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: Office
dimension / area: 10,100 sm
client: Seoul Metropolitan City
status: completed in Feb. 2024
photograph: Bae Jihun

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 ‘shared’ 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 is applying the extended concept of ‘sharing’ to floors, sections and external spaces. Based on the ‘ㄱ’ 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, Bu Bin Kim, Jeong ho Kim
program: Office+Commercial
dimension / area: 850 sm
client: ELUV
status: under the construction
photograph: stpmj

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: Ready to start

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

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

The name Coffeemix has two meanings: a building that has several functions related to Coffee and Korean-style instant coffee as a kitschy way to represent the rich flavor and aroma that CoffeeBuy pursues.

Coffeemix sets itself apart from other general commercial buildings in the urban context in how its façade is designed and deals with streets. Its uniqueness comes from the location of staircases determined by the floor area required for education activities, the spatial quality for coffee education, and the haphazard context of the neighborhood. The staircase is minimized and located in front to secure a floor area of 90m2 from two floors as required to get an academy permit, and the building ranges long from east to west. This design maximizes the efficiency of the exclusive use areas and facilitates natural lighting and ventilation through the north-south sides.

Sunlight and light quality should be easily controllable with blackout curtains for coffee classes focusing on taste aroma, so large windows are not necessary. The interior space and function helping users concentrate on coffee are more important than their interaction with outside streets through windows. The east side where the staircase is located faces the streets, but remains defensive in dealing with the buildings to be developed nearby and the messy context of the neighborhood.

As the building expanded to the limit of the allowable construction lines, the façade was created by shaving away. The south, north, and west sides have brick walls with shallow window details while the east side (street façade) has half-cut bricks for shallow and smaller-scale texture. The intentionally internalized building with a calm face to the streets becomes a signage that induces ambiguous reading.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, Jeong Ho 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 / Schematic Design

Buyeo, the site of the ancient capital of Baekje, has many historic sites throughout, evidenced by its long history and development status. In the site selected for a Buyeo culture park and a library, for example, a trial pit excavation is being conducted after a sample survey, which means that relics will likely be found during development/construction after the trial pit survey. If the site is on the archaeological site, the building, master planning and landscaping methods should be differentiated from those for other general sites. For On the Archaeological Site, the floor area is minimized while the major programs are elevated to the second floor. The cores and programs in contact with the first floor serve as a structure that minimizes impact to the ground and maximizes the efficiency of the use of the first-floor exterior space. The structures and interior programs of the building are modular and systematic so that the building can remain flexible toward a potential change of relics location on the first floor until construction is completed. On the Archaeological Site shows how to approach a site with historical significance and uncertainty in architectural terms.

On the Archaeological Site proposes a 180m long building by combining a community center, a communal childcare center, a nursing home, and a library. On the first floor, programs that require accessibility and interaction with the exterior space are located, such as the childcare center, nursing home, multipurpose room, exhibition room, and main entrance to the library. On the third floor are the controlled area of the library and the community center. On the elevated second floor is the open space of the library. The first and third floors can be connected during operating hours to form a gigantic living room for local community. On the Archaeological Site provides views and exterior spaces on each floor and visually connects different programs to bring the scenery of the library and beyond to everyday life, serving as a community-centered cultural platform, where community members can read, drink tea, and have social interactions.

project team: seung teak lee, mi jung lim, tae yang kim, seul kim
location: sindangdong, korea
program: office
dimension / area: 380 sm
client: private

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

Montage Hannam, located in a residential area of Hannam in Seoul, is the film studio and headquarter of a commercial production company. It is a single building with four stories and two basements, designed by vertically stacking variable film sets, which are normally found in suburban areas.

Generally, buildings are planned to human scale; circulation is determined by the purpose and movement of the user, the height of each floor is proportionate to human height. In addition, the placement and size of windows are established based human eye level. In Montage Hannam, however, ‘Human’ gives place to ‘Camera’. The path and flow of perspectives from the street to the main entrance and then to each floor and characteristics of each space are planned pivoting on a camera. The contrast of natural lighting, the depth of space, and change of the materials in camera frames are main factors of the project’s narrative. The spatial layers, such as varying ceiling heights, exaggerated window sizes and exterior spaces extended from interior spaces, form an extraordinary set for commercials, giving an air of fantasy.

High ceiling heights are necessary to accommodate camera angles. The building stands out with its incomparable height in the neighborhood. A floating concave volume corresponding to a corner of the site casts shadows that change in line with the sun and adds weight to the depth of the building. The ground floor entering through the steps under the volume allows stereoscopic, public circulation, where users can expand their perspectives from the interior to the lower-leveled rear garden and come down through another deep stair. Various geometric plays added to a simple mass create dramatic scenery from the entry and cross streets.

Montage Hannam, a studio, serves not only as a filming backdrop, but also as a work space for the company, a space for lease, a parking space, and a cafe. The stage where camera movements and cinematic fantasies meet becomes a daily space as it performs to serve different purposes. It is a combination of sequences where users continuously experience an over-scaled identity and unique scenes of everyday life.

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-Normal is an utterly ordinary house that sticks to essentials instead of fancy design elements. It was designed as a minimal house with basic functions based on each family member’s lifestyle under circumstances where the site was not selected.

The building owner bought a vacant lot in Yangpyeong in 2018. The local contractor involved, however, failed to take steps in a timely manner, so the owner had to wait long to acquire a development permit and get civil engineering work to begin. The owner, who could not delay his moving plan any further, sold the lot and started to look for alternative lots nearby. This is why we needed to design a house by taking uncertainties into account; we set a few basic rules to define the exterior space and elevation and then planned a design focused on essentials, such as terrace, lighting, interactive interior, and yard.

The building is very simple in form. The fact that there were no restrictions on slant lines for daylight and the average size and placement of lots and density of general houses in housing sites near Sinhwa-ri, Yangpyeong, provided us with much leeway in deciding on the appearance and materials of the house. A terrace was designed to make connections between every interior space to the exterior space to help the family appreciate the nature, in the shape of a pixelized hat that becomes narrower toward the top. A large square window is created on the elevation facing south to eliminate a sense of hierarchy of scales by maximizing the view and lighting. The stand-alone wooden cylinder is used as a home studio.

Super-Normal, planned to be an ordinary, common object, has a structure that prepares it for an undefined site. The centrality of the common space and the peripherality of the private rooms and terrace determine the composition, and structural load bearing and non-load-bearing walls are coordinated accordingly. The area of the programs and the size of the terrace are variable so that the physical form of the building can be adjusted to the site. There was no particular siting issue when the site was selected. With sites nearby being almost even in size and being placed based on directions and with its variability, Super-Normal turns into a product that is ‘beyond ordinary.’

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, 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 Pasue is a sound attenuating structure built by felt blocks, which are going to be reused as stool, couch and table, etc, after the show. From 2nd September 2022 to 8th January 2023 / Leeum Museum of Art.”

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 House, a single family house in Korea, seeks how a simple treatment in pitched roof typology improves environmental qualities and influences to program organization. The volume of gable on the West end changes its placement along with body of the house. It projects out toward South at the East end, while maintaining its triangular shape. The sheared volume is continuously pulled out to South responding to sun orientation. It creates a deep eave in South and a terrace in North. The eave blocks direct sunlight in summer and allow natural lighting in winter. Openings at terrace in the second level increase natural ventilation throughout the whole house. In addition double skin-facade controls heat and humidity thus the house reduces 20% of heat gain and loss in summer and winter.

The house has two different ends, a typical gable end and a sliced & shifted one in a monolithic structure and material. Shear House adds a new scene on the existing landscape. At the entrance of the town people face a typical gable wall. As they walk to the house, they slowly recognize changes of eave and shadow and finally realize the sheared face at the entrance of the house.

Two bed rooms, bathroom, library, stair and kitchen are placed in North half of the house. South half, a double height space, is a long and sculptured living room, which has generous multi-purpose space for client to invite many people in special occasions. The living room that goes through East to West, provides dynamic spatial qualities and light filtration in its depth and height with various visual connections. Unlikely simple and static exterior, interior spaces provide playful experiences on changing geometries. Through rooms re rectangular in plan, laid out on grid, walls are triangular, parallelogram, and trapezoid in elevation due to its intersection with the shifted roof volume.

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 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

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, 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
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, 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, 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, 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.

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

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, Jung ho Kim, Seung yeon Han
location: Suwon, korea
program: Single-Family Residential
dimension / area: 470 sm
client: private
status: ready to start

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
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: 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, 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, 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

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: ongoing

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
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, 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
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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.