SPACE February 2026 (No. 699)
Communicative Housing, a Community of DifferencesIn a reality where apartments have become commodities to be ‘bought’ rather than places to ‘live’, large-scale housing complexes have homogenised the urban environment. A system fixed by unit-centred valuations, replicated buildings, and rigid regulations has turned the city into a collection of isolated islands. The apartment as a mode of dwelling must now move beyond habitual demand to re-evaluate the original meaning of collective housing. As an urban alternative, Unsangdong Architects, together with Yo2 Architects (Principal, Kim Youngjoon), seeks to propose a realistic yet brand new model for collective housing.* Our objective was to create community-orientated housing capable of reflecting both the locality and the existing urban structure.
*You can see more information on the SPACE No. February (2026).
Jang Yoongyoo is a progressive architect who investigates architectural phenomena and believes that a physical reality originates from architectural concepts. After graduating from Seoul National University’s Department of Architecture and its Graduate School, he founded the Jang Yoongyoo Architectural Experiment Atelier, which later evolved into Unsangdong Architects. His practice focuses on an architecture that responds to the changing and dynamic conditions of a new era. Jang has been awarded the Korean Architecture Award, the Seoul Architecture Award, and the Korea Institute of Architects (KIA) Award, and has gained international acclaim through awards and features in prominent international media outlets. He is currently a Professor at the College of Architecture, Kookmin University.
Shin Changhoon graduated from the Department of Architectural Engineering at Yeungnam University and the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Seoul. He co-founded Unsangdong Architects with Jang Yoongyoo to pursue and realise experimental and conceptual architecture. He has dedicated himself to archiving and promoting Korean architecture through his leadership of platforms such as ‘Space Coordinator’ and ‘Architecture Sympathy’. Having served as a Seoul Public Architect, he currently acts as the General Architect of Suseong-gu and the Vice Chair of the Suseong International Biennale. His broader contributions to public architectural culture include his tenure as Chair of the Young Architects Committee of the KIA. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Seoul.
