The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced the winners of the 2025 Korea Young Architect Award: a.co.lab architects (co-principals, Chung Isak, Hong Jinpyo), Kim Sunhyung (professor, Chonnam National University), and a root architecture (co-principals, Lee Changkyu, Kang Jungyoon). This year, 50 teams entered the open call. After the first-round review, nine teams were shortlisted, and an open final jury was held on Aug. 27 at Junglim Architecture’s Kim Jungchul Hall. The jury committee including, jury chair, Son Jean (principal, ISON Architects), Kim Jaekyung (professor, Hanyang University), Kim Hyoyoung (principal, KHYarchitects), Park Junghyun (editor-in-chief, Labyrinths), and Lee Sojin (principal, Leeon Architects), evaluated candidates based on their architectural sensibility and attitude, nature of contextual inquiry, social vision, and potential for expansion.
One notable tendency among this year’s shortlisted architects was their preference for the everyday and the aged. This reflects the current climate in which renovation is becoming more prominent than new construction, mirroring the reality that emerging architects face fewer opportunities to design new buildings. Of the winning entries, the renovation projects by a.co.lab architects stand out for their thoughtful approach to accommodating existing structures. In the New on the Old (2025), they chose to blur the contrast between old and new by blending used and new bricks. In Painter N’s House (2024, covered in SPACE No. 683), they removed granite tiles from the existing façade and replaced them with salvaged vintage bricks from another site. These strategies represent an attempt to restore or imagine an original form that paradoxically never actually existed. Jury chair, Son Jean said that ‘their unique sensibility permeates every step of the process, transforming familiar urban scenery into something unfamiliar and renewed.’
Another noteworthy trend was their preference for dry construction methods such as timber or steel structures over conventional reinforced concrete wet construction. In particular, Kim Sunhyung has explored materiality and construction techniques through his design. In his presentation, he highlighted his dry constriction approach by introducing three different projects; Forest Edge (2022, covered in SPACE No. 660), a project organised entirely around the dimensional standards of Western-style timber construction, the Parc1 Art Pavilion (2023), made from the ready-made materials which typically used in tents; and Readymade Library (2024), an interior project composed of modular steel components. The committee impressed by his persistent inquiry into the question of ‘how to build’, and valuing his work as ‘a language of architecture extended from the order of materials and the making process’.
Meanwhile, a root architecture, a Jeju-based studio, demonstrated an alternative approach focused on local exploration and the development of a unique architectural language. In their presentation, the team introduced seven architectural vocabularies derived from direct observations and sensory research of Jeju’s old townscape: homes nestled in the landscape, loosely shared thresholds, warm courtyards, a house with views beyond, gentle dimness, the poetry of calm and plainness, details shaped by experience. They presented a series of new-built works that embody these vocabularies, including woljeong-ri doojip (2024), my little hut (2024), and Veke (2024, covered in SPACE No. 680). The jury praised their authentic attitude grounded in everyday lived experience and noted that the intangible sensibilities captured in their work possess a potential for broader application beyond Jeju.
The winning ceremony will be held on Oct. 21 at Nodeul Island, Seoul, during Korea International Architecture Festival 2025. An exhibition of the winning works will follow in Dec.
