Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Space

A house is the crossing point of various industries, including energy, IT, and logistics. It is also a specific setting in which social issues such as an aging society and increase in single-person households occur. However, the discussion in Korea regarding living remains flat, held down by apartments in which 60% of the population reside. Dreams of a new means of living are bound to vanish with the suffocating sight of high-rise apartment buildings that are filling the city. On Mar. 24, the ‘DDP Knowledge Sharing Seminar: HOUSE VISION Seoul’ was held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). HOUSE VISION is a project being carried out in many parts of Asia, such as Japan, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, in order to propose an ideal living environment and the future visions for…

It is the first time that the homecoming exhibition of the Venice Biennale art exhibition is to be held in Seoul. Until now, only the architecture exhibitions of Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale had homecoming exhibitions. Today, ARKO Art Center presents ‘Counterbalance’, the homecoming exhibition of Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion. The title of the Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion, ‘Counterbalance’, art directed by Lee Dae-Hyung and with artwork contributed by Cody Choi and Lee Wan, means 'a weight balancing another weight'. Lee Daehyung(director, Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion in 2017) noted of his curatorial intentions: ‘I consider “the violence of media, politics, and capitalism” to be an unbalanced situation. I wanted to question whether art actually could be free of these aggressors’. The exhibition begins with the criticism leveled at the…

What do museums research? It is perhaps natural that this question is ‘what’ rather than ‘why’. Even if the social accountability of the museum and the necessity of its existence are not explicitly mentioned, the enlargement of the art practice and the horizon of the act makes it unnecessary to ask ‘what should the museum do?’ The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) held a two-day MMCA research project from Apr. 7 - 8, featuring, a symposium on ‘What Do Museums Research’ and ‘Museums of the Future’, and a programme of dialogues. Developed out of three seminars held in 2017, the symposium sought to create a cultural map drawing together examples of sporadic and freely contemporary art practice. The symposium started by examining the meaning of art as…

Throughout the modernisation and rise of the second and third industries, living spaces and working spaces have become increasingly separate, resulting in the concept of the commute. The methods of production changed, and this transformed the family system and mode of living. What will the typical urban house look like in the future? Let’s imagine a factory-city in which manufacturing returns to the urban fabric, and in which people live adjacent to a neighbour’s workspace, or even live and work in the same building themselves. At the exhibition, ‘Factory for Urban Living’, curated by Nina Rappaport and Yim Dongwoo, six teams each designed a project of his orher choice for an East Asian city. Each project was developed based on several criteria, such as defining the future manufacturing, and addressing…

Architect: THE_SYSTEM LAB (Kim Chanjoong) Design team: Lee Choonglyeol, Kim Jongkil, Kim Younghwan, Lee Ho Jae, Yoo JAEKYUNG, Ji Beomhui, Jung Dabin, Lee Seungjin Location: 491(unified 4 plots), Na-ri, Bukmyeon, Ulleng-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea Programme: accommodation, neighborhood facility Site area: 4,176m² Building area: villa A - 441.12m² / villa B - 475.16m² Gross floor area: villa A - 797.37m² / villa B - 861.39m² Building scope: villa A - B1, 2F / villa B - B1, 2F Height: villa A - 11.40m / villa B - 10.56m Parking: 9 Building to land ratio: villa A - 10.56% / villa B - 11.38% Floor area ratio: villa A - 15.67% / villa B - 15.95% Structure: Ultra-High performance concrete, reinforced concrete UHPC: Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology Formwork: Steel…

The Town’s Atmosphere When one enters the alley connected to the bustling road of Samcheong-dong, it becomes apparent that the atmosphere has shifted. There is a policeman standing at the entrance to Cheong-Wa-Dae all the time, so the street between Gyeongbokgung and Cheong-Wa-Dae always feels a little unsafe. Perhaps there was already a high wall existing in our minds when engaging with this sensitive town, where the atmosphere changes as the regime changes. As if this image has found expression in reality, a high continuous wall on the right side unfolds when walking through the road. The gray finishing details, with their unclear distinction between the join and the matter, speak as a defining image of the town. The Faint Coldness and Smoothness Once you turn around with the high…

As an urban planner himself, it is probable that the building’s owner was able to make requests for the application of a specific method and means of building division, clearly guided by the knowledge of how the buildings are to be laid out instead of relying on a vague pre-planned programme. The first thing that the building owner requested for was the clarification of the ‘relationship’ between the city and house, the inner and outer structure of the house, and the exterior space and interior space: ‘Many people cannot differentiate between an urban planner and an architect. Urban planning approaches a structure as one mass, and explores its uses and the relationship it has with its surroundings.’ (Quoted from the owner’s second letter) Following this, the positioning of the exterior…

Over the past year, the Paris-based furniture designer Wonmin Park has held solo exhibitions in several of the world’s design capitals, such as London, Paris, and New York. This is the exhibition of his first works in five years, after achieving wide acclaim for ‘Haze’ series in which resin and dyes were mixed to create various colour fields and surreal, dream-like impressions. With the opening of present exhibition, ‘Plain Cuts’, he is again receiving an enthusiastic response from the furniture design world. Here, he talks candidly about his design philosophy and oeuvre. Oh Juyeon (Oh): Your best-known work is Haze series, which used resin to emphasise the magical textures that can be created in the mingling of subtle colours and translucent materials. In the last year, you have revealed an…

We live in an age in which everybody is busy video recording and sharing events with their smartphones, rather than contemplating them. We also live in a time where various advertisements and tasks flood our phones. Under living conditions that make us inseparable from our IT devices, contemplation and meditation seem like luxuries. About 40 years ago, the architect Kim, Swoo Geun argued that people need an Ultimate Space, another separate spatial concept, in order to preserve and express their humanity. He brought to life an ultimate space that is ‘an unproductive space for contemplation and peace’ in the theater Gongan Sarang, built in the basement of the old Space Group building. This space, which is now the ARARIO MUSEUM, is currently holding the exhibition, ‘Ultimate Space’, until May 13,…

The Saut Hermès, which attracts equestrian talent from all around the world, was held at the Grand Palais, France from Mar. 16 – 19 Celebrating the 9th edition of the games this year, Saut Hermès provides an opportunity for seasoned riders and young riders to go head-to-head and display their horse-riding skills. The Hermès international jump competition that received five stars (CSI5*) from Federation Francaise d’Equitation and Federation Equestre Internationale, and the Talents Hermès competition that invites riders 25 years old and younger, reflects the colorfulness of Saut Hermès. This year, the competition course was designed by the designer Santiago Varela Ullastres with the horserider Michel Robert as advisor. The 2018 Saut Hermès ‘CSI 5*(international 5 star show jumping competition): Grand Prix’ winner was the French horse rider Simon Delestre…

Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) held the Symposium on Neighbourhood Housing Regeneration in Conjunction with the Traditional Marketplace at Seoul City Hall on Apr. 12. It was a place to discuss plans for urban regeneration through the restoration of traditional market’s functions. At this Symposium, in which citizens, and researchers and activists from the fields of architecture and urban planning, participated, a programme of presentations, policy discussions, and a question and answer session ensued. During the presentation of the ‘Regeneration plan for the Independent Neighbourhood Retail Market Connecting Residential Areas’, Yoon Zoosun (associate research fellow, Architecture & Urban Research Institute) presented a case study for the Yeonghwa Market in Gunsan-si to explain a regeneration plan through ‘Community Regeneration Corporation (CRC)’. According to him, CRC is an independent organisation operated through its…

The 16th Venice Architecture Biennale is back after its two year interval. Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the curators, chose ‘Freespace’ as the overarching theme. The Korean Pavilion summoned the projects of the Korea Engineering Consultant Corporation from the 1960s under the title, ‘Spectres of the State Avant-garde’. This time professionals such as curators, researchers, architects, designers, and novelist collaborated in the preparation of the exhibition. SPACE interviewed the curators to investigate the background to the pavilion, paying attention to the period and subject matter and to preview the layout and spatial planning of the exhibition. Park Sungjin: I would like to talk about the story behind these curators. I wonder what led these four curators, Park Seongtae, Choon Choi, Park Junghyun and Chung Dahyoung to exchange their ideas and…

Architect: Lee Tonghoon (Department of Architecture, Ewha Womans University) Design team: Jbd architects – Kim Junghoon, Kang Dong-Ki / Ewha Womans University – Kang Sooji, Chung Minji, Joo Hana, Jeong Hana, Kim Heewan Location: 59-1, Goseong-ri, Cheongpyeong-myeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Programme: sport facility (swimming pool) Site area: 1,689m² Building area: 658.73m² Gross floor area: 1,954.12m² Building scope: B1, 4F Height: 15.5m Parking: 15 Building to land ratio: 39% Floor area ratio: 75.16% Structure: reinforced concrete Exterior finishing: exposed concrete, wood, glass Interior finishing: exposed concrete, wood, tile Structural engineer: Teo Structure Co., Ltd. Mechanical engineer: Hightech Engineering Co., Ltd. Electrical engineer: Hitecepc Co., Ltd. Construction: EAN R&C Co., Ltd. Design period: Mar. – Aug. 2015 Construction period: Sep. 2015 – July 2017 Client: KAMSUNG.CO Stone Beach Lee Tonghoon (professor, Ewha…

SoA believes that architecture lies somewhere between social process and physical establishment. Guided by this belief, they have expanded their sense of architecture through a series of works, such as the 9 Libraries, Roof Sentiment (2015 Young Architect’s Program, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), and Yoonseul (2017). So, does their uniqueness become diversified but also manifested through a general architectural practice? In this guise, we can discover how they bring about new sense and experience in the familiar architectural structures such as houses, factories, and galleries. In a sense, they evoke new life sensations, reorganised perceptions of external space, and unfamiliar activities within daily lives. While their works continue to form relationships with things outside architecture and establish new understandings of architecture, their works are also part of…

There are two triangular sites in the second masterplan for Paju, and Studio M is one of them. Because most of the sites are connected in a rectangular shape, the form of the site itself is most important. For example, when all other sites are either facing the road on one side or are facing two roads at a perpendicular angle, the triangular site faces two main roads in an acute angle at one of its corners. As an alternative to this lack of a frontality in the site, the structure was positioned in a semi-circular form. Each floor was composed along a same floor plan, and the volume was gradually increased towards the exterior as it progressed upwards as a direct response to the surroundings. Through this, the building…

All architecture is a project. A project is ‘something that is thrown forth into the future’, and is an object that always needs to be created anew. As such, all projects are accompanied by unfamiliarity. We understand project not as a form of measurement of a work, but as an uncertain and therefore open possibility for the future. Because the city and the architecture that we wish to make as a project is something to which we direct our ideals and values, there is a big difference in amplitude between the two extremes of realistic pragmatism and visionary idealism as we do architecture. To approach and deal with the ‘social conditions’ of the city and architecture is to position oneself somewhere between those two extremes. We position ourselves somewhere between…

On 27 November 2017, the artist Kim Yongik summarised the drawing concept he proposed in the article ‘Drawing works I think’: (1) a work that employs old, tattered, and economical mediums (2) a work that does not require much extraneous effort such as manual labor or complex technique (3) a work that is continuously in progress and does not remain static in a stage of completion (4) a work that is not contingent on minor damage, dirt, and mold (5) a work that does not conceal inadvertent blunders such as blemish or smudge (6) a work that is still in progress, perhaps in need of further production (7) a work that can easily be damaged (8) a work that wraps around, or tarnishes, and existing work This statement of intent…

A total of 80,000 young children’s heads, Tanuki sculptures, and a Japanese racoon doll are placed close together on the tower and shelf of the central hall to attract everyone’s attention. It is Ten Thousand Gifts by Woo Kwanho. The sculptures displayed here can be picked up and handled by the spectators. As the artist explains, ‘It is the moment when art begins, thinking about what is beautiful and what I want to have’. In this work, which can be intuitively and easily ‘participated’ in, the ‘Humanism - Poem of Earth for Human’ exhibition of the 1st Main Exhibition of Clayarch Gimhae Museum 2018 is certainly an easy-to-understand and friendly exhibition. The ‘human’ and ‘humanity’ are so overarching that they are keywords that do not seem obvious as themes of…

Amidst present rapid changes to the digital environment and sociopolitical upheaval, potential technological advancement or endangered ethical values increasingly find themselves thrust into the spotlight. However, the ‘Common Front, Affectively’ exhibition, held at the Nam June Paik Art Center, addresses individual or collective emotions. Thirteen teams from Korea and abroad utilized various media, including visual images, installations, sound, performance, and design to formulate questions from their own perspective towards a new flow of emotion and the transference of senses. Upon entering the exhibit visitors are met by a visual image installed at the centre of the exhibition space - the British media artist Ed Atkins’ Hisser. In a common, tidy room, a weary person enters. This male character created with CGI technology gives people a weird sense of deja vu…

Local governments have always created cultural spaces for their regions. By observing a number of recent examples, it will be possible to see how they are commonly established and what roles they play, to review the somewhat haphazard trends behind this cultural strategizing. Kim Hyunjun (professor, Kangwon National University) and Kim Taeyoung (professor, Korea National University of Arts) have transformed an unused space owned by the Seongdong-gu office into a reading space. Let’s take a look at the public book-space proposed by these two architects, in an age overflowing with media that could be considered faster-paced and more precise than books. It is rare to come by a local office of a city, borough or village that does not promote culture. How does Seongdong BookMARU stand out? As noted by…

When we settle in somewhere, we decorate our living space attuned to our convenience. For example, vendors who put up a tent to protect the goods displayed in front of their shop from rain can install arcades, which are stronger, more permanent structures than the tent. In the case of detached houses, people add a roof, expand their balconies to create a wider space, or put structures in empty areas like the rooftop to increase the use of space. These extensions and reconstructions of a building cost more than one may think, and in some cases they could violate construction laws. However, such alterations can also reduce potential problems when installing and dismantling temporary facilities, and above all, they can solve the desire to own a wider space. These desires…

Architect: ODETO.A (Lee Heewon, Jeong Eunju) Location: 157-73, Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme: private house + gallery Site area: 527.6m2 Building area: 224.31m2 Gross floor area: 484.93m2 Building scope: B2, 1F Height: 9.5m Parking: 1 Building to land ratio: 42.52% Floor area ratio: 65.37% Structure: reinforced concrete Exterior finishing: brick tile, marble Interior finishing: marble, hardwood Structural engineer: Teo Structure Construction: Mooil construction Co.Ltd. Design period: Mar. – Aug. 2016 Construction period: Sep. 2016 – May 2017 Lee Heewon received his masters of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley after receiving a Bachelors Degree in Architecture from the University of Seoul. He was awarded the Grand Prize in the Heritage Tomorrow Project 4 for Young Architects (2014), and Third Prize in the Seoul Public Design Award (2013). Lee Heewon…

The work by SoA traverses the realms of public art and construction, and reminds one of Diller Scopidio’s earlier works (currently known as Diller Scopidio + Renfro). Looking over their series of accomplishments, built upon practical projects as opposed to experimental projects, the traces of how they responded towards the changes in scale begin to emerge in a number of forms. Continuously influenced by the surrounding environment to various degrees, like a seashore swept over by the waves, the final result either ends up following the intended direction or a newly discovered path while preserving the essence of the problem at hand. My first acquaintance with SoA’s work was through a photograph shown by a so-called starachitect who wanted to share his encounter with a good project in Korea. It…

Space So is a house that was constructed by extending a residential house, which was originally placed upon a similarly-sized (approximately 100 pyeong) neighbourhood facility that was remodeled into a gallery and a café. While not being professionals, a couple that had been doing work in carpentry, photography, and lacquering began this project with the intention of creating a space where people can communicate with one another through ‘art’. To get to their home, one must always pass through a busy and bustling space. As their daily route is intersected by these external programmes, certain buffering layers were placed along their route home. The main aim of this project was to facilitate a programme that was not only open but could also be private within the high-density urban conditions. Four…

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Kim Chung-up’s passing. The Kimchungup Architecture Museum commemorates Kim Chung-up by opening a special exhibition, ‘Kim Chung-up Meets Le Corbusier: Memories of 35 Rue de Sèvres, Paris’. When and how does a person become an architect? ‘Kim Chung-up Meets Le Corbusier’ is the museum’s answer to this question. As made apparent by the title, this show highlights the starting point of Kim Chung-up’s architecture, focusing on the meeting between Kim Chung-up and Le Corbusier, and how their meeting influenced Korea’s contemporary architecture. We follow Kim Chung-up life journey to witness his meeting with Le Corbusier (identifying with him throughout his life), Le Corbusier’s architecture, and the innovative qualities of Kim Chung-up’s architecture. Kim Chung-up and Le Corbusier Kim Chung-up’s works can be found…