Year: 2013

Use: Pavilion

Location: London, United Kingdom

Cross Floor Area: 35m2

Height: 27m

Structure: Steel, Fabric

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Crossing Borders

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Director : Simeon Lumgair
Use : Omnibus Film

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Note that the content is an edited version of the original directed by Simeon Lumgair, copyright holder.

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In the winter of 2014, I met director Simeon Lumgair at Kaldi Coffee in Wimbledon Station. As an acquaintance, he offered me a role in his upcoming omnibus film. The concept of filming the daily lives of 24 people in 24 countries over 24 hours truly intrigued me. I agreed, stipulating that I should film their daily lives, as I couldn't possibly act. He wanted to capture the unfiltered life of a Korean architect working in London. He wanted to capture my workspace and the daily lives of my colleagues, but company security prevented him from filming the latter. This video is an edited version of the footage, following my daily life and exploring the importance of places that remain in our memories, conversations with acquaintances about the psychological processes in architecture, and the process of working in my studio. This year marks the 11th anniversary of that film, and I've seen significant changes in my appearance and voice. Fortunately, however, my values, sense of professional calling, and the development of my thinking remain largely unchanged. Having chosen the profession of architecture, a profession that blossoms only after 60, I now find myself walking and running along a lonely path. Is my direction and pace, however vague, set in the right direction? The thought of spending the rest of my life in London, where the traces of my sweat and tears remain, always makes me bounce. Having a place I'd gladly return to is a source of immense luck and happiness. Architecture, my only irreplaceable hobby and my most confident profession, has become my daily routine. Yet, this grand karma reminds me that living simply as a human being can ultimately be more valuable. I extend my deepest gratitude to Simeon Lumgair for documenting and capturing those great moments with such exquisite detail.

Beginning and Traces Exhibition / Hyehwa Gallery

DIRECTOR

Year: 2006

Location: Noguenri, South Korea

The Korean War was the last war waged to keep liberal democracy in the 20th century. Painful memories and the dark past were left behind on the seamy side of victory. The massacre of the innocent people in Nogeunri was unofficially covered up by the government. On July 26, 1950, the American forces retreating encountered the innocent people taking refuge in Nogeunri. At that time, quite a few agents from North Korea were hiding among refugees. It was impossible to tell civilians from agents. Thus, the innocent people were massacred under the principle of immunity that civilians are killed unconditionally at the front. Throughout the Korean Peninsula, an operation was executed to mop up agents. Consequently, a considerable number of innocent refugees - 129,000 and 172,000 in South and North Korea, respectively –were victimized. At the extremity of the Cold War and under the crude ideological confrontation between socialism and democracy, and the immunity against the genocide of civilians, a great number of people were killed. They were slaughtered regardless of their intention. They were innocent refugee, unarmed, and even the words of being armed were unknown to them. Carrying out battles had become the goal of the war. Ideology led soldiers to become a state of warmongers. Immoral, barbaric acts with no one to blame were passed over in silence. It was a matter of course. In the post-war years, countless discussions and debates were held on the matter in the private sector. However, the severity of the incident led to the silence of the government, adding much to the suspicion and distress of the victims. Compensation for victims was rejected multiple times every time the issue was raised. The massacre of the innocent people in Nogeunri was an incident where more people were victimized than in any other incident during the war. However, no official discussion has been started yet. The war has been over for decades. Still, the innocent victims and the bereaved have kept suffering. A heartfelt concern and sympathy toward their distress are needed. This project started around the Twin Tunnels, where the massacre of innocent civilians was committed in Nogeunri. The railroad bridge over the Twin Tunnels is still in operation. Accordingly, the planned Memorial Hall required a measure to deal with the train noise. Considering this, the entire mass is designed as an oval shape, and arched noise walls are installed in many places between the railroad bridge and the building. These walls also visualize a motive that the victims’ distress and their spirits to fight for freedom spread farther like waves. To deliver an instructive message about their desperate state, the route that refugees followed is restored. A small stream is restored that served as a lifeline for survivors at the scene to represent the situation. This attempt will arouse sympathy among their descendants and visitors here.      

Analog Synopsis / Gaia Gallery

DIRECTOR

From trifle things that have been overlooked to those that have never been felt, all kinds of ideas and articles are pulled out. This is arguably how to comfort the painful memory grabbed in the hand. It is probably the only and most innocent thing that I can do as a being breathing comfortably. I wish their sacrifice becomes a consciousness that spreads beyond the present to the future. Beyond this place to a space where something different exists, it will spread abroad like an echo silent and long, leaving an aftereffect. The aftereffect will bump into rocks and generate another aftereffect, which will come across with other effects to raise new waves moving farther on and on. Then, finally, they will reach a land of freedom full of peace and calmness. Further, their favorite son of spirit that is impregnable but gets cold will become in full, not half, bloom. And it will dye the world carefully. The lasting regrets remaining in the hearts torn by gunfire and grudging will make a diamond representing the spirit of the times. Based on this motive, the present project began. Victims’ yearning and screaming for freedom spread abroad through dim lights. The earthly light will reach the sky and become a silver lining on the cloud. This is the moment when the dead and alive come in contact with one another.

Year: 2012

Use: House

Location: London, United Kingdom

Gross Floor Area: 450m2

Height: 24m

Structure: Steel Concrete

Architecture in the future will further pursue freedom, in terms of both form and function, building upon this current climate.  Yet the role of architecture as a channel or medium is a value which must not be overlooked even in this new paradigm.  Great architecture does not come only from its historical value and form.  True greatness comes, as mentioned earlier, from architecture’s function of communication.  Architecture is at once the most expensive artifact that mankind can own, and the most powerful channel of communication.  Regardless of its use, architecture has always been a setting for discourse and conflict throughout history.  All this was the result of communication.  Therefore, good architecture must fulfill its role as an intermediary. Like Leonardo Da Vinci’s SFUMATO techniques, in which pixels of various colors along the border of an object create a visual vagueness of division, architecture must also act as a catalyst to raze borders, combining various stories within a given region. The ‘Middle Architecture’ which is rapidly spreading through major Asian cities is a good example.  The ‘Middle Architecture’ is a high-density form which combines residential, commercial and business-related spaces in buildings of 4-5 stories, allowing people of diverse professions to mingle, and creating a new urban culture.  In other words, it is a new architecture paradigm in which users coexist by dividing dense spaces in high-rent urban areas.  It is a curious residential form which naturally arose as a survival method.  Many architects are presenting their ideas and creating Middle Architecture in cities like guerillas.  Because this form cannot be realized without discourse and rapport between neighbors, neighborhoods where Middle Architecture appears naturally undergo an improvement of living conditions, including safety and sanitation.  This makes it an ideal solution for future city developments in Asia, which is going through a more rapid growth as well as a high population density compared to European of North American counterparts.

Beginning and Traces Exhibition / Hyehwa Gallery

DIRECTOR

Year: 2006

Location: Seoul. Korea

‘anima vivimus, animo sentimus (We live by soul and feel by spirit)’ The project started out of a concern with the origin and evolution of analog. First of all, the focus was placed on the possibility of diverse traces as a result of setting a direction to start. As time flows, the degree of changing traces deepens. It means not only simple material scales about external wear and tear and about higher concentration. More importantly, internal changes should be considered. Whatever may follow is good. No matter what we may start with, the degree of changes in traces and the degree of resulting memories derived will undergo deterioration or pavement over time. While something starts like this, memories lost on the contrary must exist. Memories that one wants to lose must exist as well. The focus here is put on traces left or dumped or overlooked prior to starting something. Unlike the digital mode perceivable with intangible codes, analog mode should assume tangible attributes for visual perception. It is the hand that works as the most basic starting point to express the physical characteristics of analog. This work follows the first project, Analog Evolution. The six fingers mean the beginning and evolution of analog, and they visualize diversity of traces following the directions of beginning and the changes of traces over time. Those six fingers also signify simple efforts not to lose something. They are comparable to infinite orbits repeating random thoughts on evolved analog and embroider like flowers in full bloom on the wall. Six fingers also imply memory media replacing heaps of memories that are manifested and stored in the brain. They act as hemoglobin carrying oxygen. Analog codes in memory expressed by analog flowers are born again by the physical hand as visual traces. Random thoughts on evolved analog and repeated infinite orbits formed by six fingers express analog codes embedded deeply in the wick of memory and remain through the hand. Such traces are recorded in the wick of memory of the following project.

Analog Synopsis Exhibition / Gaia Gallery

DIRECTOR

Year: 2009

Gross Floor Area: 340m2

Height: 6m

Structure: Steel

Exhibition: Mulpha Gallery. Insadong. Seoul. Korea

Leaving traces of memories behind is most basic analog act. Innumerable and highly pure analog codes that are perfectly defying transformation exist in memories. By playing memories man comes to assume real humanity. As part of the most fundamental role of memory, its meaning in life is accumulated. From the day of birth till death, memory saves a plethora of signals as an immaterial form. Every memory finishes its life through death. Then, will human memory after death perish? I reckon the memory is transformed into a perceivable signal in its wick and escapes. Based on this idea, the relevance between memory and death is visualized via the staircase that is reversed at the top and bottom and on both sides. If the staircase is a whole process of storing the flow of life, the broad platform in the middle is a space that this process halts for a short organization. The process eventually finishes through death, which part is constructed as a passage leading to the outer space from the wick of the memory. Memory is where analog starts. The process of memory recording human life is contained here. This motive plays an important role in understanding and developing this project. It is because the present project aims to embed a new potential of life for those who had to leave the memories of the past behind for a new hope as boat people.  

Year: 2009

Use: Museum

Location: Miami, USA

Gross Floor Area: 1,400m2

Height: 35m

Structure: Steel

The site is located by the North Atlantic Ocean. Thus, it is an important place that separates fresh water from seawater. Actually, Miami has tried to expand its residential area and simultaneously emit seawater from the land through the reclamation of land for a long time. The site is located between freshwater and seawater. Moreover, this site has great potential for connection with the sea flow because it is located at the end of the central axis of the city. This potential can increase with commercial facilities around the urban area and through stable demands. It is because the grid pattern of roads and the comparatively flat difference in land level promote the circulation in the city. Thus, to reflect this possibility, I need to adapt the concept to expand the axis of the city. And the mass is directly connected from the edge of land to the sea. Different levels are maintained to promote the inflow of the floating population, and naturally, the mass floats in the air, thereby the circulation of pedestrians under the mass is smoothly accommodated. To boat people coming through the sea, light is like a hope. Crossing the cold sea with a hope kept in mind, they see the dim light from a distance as a power to survive the harsh wind on the sea. When the sun sets and the glow in the sky is gone, this building rolls. It is the only building salient beyond the coastline on one side of the beach in Miami. It is equal to a final destination located at the end of the urban axis. In this significant place, a museum for immigrants is built, which is meaningful enough. Giving hope is giving warmth. On feeling they are alive, they will shed tears, and their hearts will beat with excitement. The space will deliver a catharsis. The mass floating as if it was flying will infuse energy into the beach. Lovers will take photos against the backdrop of this unique building, and children will enjoy water play on the sand hill on the beach. The dim golden building will reflect the sunlight, which will light up the surroundings further. The outdoor deck will accept the red glow in the sky while people stroll and appreciate the video images projected. It will be a place giving both immigrants and residents new hope for life.