SPACE MARCH 2024 (No. 676)
Installation view of Negative Drawing – 28 square Sketches and Negative Drawing – Urban Village ©Kim Bokyoung
Installation view of jeongak jokja (hanging scroll of seal engraving) and jeongak ©Kim Bokyoung
For architects, drawing is both a traditional tool for conceptualising designs and a medium for revealing their personal artistic vision. ‘Architects’ Drawings 2024’ showcases both of these aspects of rchitectural drawing as complete artistic works. The exhibition was held at TOPOHAUS (2004), designed by Jeong Jin Kouk (honorary professor, Hanyang University), from Jan. 24 to Feb. 8, 2024. The 25 participating architects explored the theme of ‘thoughts on architecture’ in various ways, demonstrating how their architecture is constructed through thought. The exhibition is divided into two parts: constructive thought and imaged thought.
The first part, constructive thought, includes architectural drawings that reveal the architect’s world, architectural sketches that showcase their imagination, and three-dimensional drawings. Baek Moonki (co-principal, The Studio) exhibited five drawings created with crayons on vinyl while designing a playground in Okin-dong, revealing his intention to create a space for children by returning to a place of childlike innocence. Lim Jitaek (principal, SLA Architects) presented Gozilla, a drawing featuring a monstrous blend of various modern architectures, expressing a critical view of the repetitive, mechanised architecture in modern cities. Moon Hoon (creative director, moonbalsso) also expressed his imagination with drawings of buildings that could appear in a childhood science fiction fantasy. Lee Kwanjick (principal, BSD Architects) drew the blueprints of cities he experienced or dreamed of in two blue watercolour drawings. Negative Drawing – 28 square Sketches employs comic strip cutting techniques to encapsulate childhood memories and present urban landscapes within a single frame. Various urban landscapes merge without cuts in Negative Drawing – Urban Village to form an imaginary city. Koo Youngmin’s dra_del 006 Liminal Panorama and dra_del 007 ill-concealed VOID appear as works somewhere between sculpture and painting, showing architectural models within a flat canvas, expressing the idea that architectural thought cannot be confined to a single plane.
The second part, imaged thought, features colourful abstract paintings, landscapes of nature or cities, and poetic drawings, along with the art of seal engraving. The abstract paintings by Kwack Theodore (principal, TOHAUS) and Park Kijun (principal, KDA GROUP), along with the tranquil drawings on hanji (traditional Korean paper) by Kim Sukhwan (principal, Terwool Architects & Planners) and Bang Chulrin (principal, ARCHITECT GROUP CAAN), invite viewers into their artistic worlds. The exhibition space includes screens that display the architectural work of each architect, serving as guides among the poetic drawings. The actual stone of seal engraving and the knives used by Lim Hyoungnam (co-principal, studio_GAON Architects) attract attention among the paintings, and, next to them, handwritten stories about the reasons for studying architecture, engraving a seal, and designing a temple offer a deep insight into his journey as an architect.
