SsD

Gwangju Biennale, Korea | 2009
[curators' selection for full scale construction]    

One of 20 'rest box' designs selected by the curators of the Gwangju Design Biennale in Korea for full scale construction, the Infinite Box is a response to both the literal site of the nearby Soswaewon Gardens as well as the garden's metaphysical site embodied in the work of poet-scholar Kim Inhu who immortalized the Soswaewon's qualities in a 48 verse poem.  Our project treads this fine boundary between the actual and the metaphysical  through inextricably collapsing the boundary between the preconceptions of this dichotomy.  From the exterior, the box reads as a singular form with carved out voids. Upon discovering the interior however, an inversion occurs where the voids now become perceivable as figural objects through their reflection against the 6 mirrored interior planes. Thus, the destabilization of void-solid,  finite-infinite as one passes from outside the box to its interior and vice versa inspires new understandings of interior-exterior, mind-body, object-field, architecture-landscape.

From the exterior, the infinite box appears as a finite form with figural voids subtracted out of a platonic and comprehensible solid mass.

 

Siteplan:  From within, one realizes that the bounded box is actually sitting in a conceptually infinite field.

Upon entering the box, the idea of interiority is reversed so that instead of an enclosed and compact room, the mirrored surfaces create an expansive landscape that recalls the Soswaewon forest.

One of the openings was designed for the scale of the child.  The view through the pavilion questions the dichotomy between interior and exterior.

PROJECT CREDITS:

architect
Jinhee Park AIA + John Hong AIA/LEED (principals in charge), Eunkyoung Kim, Marcela Delgado, Mijung Kim, Virginie Bonnet, Frederick Peter Ortner

exhibit curator and coordinator
Byoungsoo Cho, BCHO architects associates

fabricator Han Design Group Co., Ltd.

photography
Wooseop Hwang (exteriors)
 

RELATED PROJECTS:

acc	czech library	hbny	white stadium	convergent flux

Harvard University, Gund Hall Gallery | 2010

Curated by Jinhee Park and John Hong, the exhibit emerged from a semester-long research project with students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. As the first cross-disciplinary exhibition on Korean Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design mounted in the United States, the featured work exemplifies the interrelated trajectories that mark the contemporary condition in Korea: Six organizational operatives—historical transformation, accelerated density, topographical syntax, material identity, ecological intersection, and infrastructural alliance—map the individual works in a relational field. While this synthetic structure delineates the rich and specific sociocultural ground from which the projects emerge, it also provides a transferability of the concepts embodied in the work to other situations beyond the boundaries of this particular nation. Finally, these mappings allow a temporary critical pause within the accelerated production providing space to re-evaluate the work and positively shape its future evolution.
 

The exhibition draws from the continuously emerging and hybridized condition in contemporary Korean society that has offered such a fertile and dynamic territory for experimentation. The six trajectories converge and diverge organizing the projects in momentary relationships that open up a ground for discussion and critique.

The 6 trajectories begin from the endwall:  as they converge, they become both literal and conceptual intersections from which the content is structured.  As the space moves linearly through the gallery, the hanging panels define 'rooms' where one can pause and form relationships between the projects.  The static content on the walls become further describe each of the six trajectories.
 

View from main entry: the project panels are first understood as a single elevation.

Quotes from the designers, video interviews, and data on Korean urban phenomena are placed on the walls to inform the project panels.

Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, introduces the exhibit on opening night, February 5th, 2010.
 

The culminating event was the symposium, 'Convergent Flux: Extended Topographies and the Korean Urban Condition,' in Piper auditorium at the Harvard GSD.  Seung H-Sang, Pai Hyung Min, Suh Hailim, and Park Yoonjin each presented and enganged in a discussion with Jinhee Park and John Hong.

PROJECT CREDITS:

Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean, Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design Pat Roberts, Executive Dean Hannah Peters, Associate Dean of External Affairs

curators
John Hong, Adjunct Associate Professor Jinhee Park, Lecturer in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design

advisor
Hailim Suh, Lecturer in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design

exhibition research and design team
(GSD seminar participants under the direction of the curatorial team with Hailim Suh and the Exhibitions Department of the GSD). Christina Cho, Kent Gould, Mark Holmquist, Okhyun Kim, Sooran Kim, Clara Lee, Jinje Lee, Moran Lee, Greg GhunWhan Park, Gyoung Tak Park, Terry Sung Park, Hyun Ji Ryu, John Son, Jeong Jun Song, Kyung Ho Won, Hyun Tek Yoon, Hyung Jae Yu, Seung Ho Choi (photographer)

exhibition team
Dan Borelli, exhibitions Shannon Stecher, Exhibitions and Publications Melissa Vaughn, Publications

GSD fabrication and installation team
Frank Braman, Jef Czekaj, Alex DeMaria, Jack Mauch, Jared May, Reid Schwartz, Dave Stuart, Joanna Vouriotis

historical advisor
Jin Baek, Associate Professor, Penn State University

GSD event photographer
Aaron Orenstein

supporting organizations
Space Magazine, Harvard University, Choi DuNam, Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

RELATED PROJECTS:

bac sasaki	mass art

Seoul, Korea | 2008
[finalist, invited competition]

Water, digital technology, and sustainability are merged in this new reinterpretation of the iconic but now underutilized Seoul Olympic Stadium.  A temporary structure to house the international Seoul Design Olympiad (SDO) events, an inflatable arch is held away from the structure of the historic stadium.  Through a simple process of condensing water on the surface of this inflatable structure through solar evaporation, rain runoff is purified and ‘misted’ to create a white volume that catches digital light and defines new energized events.  The mist also nourishes a nursery of culturally significant trees within the center of the stadium.  At the end of the event, these trees are placed throughout the city of Seoul according to the city’s masterplan, extending the positive memory of the white stadium.

During the day, the inflatable structure becomes a white symbolic volume.  Sunlight is used to condense and purify water which is used to feed the garden as well as create mist. At night, LED lighting and large scale projections allow the space to become a festive center for events.  The use of mist from water purified during the day enhances the effects of the lighting.

Inspired by the simple and elegant pottery of the Baek-Ja era, the stadium becomes a new urban figure.  By using an inflatable structure combined with a simple process of condensing water in sunlight within the inflatable,  the mist at times hides the stadium and then allows it to reappear giving the existing building a new sense of life.

As the stadium fronts the Hangang River, contaminated water from the river is purified through the condensation process and used to water a grove of trees.

The simple process of purifying water through condensation is demonstrated.

The nursery of trees is then relocated to different parts of Seoul according to the city's masterplan.  The alliance of the two major municipal projects creates an overall savings for the city.

The  purified water is used for irrigation as well as well as for creating atmospheric mists for events.

View from the Han River: Changing patterns of white mist illuminated by LED's define the underutilized existing stadium as a new event space.  The purification of the water into mist allows the public to understand the importance of the river.

PROJECT CREDITS:

architect
Jinhee Park  AIA + John Hong  AIA, LEED (principals in charge), Frederick Peter Ortner, Chris Ryan, Leehong Kim, Jaeyoon Kim, Chang Zhang

structural engineer
Paul Kassabian, SGH

RELATED PROJECTS:

acc	czech library	boston harbor

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Boston, MA | 2007

SsD was selected to design and exhibit recent work in the BAC gallery on Newbury Street in Boston as well as teach a cross-discplinary studio as Distinguished Visiting Critics.  Funded by the Hideo Sasaki Foundation, the work revolved around the notion of  'socio-structural' – how structural solutions can converge with ideas of shaping social space.   Large scale models that tested the principles  at a human scale became the center of the exhibit.  Translucent panels lit from within exhibiting additional project images  modulated the view from the active storefront into the gallery space.

PROJECT CREDITS:

design and construction
Jinhee Park AIA (principal in charge), John Hong AIA/LEED (collaborating principal), Catarina Marques, Chris Ryan, Leehong Kim, Frederick Peter Ortner, Nathan Fash

RELATED PROJECTS:

acc	czech library	boston harbor	conflux