Table of contents for September 2020 in Space

The exhibition hall has been taken over by a range of chairs that all seem to share the same skeleton. An exhibition reinterpreting the Lily Chair by the Danish furniture company Fritz Hansen was on show at MO-NO-HA Seongsu from July 28 to Aug. 8. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Lily Chair, young Korean designers from various fields showed their work that transformed Lily Chair with their own materials in ‘Movement in Silence - Imperfect Beauty’. Cha Jeongwook, the curator of the exhibition, rates the form of these original pieces highly: ‘Made with a bending technology to create smooth curves, the Lily Chair radiates both aesthetic pleasure and comfort’. Explaining the intention behind the show, he noted, ‘I hoped to encourage encounters with experimental designs in…

The exhibition ‘City as a Verb’ opened on July 14 at the Seoul Hall of Urbanism & Architecture. Planned as a follow-up programme to the 2019 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, the Seoul Metropolitan Government wanted to shed light on the issues faced by world major cities and the measures presently in place to solve them. Out of the 84 participants at the last biennale, 17 cities that share Seoul’s challenges participated in this exhibition. John Hong (professor, Seoul National University), the curator of ‘City as Verb’, classified the present situation faced by world cities as directed by six themes: sustainability, urban regeneration, mixed-use development, community participation, mobility, and integration with urban infrastructure. Each theme derives from his planning intention: ‘We can understand a city in a more active…

In an effort to specialise the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Gwacheon, and to breathe new life into its open air sculpture garden, the MMCA is launching the MMCA Gwacheon Project 2020. As with the Young Architects Programme and the Deoksugung Outdoor Project, this will be a location-specific installation project. Whereas the other programmes were situated squarely in city centres, the Gwacheon Project will aim to place a stronger focus on the theme of communing with nature. Raising keywords such as breathing, relaxation and enjoyment to define this event, the MMCA, Gwacheon will use its outdoor area to present artworks that can double as rest areas for visitors. It tasked 15 architects, recommended by academics, critics and those in the media, with interpreting the spatial and situational…

Kim Yeram (Kim): SOAP runs an architectural firm to conduct builing projects and the Museum SODA, which is dedicated to installations and exhibitions. You maintain a horizontal relationship between your two design teams. I would like to hear more about how you came to operate your design studio in this way. Kwon Soonyup (Kwon): When I came back to Korea after finishing my study, I had concern about how best to organise my architectural firm. At that time I noticed that many architectural firms were under the control of one architect, particularly in terms of their design approach. It is often assumed that the privileging of a principal architect’s style makes it easier to build a house style and identity, but I think it this approach inevitably exhausts the inner…

Chung Isak opened a.co.lab architects in 2013, and has worked as a professor at Dongyang University since 2017. While carrying out social architecture projects and collaborative research projects, he has also participated as a designer or artist in architecture and contemporary art exhibitions. His representative works include Yeonpyeong Island Library, Yeonnam Red Brick House, and Yellow Flat Bench, and he was also a participant in exhibitions such as the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale (as curator and artist in the Korean Pavilion) and CAMP 2020 (as director). He is also the author of the book The Seoul, City Microhistory. Balance and the Anomaly I think most of my projects are directed towards people who dwell in neutral peripheral zones — that is, those who do not belong in mainstream spaces or…

Architect Chung Isak (Dongyang University) + a.co.lab architects Design team Cho Juhee, Kim Minji, Choi Eunjung, Han Suji, Jin Chaerin, Sung Sejong Location 9-6, Cheongpa-ro 47ga-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme single house Site area 541.8m2 Building area 129.88m2 Gross floor area 269.42m2 Building scope B1, 2F Height 8.4m Building to land ratio 23.97% Floor area ratio 33.9% Structure wood structure Exterior finishing paint on cement, stone slate roof Interior finishing white cement, general cement, straw Design period June – Sep. 2018 Construction period June 2018 – May 2019…

A screen has been presented in the middle of this exhibition space, upon which a bus is shown to rumble by in an unspecified direction. It sets out from Apgujeong Hyundai Apartment, travels through Chungdam-dong, Daechi-dong and Guryong Village, and eventually arrives at Gangnam station. Shots of the view outside are interspersed with the clips of the bus coming to an occasional stop. Sprinkled between these scenes are anecdotes regarding the surrounding area told from the perspective of an actor, a vocal coach, and an office worker. These are scenes not from an actual public bus ride, but from a tour of the Gangnam area that operated on a one-off basis. This tour posed the question: ‘What is Gangnam?’ Walk over to a separate partitioned off space, and the video…

On July 25, Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced the winner of its Gangil, Seoul Compact City International Design Competition. The winning design is ‘Compact θ ’ by Samoo Architects & Engineers, SAMAN, and Samoo Electrical Consultancy. This design competition will transform the public bus depot located in Gangil-dong, Gangdong-gu, into a mixed-use complex comprising a park, a public housing block named the ‘happy housing project’, social overhead capital, and a bus garage. This is an extension of the ‘Compact City Project’ launched by the SMG in 2018, to avail itself of disused spaces throughout the city in order to create a combination of new infrastructure and residential spaces. The SMG has already undertaken similar initiatives in other locations, including the Sinnae Bukbu Expressway, the Yeonhui Traffic Island, Jeungsan Draining Pumping…

Choi Eunhwa (Choi): The Dan Dan Dan House is a house, but it is located in an industrial district. Unlike when designing ordinary houses in a residential district, there must have been certain elements that had to be considered in a different way. While taking account of the surrounding context, what were the elements you considered to be most important? Tsukasa Okada (Tsukasa): Hamamatsu is the birthplace and home of many car companies and music equipment companies, such as Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawai. This project is located in an industrial area in a small district away from the city centre. It is slightly distanced from the residential area in the district. Most of the surrounding buildings are parts manufacturers for car companies. Their buildings are often taken the shape…

Architect Chung Isak (Dongyang University) + a.co.lab architects Design team Choi Eunjung, Sung Sejong Location 19-10, Heyri-ro 133beon-gil, Tanhyeonmyeon, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Programme single house Site area 583.51m2 Building area 171.37m2 Gross floor area 199.98m2 Building scope 2F Height 7.72m Parking 1 Building to land ratio 29.37% Floor area ratio 34.27% Structure RC Exterior finishing imitation stone Interior finishing old brick tile, travertine stone Structural engineer Rema structure Construction Donga A&C Mechanical and electrical engineer Codam ENG Design period July – Nov. 2019 Construction period Dec. 2019 – June 2020…

Architect Chung Isak (Dongyang University) + a.co.lab architects Design team Sung Sejong, Lee Eunsong Location 59, Mokdongdong-ro 12-gil, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme community space (library) Site area 7,792.6m2 (area of apartment complex) Building area 25.62m2 Gross floor area 37.96m2 Building scope 2F Height 7.72m Building to land ratio 29.37% Floor area ratio 4.27% Structure structural masonry, steel structure (roof) Exterior finishing 1F: existing red brick, cement brick / 2F: stucco Interior finishing paint on gypsum board, plywood Construction Heemang Housing Design period June – Sep. 2018 Construction period Nov. 2018 – Jan. 2019 Client Seoul Metropolitan Government…

U Zongxoo, Kim Vin co-principals, CoRe Architects  Seoul Seojin School encountered countless difficulties before they could open their doors last March. This was due to multiple tensions existing between those involved in founding the new school: the parents of special needs children, the Ministry of Education, and the local residents. As architects wrestling with these tensions, we defined the special needs school as an educational space of societal necessity, rather than thinking of it as something special. This special-needs school operates 28 classes for students with developmental disabilities, in which students can complete elementary, middle and high school curriculums or engage in specialised professional training. Due to the varied nature of developmental disabilities and physical conditions, we wanted to create a school that would cater to the needs of all,…

The International Symposium of ‘The Future of Social Housing in Korea’ was held on Aug. 12 at the Millennium Hilton Seoul. This symposium, hosted by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) was held to explore possible new directions in public rental housing at a time in which the construction of the third new cities in the metropolitan area, such as Hanam, Gyeonggi and Gyeyang, Incheon. Several experts participated online and offline, from home and abroad, to discuss specific issues such as public rental housing development methods, social intermixing, and community vitalisation through presentations and discussions. First, Kim Youngwook (professor, Sejong University) as the first keynote speaker presented the ‘Spirit of the Times on Public Rental Housing’. Kim is currently the lead researcher on ‘A Study on the New Public…

Designgroup OZ Architects Architect Designgroup OZ Architects (Shin Seungsoo) Design team Yoon Mirim, Lee Jihwan, Song Hyunah Location 4, Seonyuseo-ro 21gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme business facility (officetel) Site area 396.7m2 Building area 240.29m2 Gross floor area 1,852.93m2 Building scope B1, 11F Parking 31 Building to land ratio 60.57% Floor area ratio 399.72% Height 38.15m Structure RC Exterior finishing corrugated color steel plate Interior finishing porcelain-tile, prefinished-hardwood floor Construction Urban Engineering and Construction Co. Interior TheWorkshop Interior construction Cooperation urbantrust Design period Apr. – Aug. 2018 Construction period Oct. 2018 – Dec. 2019 Construction budget 4.85 billion KRW Client Hye An-in co.…

There is a design studio that has had an active presence in various major exhibitions including ‘Typojanchi 2015’, ‘Hangeul Design: Prototypes and the Future of the Korean Alphabet’, ‘FORTUNE LAND-Gold Leaf’, and ‘Amateur Seoul’. It is zerolab (co-principals, Kim Donghoon and Jang Taehoon). As they say, ‘we do everything a person can do’, and the studio works not only on exhibitions but on other activities such as graphic design, spaces, products, publications. SPACE met with zerolab, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and asked about the stool365 project on this auspicious occasion. Choi Eunhwa (Choi): Since the 1st of January this year, you are presenting the project stool365, which introduces one stool a day on Instagram (@stool365). As you have been engaged in a range of activities, it seems…