SPACE June 2026 (No. 703)
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.
The office building of PLAN ARCHITECTS, Yangnim Stone (2024)
Interior view of PLAN ARCHITECTS’ office
Ideals and Universal Sensibilities
Kim Hyerin (Kim): You opened your own practice, PLAN ARCHITECTS (hereinafter PLAN), in 2013.
Lim Taehyung (Lim): I was working in Seoul right up until I opened my own practice. However, around that time, I felt that I had reached a limit in both my personal life and my architectural practice. The office I worked for in Seoul was specialised primarily in public architecture, but I wanted to work on projects where the architect could be directly involved on site. Although public projects have improved considerably in terms of systems these days, it was difficult for me to participate on site under the circumstances at that time. I believed that architects must have their feet on the soil at the site, because it’s not enough to simply finish the project by providing drawings and specifications. You must supervise the construction to realise the design intent and correct any potential errors in the drawings and specifications. So, after much deliberation, I decided to open my own practice. I had my severance pay and, having secured a small-scale private project in Gangwon-do, I thought I could make a living for at least a year. I started out near the Cha Gangnam Medical Center intersection in Nonhyeon-dong, but the following year, I moved to my hometown of Gwangju. As it was the neighbourhood where I’d grown up, I knew some people there, which made it mentally familiar and comfortable.
Kim: Your office is located in Yangnim-dong. Is there a particular reason you chose to settle here?
Lim: Around the time I opened the office, urban regeneration was beginning to attract serious attention in Gwangju, and Yangnim-dong was at the heart of this. Prior to the Japanese colonial period and modernisation, Yangnim-dong was home to a community of people with leprosy. Foreign missionaries settled there to care for those ostracised by society, and various modern buildings such as churches, sc...
