Bukchon Hanok Village occupies the hilly ground between the Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung palaces in central Seoul. It is defined by unbroken waves of sweeping, dark-tiled roofs—traditional Korean hanoks pressed tight against each other, with the modern skyline looming just behind them. Though interspersed with boutique cafes and galleries, Bukchon remains an active residential neighborhood, where the friction between daily life and heavy foot traffic has sparked strict noise controls and tourist curfews.

The houses standing in Bukchon today are not remnants of the ancient Joseon Dynasty. They are artifacts of a 1920s real estate maneuver.

For centuries, the land north of the Cheonggyecheon Stream belonged to the yangban, Korea's highest-ranking aristocrats, who lived in sprawling estates. When Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and the dynasty collapsed, these bankrupt elites lost their stipends and began selling off their land as Japanese settlers pushed into the city center.

To keep the heart of Seoul from becoming entirely Japanese-owned, a Korean developer and nationalist named Jeong Segwon bought up the aristocratic plots. He subdivided the land and invented the "urban hanok" (gaeryang hanok). To house the emerging Korean middle class, he condensed the sprawling traditional layouts into tight U-shaped or square structures around a central courtyard (madang). He modernized the interiors with indoor plumbing and glass windows, and pushed the rooflines so close together they nearly touched. His nationalist building boom created the sea of dark clay tiles visible from Bukchon’s hills today.