SPACE December 2024 (No. 685)
I AM AN ARCHITECT
‘I am an Architect’ 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 Han Jeeyoung, Hwang Sooyong co-principals, LIFE architects × Kim Bokyoung
Opportunity Comes to Those Who Are Prepared
Kim Bokyung (Kim): BRACE (2020) was featured in SPACE No. 651, wasn’t it? It’s great to meet you again for this Relay Interview. Nice to see you!
Han Jiyoung (Han): Nice to see you too! (laugh) After Brace was featured in SPACE and in other various media outlets, we’ve heard from many people – not just architects – who have told us how impressed they have been with the coverage. Actually, that was our very first private sector project.
Kim: So, you won an award for your first private project! How did you manage to secure such a major project like BRACE so early on in your career?
Hwang Sooyong (Hwang): Our first project as LIFE architects (hereinafter LIFE) was a public project for the Gangseo Waterworks Office (2017). While we worked on public projects after winning design competitions, we often wondered how to begin working with more private clients.
That’s when we decided to explore a design platform site to find clients and, beside of public design competition, participated in various research projects organised by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. However, since we had just started, it was naturally difficult to find clients willing to entrust us with work easily. To persuade potential clients, we had to prepare more thoroughly and, above all, put in effort to gain a deeper knowledge about laws and regulations.
I think we managed to get this one because of the site’s unique situation. The lot for BRACE was only about 40 pyeong, but with a floor area ratio of up to 400%, it required a ton of parking spaces. That meant the entire first floor would have to be used for parking, and even if we intended the structure to be as tall as possible, the business potential of the first floor – the most valuable part – just wasn’t there. However, when we delved further into the regulations, we realised the site was in a parking exemption zone, and so only one parking space was required. When we explained this to the client, they didn’t believe us at first. (laugh) But once we went through it together and confirmed everyt...
