Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Space

Collaborating with Office for Metropolitan Architecture led by Rem Koolhaas The minimalist exterior and interior to create an intimate setting Focusing on providing a complete experience of the brand and product Genesis opened its first standalone showroom, Genesis Gangnam, in Samseong-dong on Jan. 6. Unlike typical showrooms that maximise visibility with extensive glass windows, Genesis Gangnam conceals itself from the outside world in a secretive and sensible manner. Only small portions of the building are visible from the outside. This building, which does not follow the expected form of automotive showrooms, is the work of the world-renowned architect Office for Metropolitan Architect (OMA) led by Rem Koolhaas. The building’s interior is designed to appear more like a gallery than a car showroom. This two-story building in the middle of the…

In this issue, we will contemplate the works of Alexander Girard, one of the most influential American designers of the 20th century. The ‘Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe’ exhibition is a part of Vitra Design Museum’s world tour. Approximately 700 of Girard’s pieces, including furniture, textiles, accessories and collection items feature in the show. It arrived in Seoul, Korea following a showcase at Cranbrook Art Museum, and it will return to the States later this year. The exhibition represents a comprehensive vision of Alexander Girard’s design universe in four sections. Section 1 ‘Interior Design’ consists of Girard’s drawings and collection items from the time he lived in Florence. Before moving to London to study architecture at the AA School, Girard spent his childhood in Florence. The Renaissance scene in Italy…

The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, and witnessed a candlelight rally and the impeachment of the President of Korea. In line with this, ARKO (Arts Council Korea) Art Center presented an exhibition to contemplate the meaning of revolution: ‘The Revolution Will Not be Televised: Sound Effect Seoul 2017’, which is the winner of the competition for Visual Arts Promotion Project of ARKO. The exhibit, held in Gallery 1, explores the revolution through the sound works of 13 artists. This exhibition, part of the Sound Effect Seoul series which was set in motion by Baruch Gottlieb and Yang Jiyoon (director, Alt Space Loop) in 2007, reveals the dynamic character one must adopt to consider the possibility of new revolutions rather than reflecting and ruminating on those…

The exhibition ‘Performing Letters, Performers of Letters’, where one can view artworks of ancient letters and contemporary typographic artworks in the same place, took place in Seoul from Dec. 16, 2017 to Jan. 28, 2018. It is the first of the ‘Inspiration Series’ conducted by Barakat Seoul. Ancient letters were both a practical means as well as an artform and while they once held various roles as tools put to ritualistic purposes, its practicality and generality became more pronounced as lettering moved into the modern age. Nonetheless, there are many who still wish to express the divine power and artistic nature of letters, and they are usually typography designers. By putting the ancient letter artworks and the work of contemporary typography artists (which draw inspiration from those ancient artworks) in…

While ‘Big–Mama’ is used as a nickname for the house, it also refers to the resident of this house, who is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother with a rich Gyeongsangdo accent. My first impression of the building’s owner reminded me of my grandmother, who passed away long ago. This house is filled with dozens of relatives during the ancestral rites and national holidays that happen more than ten times a year. The size and location of a living room that would be able to accommodate events of all sizes was decided beforehand, according to the family tradition. In the kitchen of the eldest child, where various kinds of kimchi and sauces are fermented every season, there had to be a sunny place, not only for the crockery but…

The Koo Koo House was originally conceived as a home for twin sisters in 2013, but was re-designed for only the younger twin on a different site in 2015. In the several years since, not only the site, but also the age-groups of its proposed inhabitants have changed, as have their requirements, yet upon reflection, one can find that the floor plan of the current Kookoo house is still highly similar to what it was before, in terms of its function or how it has been composed. The family still modestly believes that the space is more than enough, despite being a family of five, and they still insist on a cozy collectiveness, where there three sons should occupy two rooms, one of which should serve as a study to…

The site is located in a dense block of small buildings facing a decent-sized apartment complex called Raemian Oksu Riversen. The site plan reveals a stark contrast between two blocks on either side of the road in terms of their density, floor height, building age, and so on. The block includes winding alleyways on a slope with small, old houses. In addition, the architect has lived here for a long time. It seems quite natural to propose a solution that accounts for factors such as the village landscape and locality. In any case, the building gave the impression of an urban style neighbourhood commercial facility with stucco finish wall, which seems vastly different from that of its neighbours. The site is under the influence of the adjacent apartment complex to…

Rooted in Orléans, a heritage city in the centre of France, the Orléans Architecture Biennale is also deeply grounded in the architecture collection of the Frac•1 Centre. Since its starting point this collection has focused on radical and experimental architecture, gathering models, drawings and plans, special commissioned projects, archives from the post-war era. The newly appointed director Abdelkader Damani, in full complicity with Italian architect and teacher Luca Galofarobuilt, has curated a challenging biennale. To quote their prefatory statement by way of introduction to the Biennale: ‘For its first edition, the Orléans Architecure Biennale has singled out three different paths in approaching architecture: migration as our sole destination; architecture defined as a permanent ritornello between fiction and reality; dreaming as a method to go beyond catastrophe and towards each other...…

A scene that is both familiar and unfamiliar comes into view upon arriving at the Hanok village at Eunpyeong-gu. While the scene of a town filled with hanok is no different from a traditional hanok village, the landscape created by these modernised hanok that appear different from the traditional hanok emerges as something alien. When a landscape of a traditional town—even ones like this that try to appear traditional—is rarely found nowadays. The ‘micro micro cosmo’ adds more contemporary elements to this place. Before arriving at the ecosystem garden behind the modernised hanok, the image of the breathing red petals (Breathing Flower) and the blossoming tree in the winter (Winter Flower) make the hanok village more colourful and unfamiliar. When approaching the deck, one can see seven projects, including the…

Access to information on the architecture and urban spaces of the Korean government is becoming easier and more broadly available. Last December, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), National Geographic Information Institute, National Archives of Korea in Ministry of Public Administration and Security announced that they were going to release information, make it public access and maintain regular updates on their websites. The National Geographic Information Institute publicised its plan to update their spatial information daily on the website of National Geographic Information Institute (map.ngii.go.kr). Drawings and locations of completed roads and buildinsg will become available from portals and apps a day following completion. Currently, it is automatically linked to the Architectural Information System (date of permission and approval, start date of construction, building use and name), Korea…

The name Jung Sujin (principal, SIE:Architecture) is not unfamiliar to those who wish to build a house in Pangyo. She is already well known not only among the architects but also by the public for her unique identity as an architect for ‘›’-shaped houses and courtyard houses. Is it because they want to close themselves off from the outside world and still enjoy open and secure privacy and freedom from inside their home? Is this why those who wish to build a house of this kind repeatedly seek her? From the process of closing off space, she creates a certain atmosphere. This atmosphere depends on the architect’s meticulous calculations and performance, and is activated only by the most fundamental architectural elements, such as light, materials, and ratios. She reenacts this…

The site is located between a slightly low mountain to the northeast and the outskirts of a town connected to the neighbours. The basement, which will be rented out as an office, a wide yard and a flower bed were placed according to the natural light and for the breeze to pass through, and the commercial area on the first floor was designed with a transparent look in order not to damage the image of the residential area. The residential areas to be rented out on the second floor were designed as a virtual space by using skip floors instead of focusing on two-rooms or three-rooms and to allow the newly-married couples who chose to live in detached houses to experience what it feels like to live in one. It…

Mihn Hyunjun is currently the principal of mp_Art Architects office, and also professor at Hongik University. He graduated from Seoul National University Department of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, and at the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley. He previously worked at the Kiohun Architects & Associates Co. Ltd. as well as the San Francisco Office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. His major works are National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Herald Square and Gukgogae environmental design. The Power of Architecture Son Jean (principal, ison architects) According to Chung Sujin’s observations, ‘looking at Inwang Mountain from the main gate of Cheongun Middle School, you get a clear view of Gyeomjae’s Inwangjesaekdo, like a picture’. Gyeomjae drew his Inwangjesaekdo in the year of his 76th birthday, capturing the…

The Architecture and Urban Research Instittue (auri) celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. As the first national research institute in architecture and urban research, auri has advanced architecture and urban space expertise, and set the direction of past and present government projects. auri’s vital role is finally receiving the spotlight it deserves after weathering the years in which the term ‘architectural culture’ was unfamiliar. Now we enter an era in which the public itself has a growing interest in architecture. By observing its past accomplishments, many of which have not before been publicised because they were studies, and the projects that have taken deep root in the hearts of the public, this issue will set the stage for serious reflection on auri’s achievements over the years, and wonder at auri’s…

Only a few years ago, apartments were described as the reason for Seoul city’s grey image, and were criticised for creating a residential space lacking in sincerity and encouraging the degradation of humanity. Recently, however, as a place where the children of the baby boom generation have spent their childhood and youth, apartments are no longer termed as a negative space but as a space that contains feelings of affection. While various perspectives and viewpoints are being shared regarding apartments, this exhibition intends to discover the meaning of apartments and their existence as discrete places, as well as to analyse the residential ecosystem within the apartment community. The exhibition ‘2017 Seoul Focus 25.7’, held at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art focuses on the apartment community of Nowon region in observance…

For the purpose of collecting and preserving high-value traditional building elements from across the country and in order to pass on research of traditional methods and technologies, the Cultural Heritage Administration established the Traditional Building Elements Conservation Center at Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, which finalised construction on Dec. 19 of last year. The opinion that a facility and a space dedicated to the systematic preservation, analysis, and research of the traditional building elements had become necessary was raised on many occasions. While it is general practice that the original building elements are to be reused whenever possible, particularly when repairing a cultural heritage building, and that a new building element is to be used only when absolutely necessary, if a building element is deemed to be no longer usable but nonetheless has…

Designing a House Nakamura Yoshifumi, author of A Pilgrimage of Homes, writes the following regarding what he believes to be the necessary attitudes and aptitudes of architects who are designing a home: One cannot design a house using architectural knowledge, planning skills and technological expertise alone. The architect must possess a plentiful imagination about the lives of people, as well as a captivating sense of charisma and persuasiveness. Above all, he must carefully observe people’s actions or movements, reading into and interpreting the synopses of complex personalities, as well as demonstrating an open outlook towards life by empathising with the joys and sorrows of a home’s inhabitants. The architect must inevitably become an observer of people. As demonstrated by this quotation, an inevitable task facing the architect is to read…

Spending some time close to nature reminded me of the radio show jingle “Starry starry nights” which used to feature the radio disk jockey Lee Jongwhan, which I regularly listened to as a student. Into a starry night where a fir tree forest of an unknown depth sits behind, while in the front, one can see the rooftops of the villages that quietly unravel, and far off, lies the mountains, embracing the reservoir, that are drenched in the red sunset. This is a unique moment, entirely determined by the earth. Like La Petite Maison of Le Corbusier, the design of this project touches the surrounding scenery, rather than simply serving as a residential design. The┗┓form mass that has been positioned at the southern point of the northern side of the…

‘By the time you realise that these apartments have been built using one of the military anti-tank facilities easily found in the northwest area of Seoul, including Uijeongbu, Pocheon and Ildong, you will be astonished at the cultural significance of the site. Now named the Simin Apartment, this three-story building began construction in 1968 and it was completed in 1970. Each floor has six units, and there are five buildings. So, they offer 90 units in total. It was originally planned as a military housing complex to accommodate military men, enabling the effective mobilisation of them in an emergency and establishing a defense line on the first floor. – Yangkyo Chin, ‘Culture Historical Value of Space: Dobong Simin Apartment’, Cultural City, Cultural Welfare, vol. 61 (May 1999). Apartment and Bunker_…

Park Jongmin received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Sungkyunkwan University and worked at LOTTE E&C. At Yang Jinsuk architecture office, he worked as a senior designer in various projects. He currently opened his own practice Studio Morph, and has been doing architectural design and photography. His main works include Yeoksam-dong Sector design building, Seochodong st1566, SongGokChunGa Jeongeup House, Munhori house, and Wandukong share house. Cuteness of the Neighbourhood Living Facilities Lee Ho (principal, Fit Place) Composition There are three groups of stakeholders in the neighbourhood living facilities in Korea: landlord / tenant or shopkeeper / end-consumer or Instagrammer Which among them should be targeted in the planning of neighbourhood living facilities in contemporary Seoul? I’m pretty sure that the focus should be on the idea, requirements, and the…

Im Heungsoon said, ‘We are divided’. His attempts to express the lives of victims and the neglected in contemporary Korea by means of diverse artworks and films were formally recognised in 2015, when he won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale for Factory Complex. His work revealed the reality of female labourers who were left behind following rapid economic growth in Korea. Explaining his exhibition ‘Things that Do Us Part’ in the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (MMCA Seoul), he asserted, ‘We are divided’. What did he intend to signify with the word ‘divided’; what makes us divided; what lies at the end of division? Kim Geumyoung (Kim): You have paid constant attention to marginalised people throughout the modern history of Korea, in works such as…