Always a Little Closer to Utopia: BIG

 

"I find the Suzhou gardens fascinating and paradoxical. They look natural but are intensely curated. They feel boundless but adopt small footprints relative to the experiences they create. For me, the gardens are defined by a recurring sense of revelation and delight upon turning a corner. In the Suzhou MoCA, it was important that the garden was something to be discovered and not immediately understood. This was something of a paradox for us, as the architectural organisation was strictly defined by orthogonally laid out ribbons that become both pavilions and walkways. From the Ferris wheel, the gardens appear as a series of individual picture frames—separate objects with their own identities and boundaries. However, once inside you realise that it’s an illusion and the gardens flow into one another. The views become layered—the pavilion corners become compressed passages, leading to framed openings, and then release into a larger landscape. The exploration of the gardens becomes the experience."

Always a Little Closer to Utopia: BIG

 

"I’d describe our philosophy of architecture as utopian pragmatism. Utopia is a place so perfect it can only exist in fiction or imagination. Pragmatism, on the other hand, deals with the world as it actually is, with all its irregularities and imperfections. Combine the two and something happens: whenever we design a space or a place, we try to bring that little corner of the world closer to its dream version. The dream is always specific, so our dream world in Seoul is very different from our dream world in Copenhagen, which is different again from our dream worlds in Italy or New York."

The Youngeun Paper Chungmuro HQ serves as both the corporate headquarters and logistics warehouse for Youngeun Paper, a paper distribution company. It transplants the horizontally expanding warehouse model vertically into a high-density urban centre, combining office space, a gallery, cutting and processing areas, and large-scale storage into a single mixed-use industrial facility. The floor plan and cross-section have been organised to follow the paper handling process: receiving, stacking, cutting, and shipping. A column-free storage area measuring 14×17m has been secured, while the freight elevator, stairwell, and utility core are compactly arranged along one side to accommodate paper pallets and forklift movement.​

 

In the early years of my professional career, I didn’t have a very clear idea of what kind of architecture I wanted to pursue. I was sometimes swept up in the atmosphere. Still, I think I was more focused on architecture itself then. I spent a lot of time thinking about the space itself—how the light would come inside, what the space would smell like, and so on. Studying abroad broadened my perspective. Before, I had looked at architecture from the inside out. Afterward, I began to look from the outside in. I started considering how architecture exists within history, what kind of order it forms within the urban landscape, the structures and orders of old cities, and how buildings should be preserved. Most of the projects in Paris were involved with renovation or extension, and it is very difficult to design something that goes against the established order of an old city. Naturally, my perspective naturally expanded towards the city and the urban context.

 

I still remember the moment I first set foot on this site. Although it was a 5–10 minute driving distance from the city centre of Dongducheon, it was as if I had entered a different universe. Even before the density and noise of the city had fully subsided, the air seemed to change at some point. Even now, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where that line was. What is certain, however, is that beyond that moment, the sensations of the city were left behind, and a space of an entirely different order came into being. Surrounded by the forest on all sides, the site occupied a generous clearing at the heart of the woods. It felt less like a gap carved out of the forest and more of a place the forest had chosen to leave empty for itself. The sound of water running down from the surrounding channels, the sing song of birds, and grasses rustling in the wind overlapped in layers; simply standing there, enveloped by these sounds, brought an immediate sense of immersion in nature. ​