SPACE February 2026 (No. 699)
Office of architects office9kahn, Gaunde Bom (2016)
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? And how are architects in various regions expanding their own worlds in different ways? SPACE is going to discover individual characteristics of them rather than group them into a single category.
interview Park Kyoungmi, Jang Jeongwoo Co-Principals, architects office9kahn × Kim Hyerin
Jang Jeongwoo
Park Kyoungmi
Sharing an Attitude Towards Life
Kim Hyerin (Kim): You opened architects office9kahn (hereafter office9kahn) in Gangwon Province in 2020.
Park Kyoungmi (Park): office9kahn actually began in 2013, but at that time it wasn’t an architectural practice. We wanted to try handcrafted work – making small finger puppets, drawing – and also exploring projects related to social enterprise. We wanted to do things other than architecture. That was how it started, but eventually we ended up beginning with interior projects and moving into architectural design. (laugh)
Jang Jeongwoo (Jang): We both used to work at a big architectural firm in Seoul. Rather than producing work related to construction sites, we participated in the planning stages of projects. Over time, we felt a strong desire to work on actually building things. We left our jobs, took about six months off, and decided to start office9kahn to take on very small projects. It’s run by the two of us as a married couple.
Kim: What was the reason for you choosing Gangwon-do, and specifically Chuncheon?
Park: Jang is from Daegu, and I’m from Chuncheon, but since we both studied and worked in Seoul, our professional base was there. As our family grew, it became difficult to balance work and daily life, so we decided to move to a regional city and work together. Since our projects are located all over the country, we felt that the physical location of the office wouldn’t be a major issue.
Jang: This was around the early days when social media was rap...
