SPACE July 2026 (No. 704)
The position of this structure is defined by an existing landscape design that evokes the continuous pursue of knowledge through spiraling routes that ascend and descend, as if in a mysterious counterweight. As in The Treachery of Images by Magritte, with its apparent contradiction between words and images, images and things, this flat cylindrical canopy is not a gat (the traditional Korean hat worn by men with high social status) but a shelter. However, the gat is also a shelter (at least a partial one), as much as a sign of integrity, endurance and even freedom. Thus, the proposed canopy is meant to expand the individual function of the gat into a collective, shared protection and contemplation of the landscape. This is not a gat, but its central cylinder is somehow present as a virtual projection of sunlight and rainwater. The low ceiling, the four slender columns, the thick rounded bench and the dark well further accentuate the elusive scale of the canopy. As a scaleless object, perhaps due to its inner symmetrical balance, the ultimate function of such sculptural piece is to transfigure the solid matter into a moving phantom; the soul of a living Scholar that cannot be detached from the natural cycles, from everyday life or from the transparency of a self-evident formal order.
