SPACE September 2024 (No. 682)
Where can we locate an alternative way of living life in our society? Phenomena like ‘apartment republics’ and ‘apartment kids’ have become pervasive and no longer a novel social phenomena in Korea. The exhibition ‘Performative Home: Architecture for Alternative Living’, which opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Gwacheon in July, challenges the familiar urban landscape and suggests that other forms of dwelling are not just possible but promising. The 58 houses, excluding those built in detached housing developments in new towns and luxury homes with a floor area of more than 100 pyeong (330m2), are a counter-declaration to the apartment republic and act as an archive for an alternative way of life that is not far away. Meanwhile, the exhibition ‘Investigating the Archetypal Korean Apartment Layout’, scheduled for the 28th of September at Gwangwoon interior, intends to discover the possibility for an alternative everyday life by examining apartment floor plans that are so familiar that they have not been discussed in depth.
Exhibition view of ‘Performative Home: Architecture for Alternative Living’ ©Son Mihyun
The Ideal and the Reality of Korean Housing: Detached Houses and Apartments
‘Daunting, overwhelming, pie in the sky, a baby in the woods, extreme challenges, a great deal of trouble….’ These are all modifiers that come with building a house. The decision to build or renovate one’s home in Korea is neither assumed nor easy. In our society, where homes are seen as more of an investment than a place to live, detached...
