Table of contents for N. 570 in Space

The ACC (Asia Culture Complex), which is scheduled to open in September 2015, is beginning the preparations for its contents. On 27 March, one of ACC’s five agencies, the Asian Culture Information Agency (ACIC), opened the ‘Architecture Production Workshop’ and showed its architecture contents production methods. This workshop is a project for designing real size buildings or partial elements of buildings, producing them, and storing them in the ACIA. One of the works produced at the first workshop is the wooden structure, ‘Constructive Spatial Structure’ which was designed by Cho Namho (representative, SOLTOZIBIN Architects) and Hwang Dongwook (professor, University of Seoul). It is a cube structure, with each of its sides being 7.5m in height and the parts that link each piece of wood is made of hard urethane, and…

It is a photograph of land, sky and the tranquil scenery, but one’s eyes will focus on one square meter›placed at the centre of the picture. The title of each work is ‘the officially assessed land price set by a square unit area’. You can only see the land’s standard dealing price, with no display of where the place is or who lives nearby. It seems that artist is attempting to erase the spiritual value and meaning symbolized by land and farmland. Kim Yunho, who chases Korean scenery that displays modernization, urbanization, or industrialization, portrays a restrained and cold view towards the reality where even land that is the source of produce has been converted into its economic value through his solo exhibition ‘m2 ’. The square or cube, which…

‘The ocean where rainstorms raged on, it has calmed down. Will you come today, across the ocean?’ Inside the exhibition area, a familiar love song was being played, with lights hanging from the orange emergency equipment, along with unknown forms of objects scattered near the wooden structures with 4 megaphones. The gallery ARTSIDE, located in Jongno-gu, Seoul opened Sim Seungwook’s solo exhibition ‘Between Absence and Presence’ alludes to a certain incident. The lyrics are similar to the message of the yellow ribbons at the Paengmok Port. It has been a year since the Sewol Ferry Disaster, individuals are remembering and putting the tragedy to rest in their own ways. To all of the people, the artist portrays the throught fragments of society by focusing on his personal emotional reactions, instead…

Eleven Hills Architect: poly.m.ur (Kim Homin) Design team: Kim Seokyoon, Whang Sunki, Lim Hyunju Location: 424-17, Seongbok-dong, Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Programme: retails Site area: 495m2 Building area: 290.46m2 Gross floor area: 1,397.59m2 Building scope: B2, 4F Height: 21.2m Parking: 8 Building to land ratio: 58.68% Floor area ratio: 176.3% Structure: reinforced concrete Exterior finishing: STO (EIFS), granite stone Interior finishing: paint on plasterboard, granite stone Structural engineer: Haenglim Architecture & Engineering Co. Construction: Eleven Development & Construction Mechanical engineer: Vision Engineering Electrical engineer: Hanyang Electric Power Engineering / Consulting Design period: Jun. 2012 – Apr. 2013 Construction period: Jan. 2013 – Aug. 2014 Client: Eleven Development & Construction Deep House Architect: poly.m.ur (Kim Homin) Design team: Whang Sunki Location: Gugi-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme: residence Site area: 1,337.7m2 Building area: 270.15m2 Gross floor area:…

Kim Yun Tae is a professor of Sociology and Social Welfare at Korea University. He studied at the Korea University and Cambridge University, and received his Ph.D. from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His main research interests include rethinking development, and the study of globalization and the changing nature of the Northeast Asian states, comparative social policy, poverty and social justice. Since the 1980s, the metropolitan cities in Northeast Asia have grown rapidly. Unlike the forecast that a revolution in information technology would cause a ‘death of distance’1 and make the city unnecessary, they continued expanding. Many urban planners predicted that internet connections would enable everyone to do whatever they want, to go wherever they want to be. They imagined that the separation of work from the…

Recently, the phrases ‘common housing’, ‘shared housing’, ‘cooperative union homes’, ‘social homes’ and ‘social housing’ have cropped up here and there, as if it were a trend. A rise in the number of single or double member family units, the emergence of ‘Single Korea’, as well as of new forms of housing, and the apparent benefits of living together are all being amply quoted in newspaper headlines, press materials, advertisements alike in daily newspapers, television programmes, magazines and online. However, the lack of a standard definition to clearly conceptualize these terms has resulted in their misuse, putting them at risk of ceasing as a temporary trend. This phenomenon is much alike the runaway trend for cooperative unions a number of years ago. At that time, cooperative unions were heralded as…

Reviewer A The building seems the mimesis of the surrounding local trees and it’s a very interesting point. The architect’s strategy and approach to be in harmony between the new one and the other existing buildings work. Also the building was designed according to a very sustainable approach, in order to adapt to the hot and humid weather in Singapore. Reviewer B The design of the building has completion itself. The architect created an environment of intuitive storytelling and representation. It seems like cloud from the inside or corn from the outside: balconies hanging on the internal side of the building is presumed that those are a reinterpretation of the European courtyard. Architect: Heatherwick Studio (project leader – Ole Smith) Lead architect: CPG Consultants (project leader – Vivien Leong) Location:…

A house for three different generations and eight individuals: I was curious how its design solved the complicity of the intertwined lives. This situation is very rare among the Pangyo housing complex. I received the architectural story book. The life of a family, living in a 155 square metre apartment, is tightly displayed on a plan view drawing. The following pages contain various proposals about the new life that will take place in a detached house, including forms such as single courtyard house, two courtyard house, L-shaped house, house with two wings, H-shaped house, and a square house. It was like fitting puzzle pieces. The photographs of the completed house do not show a person nor a piece of furniture. Does this house exist for the people who live inside,…

Why Bricks? Bricks are small architectural ceramics that form the walls and roofs of buildings, made by baking mud. Mud has always existed in places in which human civilisation has formed. Bricks have long been used as an architectural material, from the start of humanity. Modern cities were built all around the world with bricks transferring the culture of architectural ceramics and being re-used over time. Brick architecture might seem to be plain, as a nameless material, but it is a comprehensive means of expressing local characteristics. Jacques Kaufmann, a member of WABA, ‘rediscovered’ the brick in Rwanda, Africa in 1984. The project that he carried out in Rwanda was to use locally produced materials and local technology to provide an improved quality of life to the residents by brickwork.…

The ACC’s (Asia Culture Complex) Asian Culture Information Agency opened the ‘2015 Vision Forum’. The ACC, which took over a decade to complete, is awaiting its opening this year, and the forum is a place for it to seek new directions for its contents. This forum is the agency’s first official event, after last year’s children’s culture centre test (SPACE December 2014 issue) before the opening in September. On the first day, Benedict Richard O’Gorman Anderson (International Studies honorary professor, Cornell University) did a keynote presentation on ‘Reflections on Late Nationalism, the State, Citizenship and Migration’. On the second day, a detailed forum on art, architecture and the film was held. The Hong Kong M+ Museum’s Pauline J. Yao introduced the M+, which is scheduled to open in 2019, with…

The ‘Festival Bo:m’, a diverse art festival which opens spring every year, opened its ninth annual event on Apr. 19. At a press conference that was held before the festival’s opening, art director Lee Seunghyo stated his plans to redefine the contemporary: ‘In the past, diverse art was an administrative term which meant unity or a new method, but now it is simply referred to as dawon (meaning diverse in Korean). The art community today is not at the age where everything is ruled by a single ism, so there needs to be a new definition regarding each country, region, and individual’s contemporary’. It is the act of encompassing various fields such as visual art, performances, music, magic, science, literature, otaku, and etc. For this process, the theme of ‘Cross-Reference’…

Trim the paper mulberry sticks, steam them in a sot, and dry them. Put them in water, peel the skin, and make the sticks white skinned. Pour lye and steam for 4 – 5 hours. Wash the white skinned sticks in running water and take out the specks. Ball up the paper mulberry and pound on it in a large mortar, making it similar to porridge and resolve the fibers. Put water and the paper mulberry into a case and mix it up with the heart of the paper mulberry. Take out the paper one at a time, pile them up, press on them, and take out the water. Dry and trim the paper to complete the hanji, Korean traditional paper. This is content of the Museum SAN’s— located in…

Architect: EMA Architects & Associates(Lee Eunkyung) Design team: Cha Mijung, Park Soojee, Eo Hyelyung Location: 218-105 Malli-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme: multi-family housing, commercial Site area: 1327.4m2 Building area: 493.75m2 Gross floor area: 2577.92m2 Building scope: 1B, 5F Height: 15.25m Parking: 22 Building to land ratio: 37.2% Floor area ratio: 145.84% Structure: RC Exterior finishing: stucco, porcelain tile Interior finishing: plasterboard , wallpaper Structural engineer: Seoul Architects & Structural Engineers co. Construction: Daeheung co. Mechanical engineer: Seah Engineering co. Electrical engineer: Deasung tec co. Design period: Jul. 2013 – Feb. 2014 Construction period: Apr. 2014 – Mar. 2015 Client: SH corporation photographed by Kyungsub Shin Lee Eunkyung is a principal of EMA Architects & Associates. She received her B.S and Master degree in architecture at Seoul National University and studied architecture and…

Reviewer A It is an interesting building where you can see the facilities at the rear side. Thanks to this design feature, the interior space has more freedom and many other features can be added at a later stage. It is very practical, because all of the important facilities in the lab can be repaired or replaced without interfering with the tasks of the researchers. Reviewer B The façade is not that beautiful. However, it is interesting to see how the facilities are exposed at the rear. It is unfortunate that the only intriguing spatial formation is the interior atrium. Architect: iArc Architects (Shin Seunghyun) Design team: Park Beomjin, Kim Uihun, Jeong Seongjin, Lee Sangwoo, Kim Taesu Location: 23 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Deajeon, Korea Programme: education & research facilities Site area:…

The Layered Terrace House by architect Jo Jinman was built according to the will of the architect, despite being his first work. The endless lines of houses, which are built on the housing complex, are also built according to their own logics. First, the houses have fulfilled the public demand by maximizing the floor area ratio, but it doesn’t look much like an urban detached housing site. Due to the fine dust in the air, people cannot easily leave the doors and windows open. The housing complex, which seems like a collection of blown-up houses for the maximum floor area ratio, forms a unique topography. We can’t really blame the architects for this result. Even the newly built houses are merely part of the topography of the West Pangyo area,…

Since 1993, the biennial in Sharjah — one of the seven Emirates of the UAE — as the oldest biennale both in Asia & Middle East (Gwangju Biennale started in 1995), has been held. The biennial is now run by HH Sheikha Hoor bint Sultan Al-Qasimi, president of the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF). This 2015 edition has been curated by Korean American Eungie Joo, who worked as the director and curator of educational and public programmes at the New Museum, and also as director at Inhotim, Brazil. If there is a biennial in Sharjah, there is an art fair in Dubai and museums in Abu-Dhabi. Prior to these contemporary developments, there has been a lack of appropriate public filters by which art engages with the public; suffered by one such…

‘800/40’, ‘300/20’, ‘200/20’: these are not codes. They are the names of the spaces where the artists in the Sewoon Arcade area live. As the numbers show, the space is worth the deposit of two million KRW and monthly rent of 200,000 KRW. From Mar. 28 to Apr. 18, these artists and ‘Open Circuit’ held the event, ‘I like the Sewoon Arcade, I like the Daerim Arcade, I like the Cheonggye Arcade’. This event displays works that portray the beautiful cultural value that the named areas encompass. The areas have Korea’s first apartment building with stores on the ground floor, the Sewoon Arcade, the house of enemy property that were created during the Japanese colonial era, merchants who have stayed their ground for over 30 years, and small businesses tangled…

The Korean pavilion was built in the Giardini Park, Venice, Italy in 1995. Sook-Kyung Lee (curator, Tate Research Centre), who has been selected as the Korean pavilion commissioner, together with Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho, opened the exhibition ‘The Ways of Folding Space & Flying’, while preparing the Korean pavilion’s 20th anniversary celebration exhibition. It goes beyond the boundaries of a country pavilion and connects Venice’s past, present, and future with the Korean pavilion. During the exhibition briefing session held in the Arko Art Center at Jongno-go, Seoul on Apr. 9, Sook-Kyung Lee spoke about the exhibition title, claiming ‘We believe that the title is an independent and creative approach that will show an especially interesting side of Korean art, and also go well together with the theme designated by…

‘poly.m.ur’: a polymer comprised of repeated monomers. As the title of his architecture firm reveals, Kim Homin (principal, poly.m.ur) has continued to pay attention to a system of repeated patterns. He forms a dynamic synthesis of elements by elaborately tuning monomers within urban regulations, controlled by the Building Act and the internal need of architecture. It is an envelope that plays the role of the field by which he may activate the logic of the whole and of the parts. To him, an envelope is an essential idea of space, which covers structure, materials and ornament, which is a virtual field. Kim Homin integrates conflicting values required by capital and the city into a logical order. His recent works (Deep House, Eleven Hills, SHHousing, Heemang Factory, and Honeybee Lounge) demonstrate…

Prior to 2000, as capital continued to pour into Northeast Asian cities, urban policy was largely based upon quantitative growth built on the cornerstones of rapid economic growth, skyrocketing populations and increased productivity. Yet, such engines of growth, based upon quantity alone, have started to shift, necessitating the need for the inspection of types of urban residence that exist in Northeast Asia in contrast to those of the West. Today, Seoul has seen a rapid increase of single member family homes, while the limits of large-scale plans such as New Town policies have come to the fore, positing the need for an exit policy. Tokyo, the harbinger of modernization in the region is also suffering from social problems, due to its rapidly aging society, with more houses emptying due to…

Architect: Interkerd Architects Inc.(Yoon Seunghyun, Suh Joonhyuck) Design team: Jang Byungsoo, Song Minjun Location: 25-3 Bulgwang 2-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, Korea Programme: multi-family housing, commercial Site area: 511m2 Building area: 305.93m2 Gross floor area: 855.68m2 Building scope: B1, 4F Parking: 8 Building to land ratio: 59.87% Floor area ratio: 148.64% Structure: RC Exterior finishing: dryvit, exposed concrete Structural engineer: Kim&Lee Structural Consultant Construction: GongJung Construction Mechanical engineer: Ju-Sung MEC Electrical engineer: Hangil Engneering Design period: Dec. 2013 – Apr. 2014 Construction period: Apr. – Oct. 2014 Client: Ha Gihong and 7 others photographed by Kim Jaeyoun After Interkerd Archtects Inc. led by Yoon Seunghyun and Suh Joonhyuck began in 2004, the studio has worked the various projects infiltrating in human life. it has received a sort of prizes through Pungdong Library, Youngjoo Joje Healthcare…

On the way to visiting the iArc Architects’s projects in KAIST, I looked back to over twenty years ago. After graduation I first encountered an early architectural language while working in Yoo Kerl Architect (now iArc Architects). Even while working in architectural design in the United States, I observed the development of iArc Architects’s own architectural lingo. Personally, I observed this critique to rely on a time lag of twenty years, in order to derive critical contents. iArc Architects was involved in the construction of three KAIST buildings: the Basic Science Building, the Student Uion, and the Nadl/Yeoul Hall(dormitory). Though each building’s function and purpose is different, they collectively seem to trigger a change in the KAIST campus, which was originally full of one-story, box-shaped buildings. This shows explicitly how…

This article begins its story with the scenery of Kunst Doc, where Yeseung Lee’s ‘CAVE into the cave’ exhibition was held in 2013. On the screen that draws closed curves, scientific tools and plants appear. This unknown space that stimulates such curiosity reminds one of a zoetrope. The objects installed inside the screen overlap with the video and create richly coloured images. Sometimes, the viewers appear as shadows, as the lighting and the sound change periodically. The artist offered a new methodology of installation in ‘the Green Cabinet’ (Artspace Boan, 2014) that moved away from the white cube. I met her at the Seoul Art Space Geumcheon on 6th April, and asked her about the long journey of building and tearing down the amphitheatre. Woo Hyunjung(woo): The first impression of…