The adoption and refinement of reinforced concrete construction in early 20th Century Korea

Abstract

This study examines the advances that reinforced concrete structures have gone through from the introduction of concrete to Korea in the early 20th century to the development of composite action between reinforcement and cement. At the earliest stage, concrete was used exclusively for foundations and ground floors and was later used as the floor system in multiple story construction with steel beams and corrugated steel plates. As an example of this progression, in the Chosen Hotel which was completed in 1914, steel bars were used for the reinforcing materials in the concrete floors and steel beams were covered with concrete for fire-proofing. This led to the use of prefabricated Kahn type reinforced concrete girders in the construction of the Chosen Government-General in 1918. In the late 1920's, the introduction of stirrups and bent-up reinforcement using the Hennebique method in construction enabled the integration of columns, floors and girders into a composite action structure. For instance, at this time, the application of this method was adopted in public buildings including the main office building of the train station and government buildings in Gyeongseong.