SPACE August 2026 (No. 705)
A Church Connected to the City Through Emptiness
Sungsil Church is located in a low-rise residential area in Yeokchon-dong, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul which is densely populated with multi-family and multi-household housing. Despite its high housing density, the neighbourhood lacks parks and open public spaces; moreover, surrounded by narrow alleys and pilotis parking lots, the environment offers little room for daily leisure. We therefore viewed this project not only as a new church construction, but as an opportunity to create much-needed public open space. Initially, the church requested a renovation of its 60-year-old chapel, but the building was structurally unsound. To stay within the limited budget, we decided to minimise new construction and focus on the courtyard.
An open courtyard was placed at the centre of the site which had been isolated from its surroundings by walls and an above-ground parking lot. This new central space allows the three adjacent alleys of different elevations to conjoin naturally. For safety reasons, the courtyard was raised half a storey above street level, and earthwork was kept to a minimum. A new learning centre was built across from the chapel, and the two existing buildings were respectively repurposed as a choir room and a café. The scene of the old and new buildings coexisting across the courtyard embodies both the church’s history and its future potential. The courtyard, surrounded by four buildings, accommodates the church’s outdoor activities while also serving as an urban intermediary space connecting the alleyways. People enter the courtyard from the alleyways, linger for a while, and then naturally move on to other alleyways and buildings. Sometimes, architecture achieves its public purpose – that is, restoring urban daily life and community – not by creating new forms, but by creating thoughtful voids.
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You can see more information on the SPACE No. August (2026).
Hyunjoon Yoo
Hyunjoon Yoo is a Professor at Hongik University and registered architect in the United States (AIA, NCARB), he leads HYP Architects with Jon Jiyoung. He studied architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yonsei University, and worked at Richard Meier & Partners Architects. He has won numerous awards both domestically and internationally, including the Chicago Athenaeum Architecture Awards, German Design Award, Young Architect Award, Kim Swoo Geun Architectural Prize Preview Award, and the President’s Prize for Korean Space Culture Awards. He is known as a ‘humanistic architect’ for his diverse books and broadcasts that provide insight into the world through architecture. His YouTube channel, ‘Sherlock Hyunjoon’, currently has 1.45 million subscribers.
Jon Jiyoung
Jon Jiyoung is a Principal at HYP Architects and a licensed architect in the Republic of Korea. She received a Master’s degree in Architectural Design from Hongik University and built her professional foundation through practice at Chang-jo Architects and the Los Angeles–based firm Morphosis. Since 2018, she has worked alongside Hyunjoon Yoo at HYP Architects. Drawing on extensive experience across a wide range of scales and programmes – from large-scale cultural and mixed-use facilities to small religious and residential projects – she is currently exploring the intersections of architecture, urbanism, landscape, and culture while further developing and expanding the practice‘s design philosophy.
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