SPACE July 2025 (No. 692)
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.
OhLee house (2020) ©Woo Jihyo
Wooden Structures as the Natural Choice
Kim Hyerin: Both of you graduated from the same university with a degree in architecture. After graduation, Kim Dohyeong gained practical experience working as a carpenter and construction site manager, while Son Juhui worked at an architectural firm specialising in wooden structures. Perhaps that’s why SONKIM Architects is known for its wooden structure-based projects.
Son Juhui: I was actually a year ahead of Kim Dohyeong in university, and we were a campus couple. (laugh) Both of us studied under professor Tomii Masanori, who focused primarily on wooden structures. He placed great significance on hands-on experience, often calling for students to participate in community-building projects. We learned a variety of construction methods such as construction methods using traditional wooden structures and pre-fabricated wood construction on-site.
Kim Dohyeong: There wasn’t a formal curriculum for wooden structures at our university. However, it was the first structural system about which we developed a deep understanding, so it felt natural to become so familiar with it. In the beginning, you rarely get large-scale commissions. As a small-scale office, we mostly took on renovation projects with limited budgets which naturally led us to work with smaller, more delicate materials. Many of our projects aren’t well-suited for construction methods that require established industrial infrastructure, like concrete or steel frame systems. For instance, when a site is located along a narrow backstreet in a t...
