was destroyed by a fire in 1238 during the Mongol invasions. Kee created a fourmeter-high model of the pagoda, which was known to have stood some 80 meters tall overlooking Gyeongju, based solely on historical records. Recalling that time, he said, “It was back in the 1980s. I spent three years making drawings of the presumed structure, KOREANA SPRING 2021
