SPACE Jun 2024 (No. 679)
For architects, the atelier is more than just a workspace; it is a symbolic space. Beyond mere workspaces, ateliers are the crucibles that forge architects’ identities. They encapsulate their footsteps and creative processes, serving as a vital link between training and practice. Korean architects, especially since the 1990s, have inherited the spirit of these ateliers and developed their design identities through new challenges and experiments. But with the advent of a new era, the atelier is also changing: the advancement of technology and the advent of the digital age, new concepts and uses of space are being explored, and architects are actively responding. These changes suggest that the atelier is becoming more than just a workspace but a centre for the birth of creative ideas and collaboration.
Image courtesy of Kimchungup Architecture Museum
Views of the Atelier Kim Chung-Up (year and person unknown). Image courtesy of Kimchungup Architecture Museum
The Aesthetic Evolution of Architectural Education: The Legacy of the Ateliers and the Emergence of University Studios
The terms ‘atelier’ and ‘studio’ are widely used in architectural education and practice, and their architectural history can help us better understand our current architectural system.
Since the Renaissance, architectural education has moved away from transmitting skills on-site or in guilds. It has taken place in ateliers, emphasising drawing, design theory and principles. With the establishment of the Academie Royal d’Architecture (1671), architecture became independent from the artistic realm, and people established standards of practice among architects, artists, and artisans. In response to these changes, the Academie Royal d’Architecture taught the theory of architecture, with practical training taking place mainly in ateliers. The ateliers also taught architectural norms and design theory, but in the tradition of medieval workshops, exemplary forms and design principles were handed down directly from the masters. The ateliers were separated from the offices of practising architects, and the project-oriented, hands-on, critical approach to teaching is the basis of the current design studio method.▼1
In the United Kingdom, until the Royal Academy of Art (opened in 1768) established the Royal Drawing School for architects in 1870, pupilage, a commercial apprenticeship in which students paid tuition and received private instruction in the decoration and drawing of classical architecture in the offices of architects, was prevalent. The French-style atelier system did not begin until 1887.▼2 As such, the atelier was more of an educational and non-commercial system than an architect’s office and served as a rite of passage to becoming an architect.
In the late nineteenth century, architectural design education became taught in university settings in the United States. Previously, it was common to become an architect through an atelier or pupilage system, but as rapid industrialisation led to mass production and large-scale business, the apprenticeship system broke down, and education through studio classes at universities became the norm. The university studios provided an environment that favoured discussion and research rather than a closed apprenticeship relationship and became the educational practice system for the training of architects.▼3
While the historical etymology of the terms suggests that the atelier was primarily concerned with practice and the studio with education, the two terms are now used interchangeably, and they both emphasise the connection between education and training.
A view of the Le Corbusier’s atelier on the 35 Rue de Sèvres in Paris. ©F.L.C. / ADAGP, Paris - SACK, Seoul, 2024
Growth Through Exchange and Collaboration Between Korean Architects in the 1980s and 1990s▼4
The process of forming full-fledged ateliers of Korean architects began only after the end of the 1980s. Two of the most influential architects in this process, Kim Chung-up and Kim Swoo Geun, played a significant role in shaping Korea’s contemporary architectural culture. Kim Chung-up worked in the atelier of Le Corbusier and passed on this atelier’s culture upon his return home. Still, unfortunately, he was unable to maintain his architectural practice and succession. On the other hand, Kim Swoo Geun’s multicultural inclusiveness and organised, compromising behaviour not only presided over his office but also facilitated the architectural careers of his proteges. This lineage can be traced to the architects who went through the Kim Swoo Geun Architects and SPACE GROUP, the establishment of the Kim Swoo Geun Foundation, and the Kim Swoo Geun Prize winners. The Korean architectural scene has a brief genealogy due to its limited architectural community and sparse population.
We must admit that Korean contemporary architecture has grown through a few human resources, a narrow cultural environment, and academic connections. The lineage of Korean architects is much simpler than in Japan or the United States. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the two pillars, Kim Chung-up and Kim Swoo Geun, have enormously influenced Korean modern architecture.
After the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Korean architectural activity took a new turn. It moved away from government-led development and towards free development projects that drew on private capital. In particular, one of the most significant changes was that individual architects began to work independently. In the 1990s, this trend expanded further, with groups of architects centred on the 4.3 Group, acting and working collectively, sharing common values while establishing their own identities based on the philosophy and critique of western modern architecture.
By subscribing to the virtue of ‘education’, which was highly valued among the shared values of the 4.3 Group, to improve architectural design education at institutions such as the Seoul School of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture at Kyounggi University, the foundation was laid for a new Korean modernist architectural culture. These activities combined the early Beaux-Arts apprenticeship style with the characteristics of the American studio to form a curriculum in which education and practice effectively merged in the school and atelier spaces.
Charles and Ray Eames in the living room of the Case Study House No. 8 ©Julius Shulman / Source: J. Paul Getty Trust, Julius Shulman photography archive, 1935 – 2009, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Accession No. 2004.R.10.
Architects of a New Age: Changes and Challenges in the Atelier
The composition of Korean architects’ ateliers has changed considerably since the 2000s. Unlike before, the introduction of city and public architects has highlighted the public responsibility of architecture. These changes have been instrumental in encouraging young architects to set up their own offices.
Traditionally, ateliers emphasised autonomy and independence. But now, with the strengthening of publicly accountable partnerships, there is a greater emphasis on collaboration and sharing among members.
This shift shows that the atelier is moving from simply pursuing architectural projects to fulfilling a broader social responsibility. Young Korean architects are exploring their identities amidst these changes. It is the result of an effort to maintain the identity of Korean architecture while being influenced by western architecture, to communicate with the world, and to embrace diverse ideas while preserving Korean values.
Advances in technology have also changed the way architects work. The emergence of a chaotic variety of individual architects and the maximisation of computer use made it possible to work across place and time. It is also new to see so many cubicles and shared offices popping up,
as hierarchical activity is no longer as dominant an architectural approach as it once was.
These changes support the argument that atelier architectural culture, with its traditional lineage of architects,
is no longer valid. Today’s architects are not limited to the apprenticeships of the past but are forging their paths and working in various fields. It suggests architects have a more comprehensive range of pathways to showcase their skills.
©Kaita Takemura
Ando Tadao’s Osaka studio ©Kaita Takemura
An Architect’s Workspace: Experiment and Discovery in the Atelier
An architect’s atelier is not just a place to work; it is a place that captures the architect’s spirit. Although architects’ ateliers are rarely given formal attention in the history of modern architecture▼5, these spaces are crucial to understanding an architect’s creative practice. As a space that contains architects’ daily lives and identities, it serves as a testbed for mock-ups and experiments, an unrefined exhibition space that reveals the working process, and an environment where architects can freely share ideas and collaborate, revealing creative thoughts and new ideas.
Le Corbusier’s atelier, for example, is a multi-layered example of the architect’s daily life and identity. In the early days, the studio was located in the attic of his residence, allowing him to achieve a very personal work style. The office at 35 Rue de Sèvres, Paris, where much of his later work was created, was designed and operated like a traditional Academie Royal d’Architecture atelier.▼6 Interestingly, Le Corbusier’s artistic and scientific-technical approaches operated somewhat separately in the different ateliers. In the case of the Eames, they became famous for their Case Study House No. 8 project, an active combination of residence and studio, which was commercialised in their image and made available to the public through various media.▼7 It was a natural marriage of architect and architectural practice, professional and popular. Similar is the case with the OPENSTUDIO programme of OPENHOUSE Seoul (principal, Lim Jinyoung), which has drawn the public’s attention to architecture and architects. Meanwhile, architect Ando Tadao’s Osaka studio has converted a space planned as a house into a studio. The relationship between what is seen and what is not seen is actively planned and employed, such as a panopticon in a vertical structure with an open centreboard.▼8 It is an example of how the architect’s workspace is completed in a way that is agreed upon by himself, with strong leadership.
Today, the physical workspaces of domestic and international architects are very different from the ateliers of history, and the spectrum of diversity is broad. However, the philosophy and spirit of the atelier, as a place to train architects and as an essential space for architects to create and experiment, are still important. Moreover, to look into the results of this sacred experience of becoming an architect is to step into the inner world of an architect.
The article ‘Our Home – The House of SPACE’ published in the June 1975 issue of SPACE, pp. 51 – 52.
1. Donald Drew Egbert, The Beaux-Arts Tradition in French Architecture, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 17 – 20.
2. John Wilton-Ely, ‘The Rise of the Professional Architect in England’, The Architect, Oxford Univeristy Press, 1977, p. 198.
3. Mary N. Woods, From Craft to Profession: The Practice of Architecture in Nineteenth-Century America, University of California Press, 1999.
4. Park Kilyong, The Genes of Korean Modern Architecture, SPACE Publishers, 2005.
5. The Now Institute, 100 Buildings 1900 – 2000, Rizzoli, 2017. It is a list of the 100 best architectural projects of the 20th century, selected by 58 internationally renowned architects and theorists. Unfortunately, none of the selected architectural projects included the architect’s offices or ateliers.
6. Rodrigo Pantoja, ‘Le Corbusier´s Workspaces: 35 Rue de Sevres, 24 Rue Nungesser-et Coli, and Cabanon Cabin’, https://www.tumblr.com/evo-a-lab/89513672424/le-corbusier-s-workspaces-35-rue-de-sevres-24.
7. Rachel Stevenson, ‘Living Images: Charles and Ray Eames “At Home”’, Perspecta 37 (The Yale Architectural Journal, 2005), pp. 32 - 41.
8. Philip Stevens, ‘Inside Tadao Ando’s Self-built Studio in Osaka’, www.designboom.com, https://www.designboom.com/architecture/tadao-ando-osaka-studio-interior-interview-04-08-2016
