Banga(班家) but Red: Ogoeheon (Music Artist Residency) | studio_K_works

SPACE January 2025 (No. 686) 

Kim Kwangsoo principal, studio_K_works × Lee Jongkeun author

Vitality – Voluntary Isolation

Lee Jongkeun (Lee)​: The most striking aspect of Ogoeheon (Music Artist Residency) (2024) is its use of colour. In Korea, the presence or absence of colour and the way it is applied have been subjects of significant debate. Colour divides the world—its absence creates uniformity, while its presence allows objects to speak. If we stripped the world of colour, wouldn’t everything look the same? You also used vibrant colours in Hapcheon Cinema Park (2014). What drives you to incorporate colour so prominently in your architecture? 

Kim Kwangsoo (Kim)​: I believe colour embodies vitality. For the Colored Threshold (2008) work at Jungdong Elementary School, which was part of the Seoul Urban Gallery Project, I worked with the concept of saekdong jeogori (a traditional Korean multicolosred jacket). Traditionally, saekdong jeogori symbolised the celebration of new life, and its rainbow-like hues metaphorically represented a child’s vitality and potential. 

Lee: The fact that red was for daughters and blue for sons suggests that such colours could also become restrictive or oppressive, don’t you think? 

Kim: That’s true. However, similar to the way LGBTQ+ identities are expressed, saekdong jeogori also symbolises potential—it says, ‘You could be yellow, or you could be blue.’ While it’s true that a child’s path might eventually be defined – as official attire often reflects social rank – saekdong jeogori exists at the origin, representing limitless possibilities. In modernist architecture, colour has often been marginalised. Its vibrancy and perceived secularism made it an object of avoidance in Puritanical modernism. Similarly, in traditional banga (班家, aristocratic homes) or literary paintings of Korea, colour was scarcely used. However, folk paintings, royal court art, and temple or palace architecture employed colour extensively. This duality gives colour a transcendental quality. In Ogoeheon, I referenced banga traditions as well as remnants of mid- 20th-century western-style homes and rural houses. Since this space was designed for musicians, I also considered the vivid colours often associated with music videos, aiming to pull them out of virtual screens and into physical space. By combining the textual orientation of the Sojeon Cultural Foundation with the vibrant sensibilities of musicians, I wanted to blend the differing aesthetics of literary paintings and folk art. 

Lee: The spatial arrangement of Ogoeheon resembles banga. However, it’s unusual to imagine a banga rendered in vibrant colours. This disregard for conventional spatial norms feels revolutionary. Furthermore, the colours in Ogoeheon don’t merely occupy the interior or exterior—they ripple across boundaries. The way space and colour interact independently adds significant value to this project. Couldn’t...