Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
A peek into architect's mind
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Architect Cho Min-suk of Mass Studies holds modules for constrcution model on display at “Before/After Mass Studies Does Architecture” at Plateau.
By Kwon Mee-yoo
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Architect Cho Min-suk who works at Mass Studies is cited as a person who has lifted the level of Korean architecture. He was commissioned to organize the Korean Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale and conceived of "Crow's Eye View: The Korean Peninsula," which reflects the history of architecture of South and North Korea and which earned the Gold Lion Award. This was the first time that Korea has won the top prize at the prestigious architectural event and Cho was at the center of it.
The architect now reveals his innermost thoughts and ideas as well as architectural finished products of 12 years at an exhibition titled "Before/After Mass Studies Does Architecture" at Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art in central Seoul.
An exhibit of architectural works held at a major fine art museum reflects increased concern over the contemporariness of architecture, which constitutes urban environment.
Architecture is a tricky theme to be displayed in a museum since actual buildings cannot be exhibited. So most architectural exhibits feature construction models, blueprints and photos of structures.
Themed “Before/After,” Cho Min-suk’s exhibit explores the concept and actualization of architecture. Courtesy of Plateau
Pai Hyung-min, architecture professor at University of Seoul and co-curator of the exhibit, said he aimed to unravel the concept, social and artistic value of architecture through Cho's work.
"Modern architecture of Korea hasn't established its characteristics yet due to its short, rocky history. Cho is the architect who creates interesting buildings that have story," Pai explained. "We organized the exhibit focusing on before and after of architecture as an action."
Cho graduated Architectural Engineering Department of Yonsei University and the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia, New York. He began his professional career as an architect at the Kolatan/MacDonald Studio and Polshek and Partners in New York and later worked at Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Netherlands. He established Cho Slade Architecture in New York with partner James Slade in 1998 and returned to Korea in 2003 to start his own firm Mass Studies.
This exhibit centers on Cho’s Mass Studies era. The 49-year-old architect referred this exhibit as his "mid-career survey." "This is to share what we have been doing for the past 12 years and to obtain a driving force for our future. So this is for the visitors as well as for us,” Cho said.
“Boutique Monaco: Missing Matrix,” a commercial and cultural building near Gangnam Station, shows architect Cho Min-suk’s experiment on a building as a small city.
The first architecture that greets visitors to Plateau is "Ringdome," a sphere-shaped structure composed of some 750 white hoops.
The Ringdome is one of Cho's public constructions installed at New York, Milan and Yokohama. The temporary structure, which is 9 meters in diameter, puts the space into a geometrical shape and leaves it as an opened space at the same time, reflecting Cho's interest in public access to architecture.
The lobby of Plateau, where French sculptor Auguste Rodin's "The Gates of Hell" is on permanent display, is usually a part of a paid entry gallery, but Cho insisted that Ringdome should be open to the public and anyone can come and see Ringdome for free during the exhibit.
"This is a space highlighter for unspecified individuals and will attract them into the museum," Cho said.
Upon entering the main venue, visitors can choose which part of the exhibit they will see first
the white world of "before" or the black world of "after," though the two sections are connected like the Mobius strip as if they were two parallel universes.
In the “After” section, Cho displayed photos, videos and press coverage of Mass Studies’ buildings.
“Some of the buildings are used in an unintended way or demolished. But I have an interest in how people changes the architecture living in or using it,” the architect said.
“Pixel House,” one of Cho’s earliest residential designs, shared the life of a family growing up in it, while “Dalki Theme Park” in Heyri, Paju, Gyeonggi Province, transformed from a children’s theme park to an agricultural place. "Boutique Monaco: Missing Matrix," a commercial and cultural building near Gangnam Station, shows Cho's experiment on a building as a small city.
Cho also dials into temporary structures
his design of the Korea Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 was praised for its use of Korean alphabet “Hangeul” and its openness, but last only for six months. He collaborated with noted Korean dancer Ahn Eun-mi and Italian choreographer Emio Greco, designed set for Ahn’s “Revolving Door” and Greco’s “Beyond,” respectively.
Visitors can go through a thick curtain to discover the "backstage," or the "Before" part of the exhibit. It looks like a real architect's workroom, filled with prints and miniatures and visitors can experience how an idea is conceived and shaped through an architect’s mind.
Throughout the exhibit, visitors will encounter codes for each project and 21 pictograms representing Cho’s common ideas. “'Courtyard Variations' is one of the most common factors in my architectures. It can be found in both Western and Korean style. I also have ‘Circle Obsession,’” Cho said.
The project with highest concentration of pictograms, which probably is Cho's dream building, is his submission to the "Open House" exhibit at Vitra Design Museum in Germany in 2006. "This was an answer to how residential environment will change after 20 years. So it might be a bit ideal," Cho explained.
The exhibit runs through Feb. 1, 2015. Admission is 3,000 won. Talks with the architect are scheduled on Nov. 29, Dec. 13 and Jan. 10. For more information, visit
or call 1577-7595.