Like many young architects, a significant portion of the early work of AGIT STUDIO consisted of renovation projects. This is because, in Korea, buildings left behind by rapid urbanisation ‒ now aged and in need of repair ‒ remain ubiquitous. This interview addresses Muke Deungchon-dong, a renovation of a factory-type building located in a residential area, and Muke Samcheong-dong, a renovation of architect Kim Heon’s Vortex. There are no flamboyant extensions. Instead, AGIT STUDIO confronts these buildings with a question: why should it be preserved, and how? Using their answers as a beacon, they seek to read the layers of time embedded in small interventions, interpret the circumstances under which the buildings were constructed, and translate the cross-section of the contemporary city into architecture. Ki Jun Kim and AGIT STUDIO come together to discuss these two projects and the underlying attitude that informs them.

 

Our approach complements and respects the integrity of the adjoining SANAA building, while asserting its own distinct identity. The New Museum will be a synergistic pair working spatially and programmatically in tandem, offering a repertoire of spaces for the institution’s curatorial ambitions and diverse programmes. We stacked the required programmes exactly at the same level of the existing building – three floors of galleries, a permanent home for NEW INC, offices, and multifunctional education and event spaces – new and old conjoined. Ceiling heights of the newly connected galleries align on each floor, creating expanded space for exhibitions and a horizontal flow between the buildings.

Today’s Architecture for Tomorrow’s Earth: Junglim Architecture

 

We held exhibitions themed ‘Junglim for Tomorrow’s Earth’ at the 21st Asian Congress of Architects (ACA) in Incheon in 2025 and the Korea Architecture Fair & Festival (KAFF) in 2024. While we have consistently presented contemporary architectural issues and Junglim Architecture’s design philosophy through our projects, discourse, foundation work, and publications, these exhibitions made us realise the need for broader communication with society. Since Junglim Architecture’s establishment in 1967, over 4,000 design professionals have passed through our doors over the past 60 years. We have responded to society’s demands and needs not as individuals, but collectively through an organisational design methodology grounded in collective intelligence.

Today’s Architecture for Tomorrow’s Earth: Junglim Architecture

 

LG ThinQ Home is Korea’s first zero-energy residence, equipped with health-and-hygiene-focused appliances and AI-driven automation. The project team aimed to ‘zero out’ all building energy, extending beyond the five standard categories – heating, cooling, lighting, hot water, and ventilation – to include process energy. To achieve this, the team developed strategies to reduce energy loss through the large envelope and window areas typical of detached houses.

Today’s Architecture for Tomorrow’s Earth: Junglim Architecture

 

As Korea’s largest hyperscale data centre, NAVER Data Center GAK Sejong offers an architectural solution to the challenges of massive power consumption and environmental impact. Given that data centers are highly sensitive to energy use, their architectural integrity depends heavily on technological and sustainable design capabilities. In designing the master plan, server buildings, and operations centre, Junglim Architecture integrated the site’s topography, wind patterns, and existing ecosystem as core elements of the layout and landscaping. This approach minimised forest disturbance and established a plan for post-development ecological restoration, utilising native plant species in consideration of vegetation recovery.

Today’s Architecture for Tomorrow’s Earth: Junglim Architecture

 

Since the late 2010s, following the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change and emergent discourse on the Fourth Industrial Revolution in 2016, we have been contending with structural changes across the environment, technology, industry, society, cities, and lifestyles. Due to a response to the climate crisis and the need to reduce carbon emissions, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the digital transition, the restructuring of advanced industrial ecosystems, an ageing population and the decline of local communities, as well as increasingly diverse ways of life, architecture is now under pressure to operate as a complex system that goes beyond providing single-function solutions. At Junglim Architecture, we tune into to these changes and seek to proactively interpret the future through architecture.