09/03/2025
www.kijunkim.com
Atelier KI JUN KIM's research and exhibition project, Wonhyo-ro Hyundai Motor Repair Center Archiving Project, supported by ZER01NE in 2022, has been updated on the website.
Video Work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO1l4KJ3VnM&ab_channel=AtelierKIJUNKIM
Curation & Direction: Ki Jun Kim
Documentation & Editing: Atelier KI JUN KIM
Exhibition Installation: Atelier KI JUN KIM
Photography & Video Recording: Namsun Lee, Ki Jun Kim, Sangmin Kim
2022
The Hyundai Motor Company’s Seoul Service Center (Service Center No. 1), which opened in 1969 in Wonhyo-ro 4-ga, was more than a simple auto repair shop. Over five decades, it adapted to shifts in industry, urban expansion, and changing modes of use, becoming a structural landmark within Seoul’s urban landscape. Demolished in 2024, it no longer exists as a physical space, yet it continues to persist through memory and documentation.
This archival project seeks to go beyond a purely architectural analysis, instead exploring the temporality and spatial significance of the Wonhyo-ro Service Center. It reflects on not only its function as a repair shop but also the traces of labor, rest, and urban events embedded in its spaces. By documenting how this site evolved and was ultimately dismantled, we attempt to situate it within the broader narrative of Seoul’s urban transformation.
Layers of Time in the City
The Wonhyo-ro Service Center was originally established as a space for automotive maintenance. Built in 1969 on the former site of Hyundai Construction’s heavy equipment factory, it began as a small workshop servicing 20–30 vehicles per day. Over time, it expanded into one of Seoul’s primary auto repair facilities.
Even after its role as a repair center diminished, the site continued to evolve. Between 2019 and 2021, it hosted ZER01NE DAY, transforming into a site for artistic and technological experimentation. No longer solely an industrial space, it became an urban event venue where new creative practices unfolded.
This transformation, though temporary, recalls the approach of Germany’s Ruhr Museum, which preserves industrial heritage while reinterpreting its meaning. The Wonhyo-ro Service Center similarly transitioned from a working facility to a repository of urban memory—one of Seoul’s most recent historical sites, shaped by layers of time and use.
The Duality of Exposure and Concealment
- Construction That Reveals Itself
The rooftop of Repair Building 1 housed a workshop built from concrete masonry units (CMU), stacked atop a reinforced concrete structure. Every element was left exposed—walls of block masonry supported beams, steel rails guided sliding doors, and sandwich panels rested upon extended steel frames. The directness of this construction reinforced its identity as a space of technical work.
- Methods of Concealment in the Interior
However, within the same building, different spaces were constructed with contrasting approaches. The first floor left its steel framework and deck plates exposed, whereas the second-floor break room was finished with gypsum board and marble-patterned tiles, concealing the underlying structure. This contrast highlights the service center as more than a purely industrial facility—it was a layered space where labor and rest, exposure and concealment, coexisted.
- The Juxtaposition of Solidity and Improvisation
Buildings 12 and 13 further revealed the site’s architectural complexity. Building 13 featured a solid composition of concrete columns supporting steel trusses, whereas Building 12 appeared makeshift, with steel elements hastily patched together as needed. This coexistence of permanence and improvisation reflected the evolving nature of the space—more than just an industrial structure, it was a site shaped by adaptation over time.
Disappearance as a Point of Inquiry
The Wonhyo-ro Service Center was not merely a repair facility but a site where industrial labor, mobility, creativity, and everyday moments accumulated over more than half a century. While much of Seoul embraces change by replacing or concealing traces of aging structures, Wonhyo-ro preserved its historical layers, paradoxically enriching the complexity of the city’s urban fabric.
With its demolition in 2024, the service center has vanished as a physical entity, but its meaning remains. As the site disappears, it raises fundamental questions about how cities remember, preserve, and transform spaces of labor and everyday life. The significance of the Wonhyo-ro Service Center does not end with its absence—it persists as an urban legacy that must be remembered.
