[DIALOGUE] On Late Style | KYWC Architects

SPACE April 2026 (No. 701) 

 

Legoist House and Legopian House (2000)​ 

 

 

​DIALOGUE Kim Seunghoy Principal, KYWC Architects × Choi Moongyu Professor, Yonsei University​

 

 

Hospitality in the Office​

Choi Moongyu (Choi): In the two recent FRAMEs from 2020 and 2022 (covered in SPACE Nos. 632 and 658), respectively, you discussed architecture in relation to the themes of surface and tectonics. What narrative would you like to focus on at this juncture regarding the four latest office projects?​

 

Kim Seunghoy (Kim): Although the Sindori Workation Office (2024) is a case in which residential and office facilities were combined, thereby setting it aside to be considered separately, the remaining buildings belong to a type of ordinary offices. When it comes to offices, architects have almost no scope for intervention, as it is often said that once the core and skin of an office have been finalised, the work is essentially finished. So, when architects were asked to play such a minimal role, I considered nonetheless what architects must do. This may be, in a certain sense, the ethical position and vocational calling of architects.

 

Choi: Mentioning ethics and vocation sounds as if you prefer not to reduce everything to a single methodology, but rather to adhere to a commitment to respond to each individual building on its own terms.​

 

Kim: When dealing with people, while there may be an approach tailored to each individual, a fundamental approach can be taken regarding the attitude one should adopt when dealing with humanity in general. Similarly, while office design involves responding to individual projects with good intentions and goodwill, there must also be duties that must be upheld universally. These could include harmonising internal and external order, allocating functions within a space, establishing a relationship between the space and its surroundings, and providing hospitality.

 

 

 

ZYX Technology Office​(2024) 

 

 

Choi: You used the expression ‘hospitality’ in your essay as well. In fact, hospitality is a term primarily used in public architecture, whereas offices are architecture designed for private clients. However, when viewed from a broader perspective, architecture is both a private and public asset. How do you define hospitality in office architecture?​

 

Kim: Prior to this discussion, I read People, Place, Hospitality (2015) by Kim Hyunkyung, which you recommended. The hospitality discussed in this book is of the unconditional kind as described by Derrida. It addresses the issues concerning how society must change to accommodate minorities, such as refugees, unpacking this issue from political and practical perspectives. However, the hospitality that I describe is closer to the way Levinas speaks of hospitality, in terms of dwelling and space. Levinas argues that we can accept another person because we are able to dwell, and that our ability to offer hospitality stems from having already experienced the hospitality of others. If architecture is to offer hospitality, it must possess both the good intention to accept others and a sense of pride in its own place. Yet, bearing in mind that hospitality and hostility share the same etymological root, I am aware that the person whom I offered hospitality may, at times, become an enemy. The ability to build one’s own building signifies belonging to the wealthy class also. The fact that their spaces can adopt a pose of hospitality towards neighbours is also a manifestation of their good intentions and ethics. This pose of hospitality can be made manifest through various architectural languages, such as creating intermediate zones between the interior and exterior with loggias and colonnades, elevating the building mass on pilotis to create voids, or opening up with terraces that can respond to the urban street. Following the form of the space comes content, and its examples include placing chairs in spacious areas or creating gardens alongside pathways.​​

 

Choi: In addition to those previously published projects such as Café Comma (2020) or Yaein Church Daniel School (2019), the pose of hospitality is clearly evident in the projects made public this time. In the case of the Seogwipo Samda Building (2024), an understanding of the site led to the creation of a path inside the building that leads to the city hall situated at the rear. Similarly, at the ZYX Technology Office (2024), the first floor is elevated on top of pilotis and remains open, revealing a deep space beyond which a bright space unfolds upon entry. I believe this architecture is made possible because Kim Seunghoy has always kept in mind the social vocation that architecture must fulfil. However, how should we interpret the way hospitality was realised in the case of The Nature Holdings Office (2025)?​

 

Kim: When you enter at ground level, you arrive in a large open space, which leads directly to the rear courtyard. This is then connected to the second floor through a grand staircase. The aim of this design was to create a public space. While a building designed as a rectangular mass would be sufficient, we designed the building to facilitate communication with terraces and balconies opening up in two-storey heights. While hospitality is typically said to take place at ground level, here we have attempt...

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