Seoul's village of grey tiled roofs
Bukchon
A hillside quarter of traditional Korean houses with dark grey tiled roofs, between two royal palaces.
Why Bukchon is giwa grey
Bukchon, the north village, lies between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung palaces in Seoul. It holds several hundred hanok, traditional Korean houses built around a small courtyard. Their look is quiet: curved roofs of dark grey clay tiles called giwa, walls of white plaster and stone, and exposed pine posts and beams. Most of the houses standing today were built in the early 20th century on older noble estates. The plainness is deliberate. Strong colour belonged to palaces and temples, where the woodwork is painted in a pattern of green, red, blue, yellow and white known as dancheong. A visitor can see both within a short walk. Residents ask tourists to keep their voices low.
#55585CPlaster white#EFEBE1Pine wood brown#7A5A3CDancheong green#2F8F7ADancheong red#B5382FValues are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Bukchon
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Bukchon Hanok Village" on Wikipedia. If you know Bukchon and we have it wrong, tell us.
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🇰🇷 Busan's pastel hillsideGamcheonA steep neighbourhood of small box-like houses painted in pastels, turned into an art village in 2009.
🇮🇷 The village carved in grey conesKandovanA village in north-west Iran where homes are hollowed out of pale cone-shaped rocks of volcanic ash.
🇵🇪 Inca stone and a rainbow flagCuscoThe old Inca capital: fitted grey stone walls, red tiled roofs, blue balconies and brightly dyed textiles.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Gamcheon Kr: Christophe95, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kandovan Ir: Rəcəb Yaxşı, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cusco Pe: gertrudis2010, CC BY-SA 3.0, source