SPACE July 2022 (No. 656)
ʻI am an Architectʼ was planned to meet young architects who seek their own architecture in a variety of materials and methods. What do they like, explore, and worry about? SPACE is going to discover individual characteristics of them rather than group them into a single category. The relay interview continues when the architect who participated in the conversation calls another architect in the next turn.
interview Lee Kyuseob principal, General Architects × Park Jiyoun
The Handmade
Park Jiyoun (Park): Thanks to you, it is nice to have an excuse to see Daegu.
Lee Kyuseob (Lee): I think Daegu is one of the most comfortable and convenient places to live. Even Seoul and Busan are so hectic and complicated, while Daegu is quiet. Most places downtown can be reached in 30 minutes, so it is very easy to navigate.
Park: I think you are right. It took about 15 minutes by taxi from Daegu Station to your office! (laugh) It is such a charming space, with trees that can be seen through the long window.
Lee: I had my own set of criteria when looking for an office. I wanted to see trees through long horizontal windows, and I wanted a space on the second floor encircled by a stream, particularly as the ground floor is too close to the street, and the third floor can be too challenging in terms of the need to walk up and down stairs.
Park: You mentioned the long horizontal window, and there is a poster of Villa Savoye on your office wall. Do you like Le Corbusier?
Lee: Not entirely. (laugh) The poster was from an exhibition at Seoul Arts Center a few years ago, when the the Fondation Le Corbusier exhibited work for the first time in Korea. I bought a lot of the posters. My favourite these days is Ogawa Shinichi. He is a super minimalist. When you look at his micro housing proejcts, the attention paid from the floor analyses to details is incredible. And Smiljan Radic from Chile. I like intuitive design, works that considers proportion, balance, and asymmetry in the round. I like these visual aspects.
Park: There is a General Architects stamp on the edge of the book about Ogawa Shinichi. The same goes for other books.
Lee: I like things that are finished by hand. I’m also working on leather crafts. Creating something that can act as your own signature enhances the expression of a brand. Actually, I wanted to make these things a little more concrete and manual, but I simply don’t have much time, so I just keep setting such things aside.
Park: I also saw the detailed drawings you drew by hand, and they are so complete. Surely they can be ordered as they are?
Lee: It’s actually the final detailed drawing. So, in that condition, the order goes in. Drawing the plan by hand is a much faster way of expressing my thoughts. This is the most convenient approach for me. Above all, this also saves a lot of time. Now that the drawing technologies on the tablet have developed, I also draw a lot on the tablet.
Moving into Place
Park: You have set up a base in Daegu and performed everything here from your graduation to practical work.
Lee: When I graduated from university, I thought about attending graduate school. I wanted to go to a school in Seoul, but, by that time, I became involved in a project overseen by my professor as an intern. It was an alley regeneration project hosted by the city. I lost track of time while working on it and entered the director’s office, who by that point had become well acquainted with the project. Therefore, I naturally settled down in Daegu.
Park: Him Architects & Associates (hereinafter Him Architects) is the office where you first worked.
Lee: As far as I know, their work was first published in SPACE as an architectural firm in Daegu (coverd in SPACE No. 445). It is said that architectural photographers at the time were reluctant to travel to other cities. I heard that principal Baek Seongki put a lot of effort into the process. Thanks to this, they were able to work with photographer Kim Yongkwan, and, while filming, Kim was surprised that there were architects like them in Daegu, and they started working together from that time. I am receiving a lot of support from those of the younger generation, such as Yoon Joonhwan.
Park: I heard that it is difficult to improve the quality of construction in the provinces.
Lee: In the provinces, the number of projects is relatively less than in the metropolitan area, so the range of experience in the quality execution is limited.
Park: It is not a single person’s problem but a problem of various competing dynamics, so it will be challenging to solve.
Lee: Indeed. When conducting a project, one of the essential factors that determines the completion level is the skill of the builder and the project owner. Of course, there are differences in the capabilities of architects. Even after a detailed briefing to owners with models, 3D impressions, drawings, and samples, there are still instances where they complain when on site and when the construction actually begins. Architects become worn out with this process. In such a situation, there are times when the construction company does not follow, and an architect feels desperate. (laugh) So, in the case of a site where the satisfaction level is about 60%, I try to improve the level of perfection by remaining there every day until the deadline.
Park: You are also a member of Minus-front, a team of nine designers drawn from different fields. How did you get involved?
Lee: Director Park Hongcheol of Minus-front contacted me via direct message, as I was constantly posting my work on Instagram. After seeing it, he said he thought that the way I worked and my stories were interesting, so he suggested I join them. Director Park is an interior designer, and he commissioned me to design his own home. That was the beginning. After that, as other projects were commissioned through the introduction, the number of members gradually increased, and there was talk of making the team. This was an excellent opportunity for me, particularly as it led me to communicate with experts from various regions and various fields.
Park: A project can be completed only by members of the team.
Lee: You can think of the designers necessary for the project as individual units placed in new combination each time. We can trust each other and focus on each other’s areas of expertise, so the level of completion increases. For example, Kim Dongkyu, a metal crafter, belongs to our team. On a typical construction site, there is a practical limit to the architect’s ability to pay attention to small details such as a handle. However, since a craftsman is included, that limitation disappears. When making a handle, details are completed by making a casting or cutting out a full material to finish it. I love the synergy created by attention to these details and directions pursued.
The Beginning of a Detail
Park: You work in Daegu. It seems that Him Architects played a big part in you taking root in Daegu.
Lee: Principal Baek had his own sense of obligation to work as a local architect in Daegu. I guess I did too. General Architects, the name of the office now, seems to have been slightly influenced by principal Baek. He said before that architecture should not be a privilege only the wealthy can enjoy but that it should have a universality that can be enjoyed by a wider public.
Park: What is your definition of universal design?
Lee: It may have various meanings, but I think that one example is in terms of unit price. When working at Him Architects, I once commissioned a soundproofing project for a new church. Because the budget was so tight, they couldn’t even remark on the quality of the finish but only asked for soundproofing. He fixed the sound-absorbing board to the wall and finished it by patterning rectangular timbers over the sound-absorbing material at that time. By giving a slight pattern, we implemented good quality for the cost. In my case, I used coated plywood for the formwork as an interior finish before. As for metal, I combine readymade angle products to improve both cost-effectiveness and completeness rather than using by laser bending.
Park: It is a labour-intensive job, but the satisfaction and attractiveness are high. In your Instagram feed, space branding is also hashtagged.
Lee: The branding is done by the branding designer. I think that branding should be performed by a branding expert, and architecture should be done by an architect to ensure the quality of work. Actually, spatial branding is very vague as a term. Especially when it comes to commercial spaces, I think the workspaces of space designers and brand designers have become blurred. There are times when the question arises as to whether the space comes first or the branding comes first. In that instance, I am not stubborn, as branding often comes before architecture. I also wanted to apply a void with outstanding structural beauty or a column-free long-span cantilever. Still, in a situation in which you have to choose between the architect and the brand identity, I try to focus on the latter first.
Park: Was café a. nook Apsan (2020) designed after establishing the brand profile?
Lee: Right. ‘a. nook ’ stands for a cosy space. The logo engraved on the signboard in front of a. nook Apsan looks like a table in the corner. It expresses a cosy space in a corner seat, and I designed it accordingly. The project had significant economic constraints. So, the exterior window frames and doors were made of waterproof plywood. Still, I got good results because I am in possession of a specialised method for handling plywood. It is a method of transporting work after working in an external workshop rather than a factory. It is usually made on site. The quality is much improved if it is made in the workshop and transported.
Park: You were also responsible for the design of a. nook Sawol (2021), the second store of a. nook. The owner must have developed a level of trust with you. Could you try more of the things you wanted to?
Lee: No. (laugh) It was the same situation. I don ’t know much about Seoul, but it ’s tough to run a café in the provinces, especially in terms of sales. So, if you invest a lot in construction, there is a high probability that you will not get it back. So, I worked with this aspect in mind. I also paid attention to sales-related aspects such as seating arrangements and circulation routes.
Park: You are designing according to the given situation, but nevertheless, looking at the stairs in your work, I feel that they have their own formal properties.
Lee: I like being honest and intuitive; this is not an architectural philosophy but simply doing what I have learned. A straight or a spiral staircase has a certain formal language, but it was created because the location requires a vertical line of movement. It naturally followed as a result of site analysis and planar layout. I think it ’s just the result of a little bit of a taste.
a. nook Apsan
Lee Kyuseob, our interviewee, want to be shared some stories from Yun Sungyoung, Kim Saesbyeol (co-principals, AEA_atelier espace architectes) in August 2022 issue.
on a wide range of works from furniture to interior and architectural design in honour hope of a world where good design is standardised valued by its citizens.
