070 FRAME CRITIQUEIn a distinctive move that departs from his earlier
works, architect Min Woosik is beginning to explore the
fundamental in his recent works. While his early works,
such as the Pangyo residences, were designed under
the influence of Steven Holl and Álvaro Siza, his recent
works (of which three are introduced here) can be
thought to take inspiration from Louis Kahn. Although
he used to work in Holl’s office, this shift in design
approach says much about how Kahn has become a
greater influence on Min than Holl. Min’s architecture
recalls a particular architectural archetype; it evokes a
feeling of crudeness and primitiveness. Such archetypes
are not literal but metaphorized and transformed.
Simultaneously, these archetypes are very sensualist
and phenomenological, revealing a double-natured
design character which has in fact been influenced by
both Holl and Kahn.
The reason why Min’s architecture possesses both
fundamental and phenomenological concerns can also
be traced to his personal history. From his youth Min
studied drawing and interior design, and his major in
college was not architecture but fine art. It was only
after he finished his studies in interior design that he
moved to his architecture studies. Similar to many other
architects, such as Peter Zumthor who began his career
in furniture and interior design, Min also dedicates
attention to the smallest of details regarding materials,
lighting, and furniture, and this was only further
improved during his time at Holl’s office. Moreover,
it seems that Min’s admiration for the fundamental
things began to grow during his travels as he began to
encounter Kahn’s buildings. What kind of fundamental
things did he focus on during his explorations, as he
instigated experiments with sensual spatial compositions
of diagonal lines, curved lines, and lights, as evidenced
in projects such as his Pangyo residences, and ever since
he became an independent architect?Vault HouseVault House designed on a sloping site in Jeju-do,
surrounded by tangerine fields, is a residence of a long
and simple shape of 24 × 8m in size. When viewed from
the outside, the house sits atop a podium in the style of
Mies van der Rohe. The tangerine fields and landscape
can be viewed from the hall and the dining room, but
the main interest of the architect was clearly not focused
on the exterior or its context but on the placing of an
independent pavilion mass.
Upon entering the interior, one is met with an especially
impressive 24m-long vault that extends out into a
continuous space. The fact that a horizontal space of
24m is visible as a whole in a residential building is arather peculiar thing, and this feature is not even found
in Le Corbusier’s Maison Jaoul. In order to exceed
the limits of a residential programme, Min creates a
united, long interior landscape by using skip floors and
interior/exterior spatial transitions that are not used
by Corbusier or Kahn. In general, common functions
such as halls, kitchens, and dining halls are placed at
the lower floors along with the entrance, while the
upper spaces are reserved for spaces of private functions
such as bedrooms. The architect reverses this general
positioning and overcomes it via skip floors. He explains
that he ‘wanted to create a long horizontal open space
by reversing the direction of the vertical open spaces
used in the Pangyo experiments’. In this long open
space, three masses – the living room, children’s room,
and secondary kitchen – are positioned along its length.
By allowing visual contact between the study room
and the playroom, which is in the 2.25m-high loft
space across the living room while the dining room is
placed on the 4.2m-high floor, a line of communication
is established that also secures a certain amount of
distance between the parents and the children. By
turning the entrance staircase towards the skip spaces
at a 90-degree angle, a bilateral-symmetrical spatial
composition is avoided.
Most significantly, this house has been composed
to adopt a vault shape. It has been claimed that the
architect persuaded the client by using John Pawson’s
abbey and Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum as references.
This vault of cyclidic curved lines is a respectful homage
to Kahn. As a Japanese heavy timber structure, the
vault structure is supported by pillars that each stand
3m apart. While originally a masonry structure, the
Kimbell Art Museum was altered by Kahn, who tore
out the topmost part that acts as the centre of strength
in a cycloid structure to reinterpret it as a concrete
structure. While the light that reflects and shines
through this torn gap is truly mesmerising, a sense
of irregularity, humour, and deception can be felt
while looking at a torn concrete vault, especially when
considering the original meaning of a vault structure.
Min reinterprets this torn vault with a framed structure.
A vault recast as a framed structure: while it retains its
original shape, its contents are distorted in a different
way. In these reinterpretations and metaphorizations
of archetypes, Min still takes from Kahn a sense of
definitive archetypes and their distortions. Instead of
installing a reflection panel on the torn vault ceiling,
Min attempts a sensual reenactment of this feature by
installing artificial lighting at the bottom of the vault to
let the light shoot upwards into the vault instead.
The main theme of interest to the architect was visibly
the unified simple roof and the masses below. In a way,
they seem a lot simpler than the numerous variations inthe vaults of the Kimbell Art Museum. Why didn’t the
architect juxtapose a number of vaults and vary them
instead of sticking to a single mass? Such an attempt is
found in his following work, Durastack Headquarters.Durastack HeadquartersDurastack Headquarters is a building composed of six
programme volumes – an office, laboratory, toilets,
and other spaces ‒ under a 33 ×12m-sized roof.
When viewed from a distance, this building resembles
Stonehenge or ancient rock formations. Quite apart
from a modern building, it carries an atmosphere of
something prehistoric, primeval, and fundamentally
raw. Aligning with the architect’s wishes for this
building to be a ‘monastery of bricks’, and for this one
volume to appear like a single solid brick, the bricks
come together to compose a singular volume that
supports a single roof. Each volume resembles Kahn’s
‘hollow column’, as it looks like a pillar that supports
the roof while also containing a programme within.
Each volume forms a room, and the rooms create
a society; the lobby at the centre looks almost like a
city unto itself. Large windows and glasses have been
fitted between the volumes to avoid compromising
their sense of existence and so as to highlight them.
Such a composition is quite similar to Kahn’s National
Assembly Building of Bangladesh. However, while
the National Assembly Building of Bangladesh has
a bilateral-symmetrical composition, the volumes of
the Durastack Headquarters intertwine and add a
subtle sense of direction. While the volumes in the first
drafts appear to have been organised into a square
grid pattern, the office volume starts to step into the
grids of other volumes as to be in line with the external
factory volumes, and thereby introduces a force of
attraction for the entrance and a sense of dynamism in
the space. When seen from the lobby, the four volumes
are positioned respectively, all in different directions
like the wings of a windmill, and this method of spatial
expansion has been extolled by De Stijl, Wright, and
Zumthor. This method is also used by Camillo Sitte
in his European plazas, and this is why the lobby of
Durastack Headquarters feels urban. The acute angles
of this windmill space are expressed metaphorically
through the lobby table that resembles a rock.
The transformation from the early to the final drafts
is quite fascinating. The early draft was a group
of juxtaposed vault buildings, which seem to have
been connected to the previous vault house or to the
Kimbell Art Museum. However, the architect chose
to leave this approach aside to develop the theme of
horizontal planes and gabled volumes. It is a motif of070 FRAME CRITIQUE
In a distinctive move that departs from his earlier
works, architect Min Woosik is beginning to explore the
fundamental in his recent works. While his early works,
such as the Pangyo residences, were designed under
the influence of Steven Holl and Álvaro Siza, his recent
works (of which three are introduced here) can be
thought to take inspiration from Louis Kahn. Although
he used to work in Holl’s office, this shift in design
approach says much about how Kahn has become a
greater influence on Min than Holl. Min’s architecture
recalls a particular architectural archetype; it evokes a
feeling of crudeness and primitiveness. Such archetypes
are not literal but metaphorized and transformed.
Simultaneously, these archetypes are very sensualist
and phenomenological, revealing a double-natured
design character which has in fact been influenced by
both Holl and Kahn.
The reason why Min’s architecture possesses both
fundamental and phenomenological concerns can also
be traced to his personal history. From his youth Min
studied drawing and interior design, and his major in
college was not architecture but fine art. It was only
after he finished his studies in interior design that he
moved to his architecture studies. Similar to many other
architects, such as Peter Zumthor who began his career
in furniture and interior design, Min also dedicates
attention to the smallest of details regarding materials,
lighting, and furniture, and this was only further
improved during his time at Holl’s office. Moreover,
it seems that Min’s admiration for the fundamental
things began to grow during his travels as he began to
encounter Kahn’s buildings. What kind of fundamental
things did he focus on during his explorations, as he
instigated experiments with sensual spatial compositions
of diagonal lines, curved lines, and lights, as evidenced
in projects such as his Pangyo residences, and ever since
he became an independent architect?Vault HouseVault House designed on a sloping site in Jeju-do,
surrounded by tangerine fields, is a residence of a long
and simple shape of 24 × 8m in size. When viewed from
the outside, the house sits atop a podium in the style of
Mies van der Rohe. The tangerine fields and landscape
can be viewed from the hall and the dining room, but
the main interest of the architect was clearly not focused
on the exterior or its context but on the placing of an
independent pavilion mass.
Upon entering the interior, one is met with an especially
impressive 24m-long vault that extends out into a
continuous space. The fact that a horizontal space of
24m is visible as a whole in a residential building is arather peculiar thing, and this feature is not even found
in Le Corbusier’s Maison Jaoul. In order to exceed
the limits of a residential programme, Min creates a
united, long interior landscape by using skip floors and
interior/exterior spatial transitions that are not used
by Corbusier or Kahn. In general, common functions
such as halls, kitchens, and dining halls are placed at
the lower floors along with the entrance, while the
upper spaces are reserved for spaces of private functions
such as bedrooms. The architect reverses this general
positioning and overcomes it via skip floors. He explains
that he ‘wanted to create a long horizontal open space
by reversing the direction of the vertical open spaces
used in the Pangyo experiments’. In this long open
space, three masses – the living room, children’s room,
and secondary kitchen – are positioned along its length.
By allowing visual contact between the study room
and the playroom, which is in the 2.25m-high loft
space across the living room while the dining room is
placed on the 4.2m-high floor, a line of communication
is established that also secures a certain amount of
distance between the parents and the children. By
turning the entrance staircase towards the skip spaces
at a 90-degree angle, a bilateral-symmetrical spatial
composition is avoided.
Most significantly, this house has been composed
to adopt a vault shape. It has been claimed that the
architect persuaded the client by using John Pawson’s
abbey and Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum as references.
This vault of cyclidic curved lines is a respectful homage
to Kahn. As a Japanese heavy timber structure, the
vault structure is supported by pillars that each stand
3m apart. While originally a masonry structure, the
Kimbell Art Museum was altered by Kahn, who tore
out the topmost part that acts as the centre of strength
in a cycloid structure to reinterpret it as a concrete
structure. While the light that reflects and shines
through this torn gap is truly mesmerising, a sense
of irregularity, humour, and deception can be felt
while looking at a torn concrete vault, especially when
considering the original meaning of a vault structure.
Min reinterprets this torn vault with a framed structure.
A vault recast as a framed structure: while it retains its
original shape, its contents are distorted in a different
way. In these reinterpretations and metaphorizations
of archetypes, Min still takes from Kahn a sense of
definitive archetypes and their distortions. Instead of
installing a reflection panel on the torn vault ceiling,
Min attempts a sensual reenactment of this feature by
installing artificial lighting at the bottom of the vault to
let the light shoot upwards into the vault instead.
The main theme of interest to the architect was visibly
the unified simple roof and the masses below. In a way,
they seem a lot simpler than the numerous variations inthe vaults of the Kimbell Art Museum. Why didn’t the
architect juxtapose a number of vaults and vary them
instead of sticking to a single mass? Such an attempt is
found in his following work, Durastack Headquarters.Durastack HeadquartersDurastack Headquarters is a building composed of six
programme volumes – an office, laboratory, toilets,
and other spaces ‒ under a 33 ×12m-sized roof.
When viewed from a distance, this building resembles
Stonehenge or ancient rock formations. Quite apart
from a modern building, it carries an atmosphere of
something prehistoric, primeval, and fundamentally
raw. Aligning with the architect’s wishes for this
building to be a ‘monastery of bricks’, and for this one
volume to appear like a single solid brick, the bricks
come together to compose a singular volume that
supports a single roof. Each volume resembles Kahn’s
‘hollow column’, as it looks like a pillar that supports
the roof while also containing a programme within.
Each volume forms a room, and the rooms create
a society; the lobby at the centre looks almost like a
city unto itself. Large windows and glasses have been
fitted between the volumes to avoid compromising
their sense of existence and so as to highlight them.
Such a composition is quite similar to Kahn’s National
Assembly Building of Bangladesh. However, while
the National Assembly Building of Bangladesh has
a bilateral-symmetrical composition, the volumes of
the Durastack Headquarters intertwine and add a
subtle sense of direction. While the volumes in the first
drafts appear to have been organised into a square
grid pattern, the office volume starts to step into the
grids of other volumes as to be in line with the external
factory volumes, and thereby introduces a force of
attraction for the entrance and a sense of dynamism in
the space. When seen from the lobby, the four volumes
are positioned respectively, all in different directions
like the wings of a windmill, and this method of spatial
expansion has been extolled by De Stijl, Wright, and
Zumthor. This method is also used by Camillo Sitte
in his European plazas, and this is why the lobby of
Durastack Headquarters feels urban. The acute angles
of this windmill space are expressed metaphorically
through the lobby table that resembles a rock.
The transformation from the early to the final drafts
is quite fascinating. The early draft was a group
of juxtaposed vault buildings, which seem to have
been connected to the previous vault house or to the
Kimbell Art Museum. However, the architect chose
to leave this approach aside to develop the theme of
horizontal planes and gabled volumes. It is a motif of