Table of contents for March 2020 in Space

Interspersed throughout a steel frame are lightbulbs that flicker; a speaker tolls a call that rings like a bell at regular intervals; traditional Korean doors and translucent glass panels and wood; and objects that appear to be manufactured by a 3D printer are placed. It all seems haphazard and pique the visitor’s senses. These have been aggregated into three groups with massive screens that showcase graphic displays above, while a view of Dosan-daero and its traffic flows play out beyond the glass windows below—a scene that reality and virtual reality meet and merge as one, ‘Variable Scape’. On show at the Hyundai Motorstudio Seoul until Feb. 29, the show is co-hosted by Hyundai Motorstudio and Ars Electronica as a global art project that involves the work of eighteen artist groups.…

A man with one eye covered by his palm stands at the wall of the entrance; it is Achille Castiglioni, an Italian industrial designer. This is his signature posture, one that symbolizes him, suggesting a need to look at everyday life from a different perspective. ‘Achille Castiglioni and Brothers: Masters of Italian Design’ explores Castiglioni’s thoughts and works, observing his objects from various perspectives, is now on view at Hangaram Art Museum in Seoul Arts Center. This special exhibition commemorating the centenary of his birth is on show for the first time in Asia, making its debut in Korea. His disciples, Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto, participated in the design of the exhibition hall, and included about 100 exhibits, including works, drawings, and illustrations. Castiglioni, known as an industrial designer…

The first forum as part of the ‘Topography of Contemporary Chinese Architecture’ series, hosted by SPACE, was held on Feb. 11 at EAGON HAUS. With two consecutive lectures by Jung Inha (professor, Hanyang University), the event was designed to explore the formation and development process of contemporary Chinese architecture. ‘In a sense, I felt the need to expand our understanding of urbanism and architecture of Asia from the magazine publisher’s standpoint on the periphery of world architecture’, Kim Jeoungeun (editor-in-chief, SPACE) explained while backstage at the forum. ‘At first, we planned to hold special lectures by invited experts at the internal level of the editorial department, but we changed it as open lecture with the intention of sharing and discussing the issue with more people’, Kim noted. ‘I have been…

On Jan. 27, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that stpmj (Lee Seungteak, Lim Mijung) had been selected as the winner of the Design Competition for the Anchor Facility at Yangjae R&D Innovation Hub. The competition was held to establish an anchor facility for collaboration between various research institutes located in the Yangjae area, and to create an environment that could facilitate the promotion of startups in artificial intelligence as well as cooperation between similar businesses. Stpmj proposed their concept of a ‘coworking space that generates synergy’ in MEGA FLOOR: Consolidated Boundary. They planned for a floor as a typical social space with free circulation and various activities as one might find in a park downtown. The lower part of the building will accommodate open lounges maker spaces, a showroom, and…

The architecture by Lee Sojin (principal, Leeon Architects*) never seeks to overstate its presence. Rather, it assimilates itself naturally with the given topography, the old paved roads and encircling nature as if it has always been there. Lee believes that public architecture should not try to override the lives of occupants, as governed by the set ambition of an architect, but instead aim to be the background to the ordinary. The examples of Samcheong Forest Library, Soongin-jae, and Baebongsan Forest Library point us to the kind of an attitude that architecture should adopt when settling within the bounds of a park. *Previously known as Ateliers Lion Seoul…

Designing urban housing begins with the task of inquiring after the kind of spatial experiences to which the resident will be exposed, and querying how the existing living conditions may be differentiated from the status quo and reinterpreted in such a space. In the case of Light Hollow, this inquiry began with the consideration of whether a sustainable livability might be maintained by bringing to light personal values in the old city centre. It is particularly problematic here, where tangible slumification is taking place, unlike in other residential spaces where the functional cycle of developments intended for single family homes repeats. Here, ‘personal values’ means the intimate experiential values derived from the responses of the resident according to variations in light, sound and nature over time. Areas replete with such…

The participatory exhibition, ‘LEANDRO ERLICH: Both Sides Now’, opened on Dec. 17 last year, at the Buk Seoul Museum of Art. Leandro Erlich is an Argentinian installation artist, who utilizes optical illusions formed by materials’ reflective surfaces to thwart the viewer’s expectations. It is his first domestic show in five years since exhibiting the Hanjin Shipping The Box Project (2014) at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and features his other famous projects alongside artworks he has created for this show. While Leandro Erlich’s past works have explored the boundaries between material reality and fantasy, truth and falsehood, and ultimately cast doubt on visual reality, this show experiments with the boundaries between the viewer and others. The View (1997) is a video installation that allows viewers to peek…

To mark the 120-year anniversary of the introduction of trams in Seoul, the Seoul Museum of History and the Korea Electric Power Corporation are jointly hosting an exhibition titled ‘The Tram of Seoul’. The show revisits the 70-year history of trams to consider how the vehicles impacted the city’s structure and citizens’ life. It comprises three separate sections that each mark different periods of time. The first section shows the early stages of the trams’ inception. Founded in 1987 by King Gojong, the Hanseong Electric Company signed a turnkey contract with the Collbran-Bostwick Development Company that made the latter responsible for designing, installing and operating the city’s tram system. All this can be observed in the photographs, letters and copies of contracts displayed throughout the section. After tracks were laid…

In recent months, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has listed eight buildings and infrastructure facilities in Jongno-gu, Jung-gu, and Yongsan-gu. Valuable Architecture Asset is a system that supports the historical landscapes, artworks, and buildings of social-cultural importance to properly preserve and communicate their value. In general, the process proceeds through an application submitted by the owner or property manager of a building or structure. Beginning with the Chebu-dong Evangelical Holiness Church, registered in Mar. 2017, there are a total of eleven places are currently registered as Valuable Architecture Assets. Works designated Valuable Architecture Assets are divided into those from the public sector, private sector, spatial environment and infrastructure sector. In the public sector, Bukchon Hanok Hall, Seoul Craft Museum Textile Chamber, the auditorium of Sunrin Internet High School, and the…

The results of the Seoul Compact City International Design Competition have been announced. The competition was to build artificial terrain above roads upon which public housing complexes could be built. The winning project, ‘Connection City’, has drawn attention for its high feasibility while also managing to meet the requirements set by the jury. POSCO A&C Consortium’s main participants – Unsangdong Architects, Jang Yoon-gyoo, POSCO A&C – will here share their thoughts on their winning project. interview Jang Yoon-gyoo (professor, Kookmin University), Shin Changhoon (co-principal, Unsangdong Architects), Kim Deaone (CEO, POSCO A&C), Seo Hyoungjoo (senior manager of Design Group lll, POSCO A&C) × Lee Sungje 1. Living Corridor 2. Cultural Corridor 3. Green Corridor 4. community facility 5. Living SOC (gym, library, book café, startup support center, etc.) 6. neighborhood living…

The Beginning of the Forest Library KJE Kim Jeoungeun We visited the Samcheong Forest Library, Soongin-jae and the Baebongsan Forest Library in the same day. Three projects by Lee Sojin share a common feature in that they are all located within a park. This series of works raises some questions as to how small-scale public architecture can engage with a park: for example, what attitudes can architecture adopt when approaching a site such as a park – where the natural environment is of the highest priority – and what kind of programme is required of a park that is closely connected to local daily life? Also, it’s worth mentioning here that two of these projects feature a library as part their programme, and that at a previous meeting, Lee had…

Many commercial buildings have recently been built along the coastline between Busan and Ulsan. It reflects people’s desire to break away from the city centre. However, most designs either blindly following perceived trends or are excessively commercial. It leads architects to feel obliged to revert to earlier fads. CAFÉ LIEBELIEBE is a café-and-housing project located in Ganjeolgot cape, Ulsan. The project site is 100m long and 12 – 18m wide, so long and narrow. On this eastern side of the site there are dense forests of pine forests, bamboo and acacia trees, and the coast of Ganjeolgot cape to the south. How should visitors be expected to make contact with an ocean 400m before them? A Line Leading to Ganjeolgot Cape The sequence was planned according to the long and…

Today, you can attain information immediately with only the touch of a finger or the click of a mouse. More people are moving to mobile-based online media such as social media and YouTube. Some people still prefer the sense of turning over pages of a crisp newspaper and press-printed letters, but print media has now become a medium of a preference, rather than of necessity. Numerous domestic and international magazines have been forced to shift from monthly magazines to bimonthly magazines then back to quarterly magazines, soon to be discontinued. Today, magazines seem to be peripheral to the epoch, but now there is an ongoing exhibition that explores the significant 100 year history of the magazines. ‘R e a ding A r t through Kore a n A r t…

The ‘Smart City Comprehensive Portal (smartcity.go.kr)’ opened on Jan. 8 this year. It provides comprehensive information on domestic and international smart cities. This website was established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) and the Architecture & Urban Research Institute. When you access the Smart City Comprehensive Portal, you are presented with seven menus. The ‘Policy’ and ‘Project’ menus allow you to explore the past, present, and future of domestic smart cities. The laws and systems related to smart cities that have been revised or enacted since 2008 are arranged in chronological order. When you click the contents, you are directly connected to the Korean Law Information Center for detailed information. You can also view and download information about the actual projects. Detailed information about each project such…

Kim Ah-Yeon (professor, University of Seoul) Park Sohyun (president, auri) Lee Eunkyung (principal, EMA Architects & Associates) Hahn Suh-Yung (professor, Hongik University) Hong Bora (director, Gallery FACTORY) Forming a City: From Concept to Realisation Park Sohyun (Park) While running a series in SPACE, I felt that much of my thoughts related to knowing something about a city are, in fact, mistaken. It is also not easy to analyse urban phenomena and to define certain regulations, so in the previous series I pointed out many distinct characteristics, listing questions or certain things about which I was personally curious. Likewise, this roundtable was not intended to find an answer, but rather to ask various and complex questions of this city. First of all, we should take a look at the starting point…