Kim Dong-jin & Kim Yoo-jung, L’EAU design, Seoul Biennale 2019, The Condition of Seoul Architecture

"The goal is not to create “Universal Space” but “Multi-universal Spaces”, in which logic and sub-logics could coexist, generating spaces with blurred boundaries and overlapping with other systems. If you look at Kandinsky’s paintings, many different ideas create different overlying episodes, which could inspire new design systems."

Kim Dong-jin & Kim Yoo-jung, L’EAU design 2019

Seoul is just behind Mumbai and Lagos in the list of the most extreme density cities in the world. From a population of 3.5 million in 1965, the city exceeded 25 million in 2019, hosting 50% of the population in an area as large as 12% of South Korea. The central areas have seen the cost of land rising by 680 times since the Korean War, reaching the prohibitive $80,000 per square meter.This extreme situation in which architects must operate, design, and build, creates the theoretical basis of “The Condition of Seoul Architecture”. The research insists on the point of view of 18 of the most innovative South Korean architects, showing their projects and analyzing their position on the built environment of Seoul; while experts, professors, and curators frame urban issues, through descriptions of nostalgia for tradition, minimalism and empty spaces; opportunities arising from the 2008 crisis; and the traditional concept of facade used to bend the rules of the F.A.R. Game.

© 2019 TCA Think Tank

The Condition
of Seoul Architecture
Pier Alessio Rizzardi

Interviewees

Moon Hoon, Moon Hoon Architects
Gyoo Jang-yoon, UnSangDong
Kim Dong-jin & Kim Yoo-jung, L’EAU design

Cho Min-suk, Mass Studies
Kim Young-joon, YO2 Architects
Hwang Doo-jin, Doojin Hwang Architects

Kim In-cheurl, Archium
Cho Byoung-soo, BCHO Architects
Kim Min-ji, ISON Architects

Kim Hyo-man, Iroje KHM Architects
Kim Jun-sung, Architecture Studio hANd
Choi Moon-gyu, GaA Architects

Choi Wook, ONE O ONE Architects
Kim Jong-kyu, M.A.R.U. network
Ken Sungjin-min, SKM Architects

Kim Chan-joong, THE_SYSTEM LAB
Kim Seung-hoy, KYWC Architects
Lee Jeong-hoon, JOHO Architecture

Contributing Authors

Choi Won-Joon
John Hong
Caroline Maniaque
Rafael Luna

Photographers

Iwan Baan
Kim Yong-kwan
Sun Nam-goong
Hwang Woo-seop

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