DamDam is a compact house for a couple, their twins, and two cats, designed with solid exterior walls to ensure privacy on a small site surrounded by taller buildings. Working within the constraints imposed by the parking layout, the functions of each floor were carefully separated and circulation was precisely planned to maximise interior usability. The living room on the first floor is set at a lowered level, while a double-height window and a small garden on the east side of the structure allow the interior and exterior to flow naturally into each other.

 

Following the feature on Yung Ho Chang (covered in SPACE No. 690, FEATURE section), SPACE and Inha Jung (Professor, Hanyang University) trace the history of modern East Asian architecture in this interview with Kuma Kengo. Kuma experienced the rise and fall of Japan¡¯s bubble economy firsthand during his university studies and early years of practice. Critically viewing the architecture of the bubble era – which he saw as ostentatious as American Postmodernism – he sought a different architectural path, diverging from the previous generation of architects who flourished during that economic boom. This interview with Kuma will be published in two parts. In this first installment, we examine an architectural attitude he has maintained over the years by charting the early experiences that formed his architectural foundations, his use of materials as a counterpoint to concrete, and the conceptual dichotomy between form and freedom.

 

Three levels with different spatial systems: a sharp cut in the landscape, a grid of rooms, and a glass box. The formidable slope is carved out to accommodate a house. The project stands as a stack of three levels—each is a different spatial system. The basement is a tall room with a diagonal wall and a curved ceiling that culminates in one acute corner—the space is too grand for a mere garage. The level above, in contrast, adheres to a rigorously defined set of geometric rules. The square perimeter is divided into sixteen equal parts, resulting in an almost boring yet ordered strict sequence of rooms housing all the secondary programmes on the middle level. The living room on top of the house is open to all four sides, offering views to the city, river and the ocean.

 

The 5th 2025 Mugak/ Basque Country International Architecture Biennial was held across the three cities of Bilbao, San Sebastián, and Vitoria-Gasteiz under the theme ¡®Castles in the air, or, how to build a utopia today¡¯. The main exhibition ¡®Eu-topías, Ou-topías¡¯, featuring 12 teams, and the three pavilions installed in each city, focus on questioning the nature of utopia in our time and seeking alternatives through acts of the critical imagination, rather than presenting definitive answers. Why is imagining utopia important? And what is the reason for erecting a ¡®wall¡¯ in the borderland Basque Country, like the Humanise Wall at this year¡¯s Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism? Here, SPACE hear from María Arana Zubiate, the Curator who has led the biennial for two consecutive editions, and Sebastián Bayo, the Architect who designed the pavilion ¡®Utopia: No Entry¡¯ in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Regions are disappearing and cities are emptying out: this is a moment in which the optimism that inspired the expansion of cities under the premise of growth is being recalibrated. ¡®Busan MOCA Platform 2025_Call Me By My Name¡¯ proposes a reconsideration of these conditions through the urban and architectural imagination. It advances a shrinkage-oriented strategy that explores the relationship between individuals and communities through ¡®housing¡¯, reduces ¡®distance¡¯ to a scale within reach of care, and reconfigures ¡®architecture¡¯ as a resource-circulation system of a scale that can be sustained.