Newly introduction of indoor passages in Changdeokgung Palace in the early twentieth century: a typological analysis and its architectural implications

Traditional Korean palace architecture lacked fully enclosed indoor passages; movement between buildings occurred through Korean Yard or semi-indoor spaces. Between 1907 and 1920, Changdeokgung Palace underwent transformation with the first introduction of indoor passages. Through systematic analysis of historical architectural drawings, newspapers, and restoration documents, this study identifies two functionally distinct passage types: Corridor and Hallway. Corridors connected separate buildings, exhibited structural independence, and replaced Korean Yard pathways. Hallways organized interior space within single buildings with structural integration and compact proportions. These passage types experienced dramatically divergent trajectories. Corridors were largely removed during 1990s–2000s restorations and did not proliferate in post-independence architecture, while Hallways became universally standardized across residential, institutional, and commercial buildings. This divergence reflects functional persistence, cultural compatibility, and path dependency through regulatory institutionalization. The transformation involved neither simple replacement nor straightforward colonial imposition, but complex hybridity where traditional and modern spatial concepts coexisted. This study refines conceptual frameworks by distinguishing previously conflated passage types, extends postcolonial hybridity theory to palace architecture, provides longitudinal analysis from colonial introduction through contemporary practice, and offers implications for heritage preservation recognizing multiple legitimate historical layers.