project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Jeong Ho Kim, Ik Jun Jang, Min Young Kim, jeong eun kim, Seung Yeon Han, Seul Kim, Hyung jun kim
location: Yangjaedong, seoul, korea
program: Educational and Research
dimension / area: 10,100 sm
client: Seoul Metropolitan City
status: completed in Feb. 2024
photograph: Bae Jihun

Mega Floor는 공원의 사용 및 공유방식을 오피스 공간에 적용한, AI 기반 산업을 위한 공유형 오피스 프로토타입이다. AI 산업의 특성상 기업 간 데이터 교류, 협업, 유연한 팀 재구성의 요구에 대응하기 위해 기존 오피스에서 주변화되던 중앙 공용 공간을 핵심적인 협업 인프라로 전환한다. L자형 코어를 기준으로 집중이 필요한 임대 업무 공간은 조망이 우수한 북·동측에 배치하고, 남·서측에는 자연광과 환기가 확보된 대규모 공유·코워킹 공간을 계획하였다. 바닥, 단면, 외부 공간으로 확장된 공유 구조와 double & triple height 공간은 AI 산업이 요구하는 개방성, 유연성, 에너지 효율을 동시에 지원한다.

The Georgia Savannah and the New York Manhattan differ greatly in the way they form and use city parks as a shared space. The Savannah takes the form of an absorbent pocket park that provides daily breaks to residents in close proximity by placing several small parks at certain distances. Yet Manhattan puts a large park in the center of the city. As a bigger sharing social function it supports various activities and events shared by all citizens.

Mega Floor is a proposal for a new prototype of a ‘sharing’ office. In general, if an office/rental space is placed on four sides facing outside with a centered core, the shared and public space is located in a small area in the center of being environmentally marginalized. The area size and environmental performance should be improved considering cooperation, sharing and synergy with various companies in the framework of the AI-driven 4th industry.

Mega Floor adopts the extended concept of ‘sharing’ to floors, sections and external spaces. Based on the ‘L’ shape of the core, rental space for resident companies are located in the north and east with great views and oversized public space is planned in the south and west for light and ventilation.

The hierarchies on the floor plan are private (secured area) is expanded to a shared public & co-working space, and outdoor space. Double & triple height space in section provides comfortable interior space while reducing energy consumption by controlling light, temperature and humidity in all floors.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Seong Chul Yu
program: hostel
dimension / area: 660 sm
client: private
status: Design Development

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Hyo Jung Kang, Ji ho sun
program: Residential
dimension / area: 270 sm
client: private
status: Completed in Aug. 2026

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Jeong Ho Kim, Tae yang Kim
location: Yeonnamdong, seoul, korea
program: Hotel
dimension / area: 8,200 sm
client: Private
status: Construction Documentt

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Bu Bin Kim, Jeong ho Kim
program: Office+Commercial
dimension / area: 850 sm
client: ELUV
status: completed in Nov. 2024
photograph: Ji Hun Bae

Quilt Cheongdam은 청담동 명품거리 이면도로에 위치한 1990년대 철근콘크리트 구조의 기존 건물을 대수선하여 명품 편집샵 사옥으로 재구성한 프로젝트다. 구조적으로 양호한 라멘조를 유지하면서 층간 시각적 연결과 진입 로비의 공간감을 확보하기 위해 일부 슬래브를 해체하고 원형계단을 삽입하였다. 외관은 경사진 지붕 형상과 돌출창을 통해 Mansard 지붕을 연상시키는 새로운 실루엣을 형성하며, 노출콘크리트 구조와 다양한 질감의 벽돌 마감을 병치해 옛 구조와 새로운 마감의 경계를 드러낸다. 제한된 증축 조건 속에서 콘크리트·벽돌·깬벽돌·금속의 네 개 레이어와 몰탈 깊이의 변주를 통해 입면의 깊이와 수공예적 밀도를 조율하였다. Quilt Cheongdam은 기존 구조 위에 직조된 입면을 통해 명품 편집샵 사옥의 정체성과 장소성을 동시에 구축한다.

Quilt Cheongdam is a renovation project of a five-story reinforced concrete building from the early 1990s, located on a secondary street at the entrance of Cheongdam’s luxury retail district. While the existing moment-frame structure was preserved, selective slab removals and a circular stair enhanced vertical visual connectivity and the spatial depth of the lobby.

The exterior reinterprets a mansard-like roof through inclined planes and projecting windows, integrating roof form and façade while expressing the existing structure in exposed concrete. Within tight renovation constraints, the façade is articulated through layered brick textures, bonding patterns, and varied mortar depths, forming a cohesive yet richly crafted identity that mediates between old and new.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Hee Jeong Yu, Hyo Jeong Kang
program: Pavilion
dimension / area: 400 sm
client: Daegu City / Susoeng International Design Biennale 2026
status: Construction Document completed

대구 수성 비엔날레의 주제인 ‘Living Ground’는 더 이상 인간 활동을 수용하기 위해 평탄화되고 정비된 바닥이 아니라, 인간의 개입 여부와 무관하게 이미 작동하고 있는 생태적 조건들의 집합으로 이해되어야 한다. 이 프로젝트는 땅을 ‘사용되는 대상’이 아니라, ‘먼저 살아온 주체’로 인식하는 전환에서 출발한다. 두꺼비는 단순한 상징이 아닌 환경의 질적 변화에 민감하게 반응하는 지표종이다. 수변과 육지를 오가는 두꺼비의 이동은 이 땅이 여전히 살아있는지를 보여주며 이 장소의 생태적 우선순위를 명확히 드러낸다.

‘After the Toads: 두꺼비 먼저’라는 선언은 보호가 아닌 우선권에 대한 질문이다. 이 장소에서의 건축행위는 인간의 도착 이전에 이미 시작된 생태적 시간 위에 덧붙여지는 행위이며, 파빌리온은 그 시간의 흐름을 가로막지 않기 위한 최소한의 개입이 되어야 한다. ‘다리’타입의 제안은 머무는 장소라기보다, 지나가며 인식하는 장치에 가깝다. 이는 땅을 차지하지 않겠다는 설계적 태도의 물리적 표현이며, 살아 있는 지면 위에 남겨질 수 있는 가장 얇은 흔적이다.

Living Ground is not a surface to accommodate human use. It is a constellation of ecological processes already in operation, with or without human intervention. This project begins with a shift in perspective: from land as an object to be used, to land as a subject that has lived prior to us.

The toad is not a metaphor, but an indicator species sensitive to qualitative environmental change. Moving between water and land, it reveals whether this ground is still alive and establishes the ecological priority of the site. At Wooksuji, water flows, vegetation grows, and birds, insects, and amphibians coexist within a continuous ecological field shaped over time.

‘After the Toads’ is a declaration not of protection, but of priority. Architecture here arrives after ecology, adding itself to an ecological time that predates human presence. Accordingly, the pavilion is conceived as a minimal intervention that avoids interrupting existing flows.

For this reason, the pavilion adopts the typology of a bridge rather than a building. A bridge minimizes contact with the ground, allowing passage above ongoing processes. It is less a place to stay than a device for perception while moving. This embodies a refusal to occupy, leaving only a thin trace on living ground.

The grating applied to the floor and railings forms a permeable boundary—open to light, air, and water, yet sufficient for human movement. While the structure itself is temporary, the attitude it proposes is enduring. Whatever may follow on this site, After the Toads establishes a baseline for how architecture might engage with land that is already alive.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, tae yang kim, min young kim, jeong eun kim
location: seoul, korea
program: commercial + office
dimension / area: 1,714 sm
client: Naracellar
status: completed Dec. 2022

chambers: winery 신사는 와인 수입 기업을 위한 계획으로, 생산을 제외한 판매, 시음·시향, 보관, 전시, 식음 등 모든 와인 경험을 하나의 건물에 집약한 프로젝트이다. 상업적 맥락이 지배적인 신사동 거리에서, 본 건물은 파편화된 도시 입면 속에 차분하면서도 대담한 존재로 자리하며 수직 와이너리의 정체성을 정의한다. 입면, 프로그램, 환경 성능을 통합하는 하나의 디자인 언어를 통해 전통적인 석재 와인 저장고가 수직으로 적층된 듯한 건축적 이미지를 구현한다.

층별로 돌출된 벽돌 Chamber는 내부·외부 경험을 확장하는 동시에 보관, 전시, 휴게 기능을 수행하며, 깊은 차양으로서 빛과 온도를 조절해 와인을 위한 최적의 환경과 에너지 효율을 확보한다. 좁고 긴 대지 위에서 공공적 1층 공간과 수직적으로 연결된 프로그램 구성은 도시 맥락 속 새로운 와인 경험의 흐름을 제안한다.

Chambers: Vertical Winery is a vertical winery prototype for a wine import company, accommodating all wine-related experiences—retail, tasting, storage, dining, and exhibition—excluding production. Situated on a commercially dense street in Sinsa-dong, the project introduces a calm yet assertive presence, defining a restrained architectural identity amid fragmented urban façades. A unified design language integrates façade, program, and environmental performance, recalling vertically stacked stone wine cellars.

Projecting brick “Chambers” enrich interior and exterior experiences while providing wine storage, display, and resting spaces, and simultaneously function as deep sun-shading devices that regulate light, temperature, and energy load. Organized on a narrow rectangular site, the building features a ground-floor public passage and a vertically connected sequence of wine-related programs, forming a cohesive urban vertical winery.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, seong chul yu, ji ho sun, gam su yoon
location: Taegu, Kyungbuk, korea
program: Educational and Research
dimension / area: 11,630 sm
status: proposed 2026 / Oct.
result: 4th Placed

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, jeong eun Kim
location: jamsil, seoul, korea
program: coffee school + showroom
dimension / area: 222 sm
client: coffeebuy + coffeeacademia
status: completed in Nov. 2021
photograph: bae jihun / the studio

Coffeemix는 커피 교육과 판매를 담는 복합 건물이자, 한국식 인스턴트 커피 문화를 차용한 은유를 통해 브랜드의 밀도 높은 정체성을 건축으로 번역한다. 전시적 상업 건물과 달리, 시각적 개방 대신 내향적 공간 전략과 절제된 입면으로 차별화된다.

학원 인허가 조건은 건물을 동서로 길게 조직하고, 전면에 최소화된 계단을 배치해 전용 면적의 효율과 채광·환기를 확보한다. 감각적 집중을 요구하는 커피 교육의 특성에 맞춰 개구부를 제한하고 빛을 통제하며, 건물은 내부 경험에 집중한다. 법적 한계까지 확장된 매스는 벽돌 외피로 차분하게 다듬어지고, 거리에는 과시 대신 물성과 질감으로 존재감을 드러내는 내향적 도시 오브제로 작동한다.

Coffeemix operates simultaneously as program and metaphor: a compact mixed-use building for coffee education and retail, and a kitschy reference to Korea’s instant coffee culture, embodying the dense flavor and identity the brand pursues. Within a generic commercial context, the project distinguishes itself not through display but through spatial discipline and façade restraint.

Programmatic requirements—particularly the academy permit demanding contiguous floor areas—organize the building into a long east–west bar with a minimized staircase placed at the front, maximizing usable space while enabling efficient daylight and cross-ventilation. Because coffee education prioritizes sensory concentration over visual exposure, the architecture turns inward, limiting large openings and controlling light rather than engaging the street through transparency.

Built to the edge of allowable lines, the mass is subtly carved rather than expressed. Brick surfaces with shallow apertures form a quiet, defensive envelope, while the street façade adopts a finer texture through half-cut bricks. Calm and internalized, the building resists overt visibility and instead functions as an ambiguous urban object—more sign than showcase—asserting presence through material and form rather than spectacle.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Jeong Ho Kim, Tae Yang Kim, Min Young Kim, Seul Kim

+team hitchhiker architects
+landscape: HEA
‍ ‍
location: Buyeo, korea
program: Library
dimension / area: 7,700 sm
client: buyeo-gun
status: winning entry / Under Construction

부여는 지표 아래 수많은 유적이 중첩된 장소로, 현상설계 당시 그 존재와 위치를 특정할 수 없는 불확실한 지반을 가지고 있었다. 이 프로젝트는 이러한 조건을 제약이 아닌 건축적 전제로 받아들인다. 대지와의 접촉을 최소화하고 주요 프로그램을 들어 올려 필수 코어만이 땅에 닿고, 모듈화된 구조 시스템은 공사 중 발생할 수 있는 유적 발견에 유연하게 대응한다. 건축은 고정된 물체가 아니라, 보이지 않는 역사와 공존하는 프레임으로 작동한다.

길이 180m의 선형 건물에는 도서관, 커뮤니티센터, 육아시설, 요양시설이 통합되며, 1층은 개방적 공공 프로그램, 상부는 도서관과 커뮤니티 공간으로 구성된다. 층 간의 시각적·공간적 연속성은 일상적 활동을 하나의 공유된 생활 풍경으로 엮어내며, 건물은 지역 사회를 위한 문화 플랫폼으로 기능한다.

Located in Buyeo, the former capital of Baekje, the site is layered with archaeological traces whose presence and location remain largely unknown. Rather than treating these buried relics as constraints to be cleared or avoided, the project frames the ground itself as a condition of uncertainty that's something to be negotiated architecturally. The design responds by minimizing physical contact with the earth, reducing the building footprint, and elevating primary programs above grade. Only essential cores lightly touch the ground, allowing the first floor to remain open, permeable, and adaptable. A modular and systematic structural logic further enables the building to adjust during construction, accommodating potential discoveries and preserving the integrity of the site. In this way, the architecture becomes not a fixed object imposed on the land, but a flexible framework that coexists with the unseen history beneath it.

Extending 180 meters, the building consolidates a community center, communal childcare center, nursing home, and library into a single linear form. Programs requiring accessibility and interaction with the landscape occupy the ground level, while controlled and communal functions are distributed above. The elevated second floor forms an open library landscape, and the first and third floors can connect to create a large, shared living room for the neighborhood. Visual and spatial continuity across floors transforms the building into a community-centered cultural platform—an everyday setting for reading, gathering, and social exchange—where contemporary life unfolds in dialogue with the historical ground.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Hyungjun Kim, Jeongho Kim
Interior design: studiovase
location: seoul, korea
program: Office+Commercial
dimension / area: 1,089 sm
client: production rocket
status: completed in jun. 2021
photograph: bae jihun / The Studio

한남동 주거지에 위치한 Montage Hannam은 교외에 분산된 영화 세트를 수직으로 적층해 도심형 스튜디오와 본사를 하나의 건물로 통합한 프로젝트다. 인간 중심 스케일 대신 ‘카메라’를 공간 구성의 기준으로 삼아, 동선과 비례, 채광과 개구부를 촬영의 시점과 프레이밍에 맞춰 조직한다. 다양한 층고, 과장된 창, 내부와 외부가 겹쳐지는 공간 레이어는 일상의 환경을 촬영 세트와 같은 장면으로 전환하며, 높은 매스와 절개된 볼륨은 주변 맥락 속에서 강한 입체성과 깊이를 형성한다. 스튜디오, 업무, 임대, 카페가 중첩된 이 건물은 영화적 무대와 일상이 교차하는 하나의 ‘도시적 몽타주’로 작동한다.

Located in a residential neighborhood of Hannam, Montage Hannam reinterprets the suburban film studio as a vertically stacked urban structure, consolidating production sets, workspace, and headquarters into a single multi-story building. Rather than adopting conventional human-scaled planning, the project shifts its primary reference from the human body to the camera, using cinematic perception as the organizing principle of space.

Circulation, proportions, and openings are choreographed around camera movement and framed views. Variations in ceiling height, exaggerated windows, layered depths, and controlled contrasts of light construct spatial sequences akin to film sets, producing scenes that oscillate between everyday reality and staged fantasy. Height becomes both technical necessity and urban statement, accommodating camera angles while distinguishing the building within its low-rise context.

Carved and manipulated from a simple mass, the architecture generates dramatic shadows, concave volumes, and stereoscopic circulation that extend perspectives from street to garden. Operating simultaneously as studio, workplace, rental space, parking, and café, the building transforms cinematic infrastructure into daily environment—a continuous montage where production space and ordinary life overlap.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Chan seo park, Jeong ho Kim
program: Residential+Office
dimension / area: 1,030 sm
client: private
status: Construction Document Completed / Ready to start

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: Kyung Buk, Yecheon, Korea
Program: Single Family Residential
Dimension / Area: 22'x45'x20' / 990 sf
Structural Engineering: Duhang Engineering
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2016 / Apr.
Photograph: Song Yousub

Shear House는 전형적인 박공지붕 주택 유형을 ‘전단(shear)’이라는 단순한 변형을 통해 환경적·공간적 장치로 재해석한 단독주택이다. 지붕 볼륨이 남쪽으로 미끄러지듯 이동하며 깊은 처마와 테라스를 형성하고, 이는 여름의 직사광을 차단하고 겨울의 자연광을 끌어들이는 동시에 환기와 단열 성능을 높인다. 더블 스킨 외피와 함께 작동하는 이러한 기후 대응 전략은 주거 환경의 에너지 효율을 향상시킨다.

전형적인 박공면과 절단·이동된 면이 대비되는 단일 매스는 주변 풍경 속에 미묘한 긴장과 변화를 만든다. 북측에는 침실과 서비스 공간을, 남측에는 동서로 길게 펼쳐진 복층 거실을 배치해 프로그램을 명확히 구분하며, 이동된 지붕이 만들어내는 비정형 단면과 빛의 깊이는 단순한 외관과 달리 내부에 역동적인 공간 경험을 형성한다.

Shear House reinterprets the conventional pitched-roof house through a simple act of shearing, transforming a familiar domestic typology into an environmental and spatial device. The gable volume shifts southward along the length of the house, generating deep eaves and terraces that respond to solar orientation. This displacement moderates climate—blocking summer sun, admitting winter light, enhancing cross-ventilation, and, together with a double-skin façade, reducing seasonal heat gain and loss.

Composed as a monolithic mass with two contrasting ends—one typical, the other sliced and displaced—the house subtly alters the surrounding landscape, revealing its deformation gradually through shadow and depth. Programmatically, the north side consolidates service and private rooms, while the south opens into a double-height living volume that extends east to west. Beneath the calm exterior, the shifted roof produces skewed geometries and layered perspectives, turning everyday domestic space into a dynamic, light-filtered interior sequence.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Seong Chul Yu, Seung Yeon Han
program: Residential
dimension / area: 270 sm
client: private
status: Construction on-going

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Hyo Jung Kang
Location: Ggummaeul Apartment, Anyang, Korea
Program: Single Family Residential / Interior Renovation
Dimension / Area: 228 sm
Structural Engineering: N/A
Construction: Team Hitchhiker
Client: Private
Status: Completed Apr. 2024
Photograph: Jihun Bae / Bae.graphy

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, tae yang kim, seul kim
location: sindangdong, korea
program: office
dimension / area: 380 sm
client: private
status: Construction Document Completed / ready to start

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, seung yeon han
location: yangpyung, korea
program: single family residential
dimension / area: 180 sm
client: private
status: Completed in Dec. 2021
photograph: bae jihun

Super-Normal은 과도한 형태적 표현 대신 거주의 본질에 집중한 ‘의도적으로 평범한 집’을 제안한다. 대지가 확정되지 않은 채 시작된 프로젝트는 특정 장소에 종속된 조형을 만들기보다, 테라스, 채광, 마당, 상호작용하는 내부와 같은 생활의 기본 요소를 중심으로 최소한의 공간 원칙을 설정한다. 건축은 하나의 완결된 오브제가 아니라, 일상의 사용 방식에 따라 유연하게 작동하는 보편적 주거의 틀로 접근된다.

단순하고 가변적인 매스는 실내와 외부를 연속적으로 연결하며 빛과 풍경을 끌어들이고, 공용 공간을 중심에, 사적 공간과 테라스를 주변에 배치해 명확한 위계를 형성한다. 구조벽과 비구조벽을 조정 가능한 시스템으로 구성해 프로그램 면적과 외부 공간을 상황에 따라 변화시킬 수 있도록 함으로써, 이 집은 특정 대지에 최적화된 해답이 아니라 다양한 조건에 적응 가능한 주거 프로토타입으로 작동한다.

Super-Normal proposes an architecture of deliberate ordinariness—an essential house stripped of stylistic excess and organized around the everyday routines of its inhabitants. Developed under conditions of site uncertainty, the project establishes a set of basic spatial rules rather than a fixed form, prioritizing terraces, daylight, an interactive interior, and a yard as fundamental elements of domestic life.

The building adopts a simple, adaptable mass that mediates interior and exterior through continuous terraces and large openings, maximizing light, view, and proximity to nature. A clear hierarchy structures the plan: communal space at the center, private rooms and terraces at the periphery. Load-bearing and non-load-bearing systems are coordinated to allow program areas and terrace dimensions to shift, enabling the house to adjust to different sites.

Conceived as a common, almost anonymous object, Super-Normal becomes a flexible framework rather than a singular composition—an architecture prepared for the undefined, where variability transforms the ordinary into something quietly exceptional.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Kim Seung Mook, Jae Hyun Kang
location: Leeum
program: sound attenuating felt structure
dimension / area: 9 sm
client: leeum museum of art
status: completed in Aug. 2022
photograph: bae jihun

Silent Pause는 재료가 지닌 물리적 성능과 감각적 잠재력을 동시에 탐구하며, 펠트를 마감재나 가구의 스케일을 넘어 공간을 구축하는 건축 재료로 확장한다. 치밀한 섬유 구조의 펠트는 높은 흡음 성능을 바탕으로 두껍게 적층되어 느슨한 음향 경계를 형성하고, 방문자는 외부 소음이 점진적으로 차단되는 과정을 통해 청각이 절제된 고요 속에서 시각적 경험에 집중하게 된다. 펠트를 한 장씩 쌓아 압축력을 확보하고 철근으로 보강하는 메이슨리 구조 시스템과 상부로 좁아지는 블록 조합은 설치를 자립적 구조체로 완성하며, 전시 이후에는 해체되어 가구 모듈로 재사용된다. 결과적으로 이 프로젝트는 전시장 내부에 놓인 고립된 ‘음향의 섬’이자, 구조와 가구 사이를 오가는 가변적 프레임으로서 재료의 건축적 가능성을 재정의한다.

Silent Pasue is a sound attenuating structure that explores the inherent capacities of material as both technical performance and sensory medium. While concrete offers structural solidity and formal plasticity, wood warmth and tactility, and glass light and visual continuity, this project turns to felt to construct space itself. Moving beyond its conventional use as a surface or furnishing, felt becomes an architectural substance that engages touch and hearing simultaneously. Its dense fibrous structure absorbs sound, and when stacked into thick walls, it creates soft acoustic boundaries that gradually isolate visitors from external noise, guiding them toward a quiet interior where visual concentration is intensified through controlled silence. Within the larger exhibition hall, the space operates as an acoustic island—a retreat for focus and healing.

The structure adopts a masonry-like system in which layers of felt are compressed into blocks to resist compression and reinforced with rebar for tensile stability. The tapered volume is assembled from standardized and custom units that can be dismantled and reconfigured after the exhibition. Once disassembled, the blocks are reused as modular furniture, extending the material’s lifecycle. In this way, the installation functions not only as a temporary enclosure but as a reusable, adaptable framework that redefines felt as both structure and space.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: Hyundai Apartment, Gangnam gu, Korea
Program: Single Family Residential / Interior Renovation
Dimension / Area: 204 sm / 2,150 sf
Structural Engineering: N/A
Construction: WK Company
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2016 / July
Photograph: Song Yusub

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Eun Kim
Location: Naebalsandong, Seoul, Korea
Program: Single Family Residential
Dimension / Area: 175.7 sm
Structural Engineering: Teo Structure
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2018 / Aug.
Photograph: Bae Jihun

Five-Story House는 고밀도 도시 서울의 소규모 대지 위에 단독주택을 수직으로 적층한 주거 실험이다. 부동산 가치와 아파트 중심의 주거 문화가 지배적인 맥락 속에서, 작은 평면을 위로 쌓아 올린 수직형 단독주택은 투자 중심의 주거 모델에 대한 대안적 제안으로 작동한다. 이 프로젝트는 단순한 자산이 아닌 삶의 질과 다양한 공간 경험을 담는 ‘수직적 생활 방식(Vertical Living)’을 통해 아파트가 제공하지 못하는 입체적 거주 가치를 모색한다.

100㎡ 미만의 대지와 일조 사선, 주차 규제 등 엄격한 법규 조건 속에서, 건물은 가족 구성원의 점유 방식에 따라 층별로 기능을 분절하며 가늘고 높은 매스를 형성한다. 일조 사선에 따른 계단식 볼륨과 주차 상부의 캔틸레버는 도시 주거지의 전형적 형태를 따르되, 주요 요소에 ‘아크(arc)’를 적용해 미묘한 변형을 더한다. 이러한 곡선적 제스처는 입면과 개구부, 진입부에 개성을 부여하며, 건물을 단순한 협소주택이 아닌 수직 단독주택의 새로운 유형으로 드러낸다.

‘Five-Story House’ is the vertically stacked result of a single-family house on a small site in highly dense city, Seoul. In Korea where the real estate is one of the most effective investment tools, purchasing a flat is the common way to increase one’s assets. Considering economic value of flats through re-development and the familiarity of living infrastructure, a vertically stacked house with small floor area is a provocative residential type in this culture. Recently this vertical house is at the fore among the people who had grown up at the flats in 80s & 90s and look for their living values in diverse spatial qualities which cannot be achieved from the flats.

The Project proposes to collect vertical lives in a single-family house beyond the just investment value. In less than 100 square meters property area with required setbacks and parking regulation, this tall and skinny house creates ‘vertical living’ with different floor zonings based on five family members’ occupancy. The stepped mass over 9 meters by the daylight setback regulation and the cantilever over the parking becomes a typical building shape in residential zoning area in this city. ‘Five-Story House’ seeks small tweaks by ‘arc-ing’ on major elements that define the building. The ‘arc’ at the cantilever of the parking, the sloped wall at the 4th floor, the entry and the openings on elevations, reveal its identity of the vertical single-family house and express its unique appearance.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, bu bin kim, hyo jung kang
location: youngju, korea
program: administrative welfare center
dimension / area: 1,077 sm
client: youngju city
status: winning entry / construction on-going

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Eun Kim
Location: Amorepacific New Headquarter, Yongsan, Seoul, Korea
Program: Public Passage
Dimension / Area: 1,040 sm
Lighting Designer: nehte
Structural Engineering: N/A
Client: AMOREPACIFIC
Completed Year: 2018 / Jun.
Photograph: Song Yousub

Kkotbit is the public underground passages for Amorepacific’s new headquarter building designed by David Chipperfield. The headquarter of Amorepacific, the biggest cosmetic company in Korea, is located in the front of Sinyongsan station, one of the busiest subway stations in Seoul. This 200,000 m2 urban scaled building holds Amorepacific Museum of Art and various retails at basement level, along with working spaces atop. Two exits of the station are connected to the east and the south entrances at the level so that provide easy access to public.

Kkotbit seeks to a unique transitional passage bridging from daily life to Amorepacific world. The passage links the normal, ordinary, everyday- life space to new Amorepacific’s cultural and social organization with fantasy. The petal pattern from the symbol of Amorepafic was modified and used as the main element to create distinctive atmosphere. Like one of the movie scene, people go through the tunnel surrounded by falling light petals. The contrast of brightness among the station, the building and the passage allows people to recognize distinguished zone and reinforces the different mood of the space. The mellow light smears out through the petal shaped cut-out at aluminum panels. The pattern of petals is getting smaller and disappears at the center of the ceiling and the bottom of the panel and creates subtle change from ceiling to wall and wall to floor. This calm but visionary thresholds lead public to the extremely refined space of the building.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, sang hyup Kim, seung yeon han + Team Hitchhiker
location: Jinju, korea
program: Theater Complex
dimension / area: 8,318 sm
status: proposed 2021 / Jul.
result: 2nd Placed

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Seul Kim
location: Yeoju, korea
program: Single-Family Residential
dimension / area: 165 sm
client: private
status: completed in Jul.
photograph: bae jihun

Incomplete Rectangle offers a geometric figure and a spatial layout as an approach toward nature and views to take when the width of a building is limited by the shape of the land. An irregular pentagon, which combines a rectangle as a private space and a triangle as a common space, corresponds to the lines created by the natural features and streets of the village. The man-made building becomes complete as it extends to nature.

Located within sight of Gangcheon Island of Yeoju-si, the site is a housing lot that stretches from north to south. (The lot is narrow in width from the main access road.) The northern and southern ends of the lot face Namhangang River and houses on a slope across a street. The houses nearby are concentrated in the south with large private yards in the north as access is only available from the south because of the retaining wall in the north of the slope. Northwest lies an axis between the ridges of Somunsan Mountain and Hwanghaksan Mountain, which runs directly towards Namhangang River. Incomplete Rectangle presents a geometric shape of pentagon combining a rectangle and a triangle, to correspond to the elevations (widths) of the similarly placed houses and to ensure unobstructed views of natural features northwest.

Each of the two geometric figures serves a different purpose; the rectangular volume, which is toward the northern yard and uninterrupted views of nature, serves a private purpose as the main daily living spaces, such as the living room, bedrooms, and bathroom, whereas the triangular volume, facing the street, serves a public purpose as the supporting space such as the corridor, staircase, storage, and boiler room. On the first floor is the living room that leads to the yard and terrace where the family can get together, and on the second floor are the couple’s bedroom and a small lounge. The third floor has bedrooms for the family of the couple’s sons who often come visit their parents, a bathroom spacious enough for kids to play, and a daybed. The openness of the bathrooms on the second and third floors is controlled by natural scenery.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Ui hyun hwang, ji hae park, Seok Hun Hwang
Location: mmca, gwacheon
Program: pavilion
Area: 1,025 sm
Structural Engineering: Hangil Structure
Client: The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
Status: Completed in Oct. 2020
Photograph & Video: Bae Jihun

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OJMwYYNBpc

’The Surface’ is a site-specific and sensually interactive installation where people can relate to nature in a new way. We imagined a resilient horizontal surface that covers the sloped grass field. It is comprised of 700 nylon mesh disks, each connected on top of flexible poles. The nylon meshes morph at different temperatures and humidity, allowing the surface to appear like a living creature. Its responsive property makes interesting dialogues between the states of open-close and light-shadow. The nylon meshes also reflect the atmosphere of sunrise and sunset, and seasonal changes of the surrounding landscape. ‘The Surface’ sways in the wind, rain, snow, and people. Weaving through it, the people interact with nature visually, auditorily, and tactilely.

At the highest elevation of the slope, people can see an endless horizon that reflects the distant and close landscapes, as if they are looking at a surface of water. When people walk down the slope, they can submerge under the surface, entering the field of thin, flexible poles. Walking between the poles, people can get an impression of a forest, covered by a translucent canopy. The inflection point of submerging under the surface creates a sudden transition from water to forest. Beyond just being an object, ‘The Surface’ becomes a sensual medium between the people and nature.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Seung Yeon Han
location: Seoul, Korea
program: Commercial
dimension / area: 113 sm
client: PRNT / Studio Sunny Sideup
status: Completed in Oct. 2020
photograph: Bae JiHun

During the past decade, Sangdo has undergone rapid redevelopment, with approximately ten-thousand housing units being constructed. Housing supply soared, but parts of Sangdo that were not subject to the redevelopment quickly became vacant. Consequently, streets with vacant buildings deteriorated, and the floating population plummeted. Small buildings and lots on these streets were not profitable. In order to overcome this situation and increase value of an old residential building on the site, the building was renovated into a self-employed press company for a comic author to write, exhibit and promote her work in one building. This renovation project altered usage of the building from residential to commercial, which incurred various architectural interventions such as relocating entrance and staircase, modifying interior and exterior materials, and adjusting room scales. ‘Face-Lift Sangdo’ refers to the overall design changes made in the existing building, to reevaluate the potentials of a commercial building in this specific residential area.

From the first to the fourth floor, there are a bookstore, exhibition space, studio and a communal kitchen, respectively. Different phases of press including planning, showcase, publication, and promotion, are vertically connected in the building. The small garden on the first floor and the rooftop space on the fourth floor allow the activities inside the building to expand when in need. Even though each floor area was small, about thirty-three square meters, the removal of the existing partitions and walls allowed sufficient allocation for each program. Steel columns and beams are commonly used to meet the seismic design standards in Korea, but they could significantly reduce the ceiling height and the usable floor area. Instead, reinforced concrete walls were used to satisfy structural requirement and to maximize the interior space. The staircase was internalized to connect the programs vertically and to mediate the spaces on different levels by continuing the same floor materials throughout. The new facade of the building that emerged from the internal transformation becomes a storefront that exposes the movement of the users on different programs and levels.

The existing building did not have a ‘front’ face; it did not have a proper facade. As is often the case for multi-family residential, the main entrance of the building was a thin glass door at the landing of the exterior staircase. Because it was so close to the road, the circulatory conflict between the entrance and the movements on the street was inevitable. The entrance was relocated to the north, and the staircase was internalized to alleviate this unpleasant collision. Thus, the small garden to the south-east was separated from the old entrance, becoming an accessible outdoor area on the first floor. The narrow, double-height new entrance on the front façade dictates the overall impression of the building. Along with the repeating geometry of the staircase openings, it brings a sense of order to the overall composition of the façade. The decorative red bricks of the 80s and 90s are now covered by two contrasting materials: aluminum cladding and stone tiles. The smooth aluminum cladding on the bottom seems to hold up the rough and heavy-looking stones above it, creating an intriguing dialogue between the two materials.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim,ji ho sun, gam su yoon
location: Yeouido, seoul, korea
program: Landscape Support Facilities
dimension / area: 2,130 sm
client: Seoul Metropolitan City
status: 2nd placed
collboated with Dongsimwon & Sitedot
landscape render: North Point

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Eun Kim
Location: Guuidong, Seoul, Korea
Program: mix-used (commercial+residential)
Dimension / Area: 195.8 sm
Structural Engineering: Hangil Structure
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2019 / May

‘Salon Guui’ seeks a new possibility of refurbishment for an 80’s popular residential building type in Korea. The old building is 3 stories; semi-basement, uplifted 1^st floor and the 2^nd floor which has independent accesses representing spatial features of the 80’s building. It used to hold 5 residential units: 2 units for semi-basement, 1 for the 1^st and 2 for the 2^nd floor. The refurnished holds an office in semi basement and the 1^st floor, and a single family residential for the owner of the office in the 2^nd floor. The main working space of the office is placed in the semi basement. The 1^st floor connected through cut-out slab from the semi-basement provides with multi-purposes, as a place of conference, exhibition for a guest, a space of rest and a theater for both office staffs and residents. Placed in between office at the semi-basement and residential at the second level, this uplifted 1^st floor works as a ‘salon’ in the whole building.

‘Salon Guui’ advocates the value of architectural types, elements and finishes in the old building as a ‘collective style’ representing the 80’s. Independent access structure, details of Korean bay window, the concrete eaves and shingle, decorative stone stair guardrail, granite cladded concrete foundation and various plumbing systems have been maintained. Inside the project carefully reveals the inner layers, hidden materials and envelops’ changes in its 30 years history. The east side wall and slab in the 1^st floor has the trace of the changes, from building’s construction, expansion and renovation. It shows 80’s unusual tectonics and material uses in its transition, such as red bricks piled up on granite bases, a window used as a niche and troweled surfaces for decorative moldings for people to experience 3 different time layers in one building.

Minimized new finishes are applied in exterior and interior. New mortar matching brick of the building is overlaid directly on existing mortar giving a monolithic sense of the volume. Old stair handrail and guardrail is wrapped with colored stainless steel panel. The 1^st floor finish, 150mm x 150mm brass grid filled with black concrete and dark gray aggregates becomes a contemporary intervention while also looking back to the typical terrazzo floor with 900mm brass grid in 80’s, revealing unusual ratio of distorted proportion of the grid to the size of the aggregates’ cross section. Without the extra finishes ‘Salon Guui’ makes 80’s Korean atmosphere unique with clear intention, strategy and detailing.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Jung ho Kim, Seung yeon Han
location: Suwon, korea
program: Single-Family Residential
dimension / area: 470 sm
client: private
status: construction document completed / ready to start

A weather Sensitive Pavilion

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Seung Yeon Han, Jeong Ho Kim, Sung Min Kim
Location: Osulloc Tea Museum, Jeju, Korea
Program: Temporary Installation
Dimension / Area: 3.6 sm
Structural Engineering: N/A
Client: Amorepacific Museum of Art
Completed Year: 2017 / Jun.
Photograph: EH(Kyoungtae Kim) + stpmj

‘Dissolving Arch’는 제주도의 장기간 강우와 높은 습도라는 기후 조건에 반응하도록 설계된 기후 특정적 설치작품이다. 암염 벽돌과 시멘트 모르타르로 구성된 아치는 조적 구조의 기본 단위를 재해석하며, 물에 의해 점진적으로 침식되는 과정을 통해 시간성과 변화의 개념을 공간화한다. 빛을 투과하고 용해되는 소금 벽돌은 점차 사라지며, 최종적으로는 모르타르로 이루어진 다공성의 구조적 스켈레톤만 남는다. 이 과정에서 완결된 조형물은 점차 열리고 프레이밍된 구조로 전환되며, 사람과 자연 사이의 관계를 새롭게 설정한다. 본 프로젝트는 구조, 재료, 기후가 상호작용하는 과정을 통해 건축을 고정된 형태가 아닌 변화하는 시스템으로 제안한다.

The project, ‘Dissolving Arch’ is a weather-specific installation located in Jeju Island. The island has a long rainy and humid period in summer. The structure is designed to react on rain and humid, exploring constituent of masonry and reflecting time of weather changes. The arch is constructed by stacking rock salt units (200mm x 100mm x 50mm) with cement mortar, and the salt bricks get eroded by water exposure, leaving a mortar skeleton in the end.

The project starts with the curiosity about constituent of brick and its structure. Instead of clay bricks, the arch is piled up with salt bricks and cement mortar. With two distinctive materiality of the salt brick, light permeable and melt-able, it transmits light inside of the arch and get melt gradually by frequent rain of Jeju Island. More get dissolved and better chance to communicate with nature/background & light allowance. The structural cement mortar is left as another installation, a porous skeleton after the bricks dissolve. It is about a narrative that an isolated and solid object transforms to an open and framed structure creating another dialogue of people and nature.

Unlike ordinary clay bricks absorb the moisture of the mortar and quickly have friction on the surface, the salt bricks do not. The arch is completed after creating scores on the salt brick surface to increase frictional force, and reinforcing with the steel wires in mortar. During the three month exhibition period, rain and humid weather in Jeju will slowly dissolve the structure into nature.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Ho Kim
Location: Yangchungu, Seoul, Korea
Program: creative music center
Dimension / Area: 5,661 sm
Structural Engineering: Hangil Structure
Proposed Year: 2018 / oct.
Photograph: Bae Jihun

“Inside Out” is a program-specific design proposal that re-addresses the spatial structure of a creative music center by organizing required programs in building plan and section. Analyzing the functions for the building it proposes a hybrid zoning of "Window-Required Programs", arranged on the perimeter and "Window-Less Programs", placed on the center on the plan. As a result, the common relationship among public space, room and envelope to outside is reversed, allowing the three-dimensional community space. Performance & cultural areas (black box, performance waiting room, etc.) are located on the first floor, allowing neighbors’ easy access. In special events the black box can be extended to outdoor performance area so that the community is activated easily. The training, creative and education areas are placed on the third to the seventh floor, and the support management programs (office, meeting room, data room, etc.) are arranged on the second floor so that they can efficiently cope with the lower and upper parts of floors.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: KyungGi, Yongin, Korea
Program: Multi-Family Residential
Dimension / Area: 209 sm
Structural Engineering: Duhang Engineering
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2017 / Feb.
Photograph: Song Yousub

The Masonry, a multi-family house in Korea, seeks a playful game of "scale" in two aspects, the building itself and bricks in its facade. The site sits at the corner, facing its long-north and short-east sides to the roads. Due to the town planning, the entrance and the long side of house need to be facing south. It makes a contradictory condition of pitched roof direction and the main facade of the house. Referring Rovert Venturi's house the gable is placed along with a long side of the site towards south. Intentionally treating the gable in opposite position against typical pitched roof shape for structural and economic efficiency the Masonry tricks its scale until visitors enter the house. We were asked to design a house for two families but the house would avoid the appearance of two town houses. Diagonally stacked two kinds of bricks and cement blocks creates a singular masonry facade but also nuanced two units of program in a single mass.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Ho Kim
Location: Seoguipo, Jeju, Korea
Program: Guest House / Multi-Family Residential
Dimension / Area: 175 sm
Structural Engineering: Centum Engineering
Client: Jejuyoungsook+Rumba
Completed Year: 2018 / Apr.
Photograph: Jihun Bae / Song Yousub

Red Chimney, a guest house, translates a chimney, an architectural element, to a new figure and program. Instead of conducting smoke, the oversized chimney, filled with various plants and allowing natural light and ventilation, holds diverse programs and functions. The chimney is popped up over the rigorous linear volume and exaggerated roof horizon. It is located between single family residence and guest rooms’ area and plays a vital role as a buffer between owner and guests. At the same time, it contains music, books and foods so that it becomes the place for social dining and rest space.

The design of the house is primarily based on the site context. The 150-feet-long-single story building is located in the middle of tangerine tree grove. Small courtyards of each guest rooms directly relate to the surrounding in its privacy, visibility and activities. Narrow and vertical windows towards the trees carefully curate incoming light and expand views to the surroundings. Visitors discover and observe ever changing condition of the sky and the tangerine field that become part of their special experience in a horizontal bisect above and below. The distinctive volumetric identity moves deliberately away from its vernacular neighbor but associates with the nearby houses with traditional function of chimney creating an interesting dialogue between the two.

 

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, sang hyup Kim, seung yeon han + Team Hitchhiker
location: Gungpyung, Hwaseong, korea
program: hostel
dimension / area: 12,630 sm
status: proposed 2021 / Apr.
result: 4th Placed

Modern Sunshade for Korean Traditional House

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Seung Yeon Han
Location: Arumjigi Foundation, Seoul, Korea
Program: Research / Temporary Sunshade Installation
Dimension / Area: 12 sm
Structural Engineering: N/A
Client: Arumjigi Foundation
Completed Year: 2017 / Jun.
Photograph: Song Yousub

CHAIL RENAISSANCE is a modern application of the Korean traditional shade, 'Chail', which consists of a simple membrane structure supported by transverse vertical members. The Chail is divided into the attachment type and the independent type. Based on the drawings, ‘Kyunggi Gamyoungdo’ and ‘Youchail Baesangdo’, it depends on whether the Chail is structurally connected to main building or not. CHAIL RENAISSANCE is a reinterpretation of the attachment type.

Inspired from ‘Sinchukjinyeondobyung’, the attachment type Chail consists of two elements, a white textile for shade & ventilation, and an oil-treated paper that block rain. It is interesting to note that the water proof layer is placed under the shade(textile), unlike the envelope of contemporary construction. CHAIL RENAISSANCE combines two separate functions into one 3 dimensional module, using a modern textile widely used in making Hanbok (Korean traditional cloth). In addition, the module has many vertical surfaces that respond to the sun altitude. It provides a gradient shadow field of abundant light dispersion.

With the size of textile and vertical member of the traditional Chail, it takes considerable time and manpower to attach and detach for its temporary use. CHAIL RENAISSANCE proposes an aluminum extension which can easily extend the structure without glues and screws to existing traditional buildings by sliding it into the rafters. It is also easy to transport and store aluminum frames and the foldable 3d textile modules. Beyond functions of a sunshade and rain screen CHAIL RENAISSANCE proposes a spatial extension of both floor and roof, from inside to outside. The extended space has a multiple layers of light density and performance, connecting inside and outside with interesting depth.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Ji Hye Yang, jeong Eun Kim
location: Paju, Korea
program: N/A
dimension / area: 1,250 sm
client: Private
status: construction document completed / ready to start

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: Kyunggi, Icheon, Korea
Program: Multi-Family Residential
Site Area: 975 sm
Gross Area: 208.7 sm
Structural Engineering: Centum Structural Engineering
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2017 / Jun.
Photograph: Song Yousub

Stratum House seeks a new way of concrete casting method simulating a geologic formation. The project started with a curiosity of concrete composition, its casting process, and reaction on the results from testing the changes of its constituents. Three constraints are applied, water-cement ratio, use of diverse aggregates and different amount of pigment. The change of concrete shape according to range of slump values is the first. The second is the variety of exposed concrete surface texture depending on the ratio of fine to coarse aggregates. The last is the color changes of the surface. With the combinations of these three variables, shape, texture and color, the concrete of each different quality is cast on-site everyday. It allows to have delicately designed divisions of stacked concrete layers showing time differences.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: H Business Park 25, Beobwonro 11 Gil, Songpagu, Seoul, Korea
Program: Office
Dimension / Area: 1,190 sm / 12,810 sf
Client: Nara Cellar
Completed Year: 2017 / Jul.
Photograph: Song Yousub

The site of the project is the 7th floor of the H Business Park, an office building, Seoul. The Scope of Work includes the build-out of the 7th floor for different uses by Nara Cellar, Dana Glass & Beverage, Oakline and The Box. The approach to the floor follows a line of inquiry that holds the existing building and the new renovation of the interior space and certain program divisions up to examination so as to create a dialogue among the architectural elements. In this approach, the design resolution is more nuanced and indistinguishable where a program begins and the others stops.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Hyung Jun Kim
Location: Paju, Korea
Program: Single Family Residential
Dimension / Area: 169.5 sm
Structural Engineering: Duhang Engineering
Client: Private
Completed Year: 2017 / Oct.
Photograph: Jihun Bae

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Eun Kim
Project Management: mofac
Interior / PM: Studiovase
Landscape: JYGG
Location: Baishiling Tourism Area, Hainan, China
Program: Club House + Kids Park
Dimension / Area: 621 sm (club House) + 6,721 sm (Kid Park)
Structural Engineering: Chinese Local Engineer
Client: 北京八大处房地产开发集团有限公司
Completed Year: 2019 / May

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Hyung jun Kim
Location: Pungam-dong, Gwangju, Korea
Program: Catholic Church
Dimension / Area: 865 sm
Structural Engineering: Centum
Client: Gwangju Archdiocese
Completed Year: 2018 / Nov.
Photograph: Jihun Bae

A temporary installation for AIA Utah’s Young Architects Forum

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim
Location: Parking Lot of Capitol Theater, Salt Lake City, UT
Dimension / Area: 10’ x 120’ x 10’ / 1,200 sf
Consultant: N/A
Client: AIA Utah’s Young Architects Forum
Status: Proposed (2010)

The project ‘AMPHI-STEPS’ is a new type of urban-fit amphitheater, where many cultural events, like film festivals and street performances happen spontaneously. In order to meet two distinct needs for the site, the project provides two configurations through the assembly of light weight components which allow people to change their positions easily. It consists of 12 triangular prisms, which have differently oriented steps, and creates not only one directional relationship between audiences and stage/screen, but also multiple directional relationships between people and multiple stages. The audience is not limited to one performance; they will be exposed to many vibrant stages simultaneously. While climbing the steps up, visitors enjoy tempos and rhythms in changing directions, and choose the performances that they want to watch or the big projected movie on the existing wall. This unique mode of traveling on the steps creates a ‘cultural hiking’ to diverse events in the urban public space.
 

Gwanju Design Biennale 2009
INVITED: KGSD team project

Project team: +Jung min Nam, Ok hyun Kim, Kyng ho Won, Lee hong Kim and Min young Lee
Location: Gwanju City Exhibition hall, Gwangju, Korea
Dimension: 7’ x 7‘ x 7’
Budget: 5000 USD
Status: Completed (Jul. 2009)

The installation explores the expression of multisensory perception of tactile, visual and auditory, of springs through their transformation. When humans interact with the built environment, we engage with the space with all of our senses. We touch the textures, see the light and colors of a space, and hear sounds reflected to us, while most materials only evoke a single mode of perception. The proposal investigates for an elaborate consideration of multi-sensory modes in a single material, spring by changing its use and manifestation.

The prototype employs a metal-coiled spring as a primary parameter of the space. It sets out to explore the relationship between property and perception of the material through its transformation. When certain length of spring is stretched, the spring increases its tensional force, makes it transparent through the opening of the coils and creates a distinct sound while being touched. With such properties, five hundred springs are laid out on 7’x7’ square footprint with incrementally changing lengths of the springs (from 18” to 54”) with an equal spacing. These increments provide a gradient field of the three senses; tactile, visual, and auditory.

Invited Competition for a Dobong Community Building
2nd Placed winner

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Jeong Eun Kim, Seung Yeon Han
Location: Banghak 2Dong, Dobong, Korea
Program: Neighborhood Living Facilities
Dimension / Area: 260 sm
Structural Engineering: Centum
Client: Dobong Ward Office
Status: Proposed 2017 / Nov.
*All images re-rendered

An architectural folly merging into nature

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Andrew Ma
Location: Sagehen Creek Field Station, Truckee, CA
Dimension: 24' x 3' x 12' / 72 sf
Structural Engineering: Sunghwa Han, PE, SE, LEED AP
Construction: Dan Sayler + stpmj
Completed Year: June 2015
Client: UC Berkeley, Sagehen Creek Field Station

Invisible Barn is a site-specific design proposal that re-contextualizes the landscape of the Sagehen Screek Field Station by projecting the landscape on the structural proposition. A barn shaped-wooden structure is sheeted with reflective film on its surfaces. This mirror-finished folly is placed in the middle of the grove. Due to the similarity of its size and placement of the trees, the projection on the mirrored surface is similar to what people would see without the surface. The reflection of the folly within its enclosed grove allows the structure to smoothly assimilate into the nature. The incisions that penetrate through the folly allow visitors to maneuver in, out, and around the structure. Invisible Barn is a folly that loses its man-made architectural presence in nature but adds novel experience and interaction to the users.

**The reflective sheathing is aluminized polyester film which has more than 90% of UV reflectivity in the range of 200-400nm wavelength. Though human does not recognize this UV reflection but it is perceivable to birds so that prevents them from colliding onto the structure.

MMCA Young Architect Program
FINALIST

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Seung Yeon Han, Jung Ho Kim
Location: SamChungro 30, Seoul, Korea
Program: Public Installation & Exhibition
Dimension / Area: 1,020 sm
Structural Engineering: N/A
Client: Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul
Status: Proposed in 2017 / Mar.
Photograph: stpmj

The address of MMCA is Samchungro 30 in Jongro, Seoul. The title, 'Samchungro 30-1' means a temporary address and a new 'place' given to Madang of the museum in the summer of 2017 for three months. As we consider how to occupy Madang, the project suggests highlighting Madang itself instead of building a pavilion in the center leaving it as a background. The sand over the whole floor and the fabric covering whole facade of the building and wall around Madang redefine the MMCA courtyard. It is an exaggerated scale of rest area and playground that people experience the entire Madang, which is filled with sunlight, shadow, wind, with their sight and tactility by hands and feet. This massive sand playground offers people to socialize with their various activities over individual area. Samchungro 30-1 provides spacious experience and memory in the temporary place in the summer of 2017.

Project Team: Seung Teak Lee, Mi Jung Lim, Seung Yeon Han
Location: Pusan, Haeundae, Korea
Program: Wine Bar & Shop
Dimension / Area: 100 sm
Structural Engineering: N/A
Client: Winetime
Completed Year: 2018 / May
Photograph: Song Yousub

Individual research of folding paper and structure

“Two dimensional drawing becomes an inhabitable space that traces and reflects nature around it, the lightest structure.” Paper-berg is a collection of three paper shells made of mylar traditionally used in drafting and tracing architectural drawings. Each shell consists of two parts: a paper canopy and wood base. Mylar is a translucent, light, cheap, waterproof and tear-resistant paper. Through layering this material into a 4-ply slab, structurally calculated folding and bending, a sheet of mylar gains the compressive strength to maintain a shell-like shape. The shells are connected to wood straps and footings to create a structure of translucent mylar in which the paper surfaces are perforated to create different visual qualities: opaque, blur, and clear. By adjusting mylar’s unique materiality, Paper-berg folds into a lightweight shelter and reconstructs an existing view of nature into one composed of fluctuating blurriness and transparency.

A Visionary Scenario of the New York East River 100 years later
A reenactment based on the proposal " Plan to Drain the East River" by John Harris / 1924

Invited proposal for Past future, Present and Future Exhibition @ Storefront for Art and Architecture

East Mountain can be thought of as the "sixth borough" taking the place of the East River as a response to the issues of overwhelming city growth in the future. In response to John Harriss' 1924 proposal "Plan to drain the East River", this idea creates an efficient landfill along the East River made up of waste that Manhattan and Queens will produce until 2124, 200 years after John Harriss' proposal. It addresses the many environmental challenges the cities will face.

"In 2124, Manhattan reaches full capacity and pushes people out into Queens. Queens as a result, undergoes rapid development and expands its edges to accommodate this new population.
A permeable base begins to form at the bottom of the East River, comprised of construction debris from Queen's constant city growth. As silt from dredging the Hudson River and waste produced from Manhattan and Queens continue to be dumped into the area, walkable surfaces begin to form and accumulate into new layers of ground. Inhabitants from an overcrowded Manhattan and Queens start to build on it. As it gets higher, homes, schools, hotels, farms, and leisure parks develop and new zoning regulations are enacted to accommodate its varying grades.
The accumulated landfill eventually becomes a new platform engaging large amounts of biomass from controlled garbage disposal and food resources from farming. Its constant growth swallows its surrounding areas and is transformed into a connection between its adjacent neighborhoods. No longer a river, the area is renamed East Mountain. Old bridges turn into tunnels and become shared infrastructure between the two cities. New subway lines are formed, and the mountain becomes a hub for transportation. LaGuardia Airport moves in, leaving a large park in Astoria. The man-made mountain doubles as an enormous refuge that protects East Manhattan and West Queens from the 6-feet of rising sea levels estimated that occur in 2124 as well as tropical storm surges and hurricanes. Overtime, the mountain becomes a destination for diverse plantings and creatures reminiscent of New York City forests from 1603."

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, hyung jun kim, jeong eun kim
location: kangbukgu, Seoul, korea
program: art and sports complex
dimension / area: 1,723 sm
structural engineering: centum engineering
status: proposed in 2018 / feb.

Jamsil Sports Complex International Design Competition

Project team: +Se Hoon Kim, Dae Hee Kim, Soo Ran Kim
Location: Jamsil, Songpa, Seoul, Korea
Dimension: 700m x 500m (200,000m2)
Status: Proposed (2015)

“Reinforcing” converts monolithic, single-use, and event-oriented space into flexible, mixed-use Urban Arenas interlaced with walkable streets and habitable open spaces. The underutilized superblock is reactivated without a total revamp: the ring-shaped program walls are introduced around the periphery of the existing stadiums and supporting structure is embedded with an internal program. With the addition of the programmed wall each stadium is converted to a mix-use Urban Arena. Similar to many white elephant projects, the Jamsil Sports Complex has not been used to its full potential since the 88’ Seoul Olympic Games. “Reinforcing” serves as a positive stimulus that reintroduces the cultural and economic vigor that was once demonstrated worldwide during the Olympic Games.

There are two main reinforcers in play. ‘Primary reinforcers’ are a series of the programed walls that accommodate hotels, office, convention, gyms, training rooms, and retails at the periphery of the existing stadiums. The walls address the current structural conditions, the intra-independent programs of each stadium, and the combined programs of the Jamsil Sports Complex. ‘Secondary reinforcers’ include urban grids and undulating green edges superimposed on top of the existing ground. It addresses the site’s disjunction to the urban fabric by parceling the superblock of the complex with the insertion of the primary reinforcers. Greater access to street frontage and to the waterfront is created with the fine-grained urban mosaics.