Three 2012 Young Architect Awards were handed out to architects on Wednesday.The winners of the annual prize given by the Culture Ministry are Kwon Hyung-pyo and Kim Soon-ju from Bau Architects, Lee Dong-joon of Stocker Lee Architetti and Lee So-jin of Atelier Lion Seoul. The award, started in 2008, recognizes the achievements of up-and-coming architects for excellence in design, capacity to balance architecture and nature and to sustain local ecosystems and cultures. Kwon and Kim of Seoul-based

Following is the seventh in a series of articles in which leading architects discuss their representative work. ― Ed.There is no neighborhood architecture for those of us who are familiar with the exit numbers of subway stations and brand names of apartment complexes. No matter how small or insignificant, neighborhood architecture should have public value as entities. We should meet ordinary but well-designed architecture and spaces, which are created to have their unique and distinct features

Spanish furniture maker OHEA has introduced an electronic bed that makes itself.The Smart Bed is equipped with two mechanical arms and a roller that move the blanket back to the head of the bed in a process that takes only about 50 seconds.When the user flips a switch positioned at the foot of the bed, the bed senses the body movement and makes itself three seconds later. The furniture also contains a built-in safety device that prevents operation while a person is lying on the mattress. OHEA ha

Following is the sixth in a series of articles in which leading architects discuss their representative work. ― Ed.Surplus is a product of a consumer society. Surplus exaggerates values, and, in turn, produces an infinite bubble of surplus. Similarly, a modern city extends itself with capitalism-friendly logic, and gives it the same bubble logic. But the surplus of any place on earth means a lack in another place. The essential problem of such surplus originates from a dishonest definition of th

A place for commemoration and contemplationFollowing is the fifth in a series of articles in which leading architects discuss their representative work. ―Ed.The Ahn Jung-geun Memorial Hall, rebuilt after the old one was demolished in 2009, is nestled in a small plaza behind the original building. Next to the site are the remnants of an old war shrine where Japanese people worshipped their warlords and spirits during the colonial era. Having dug up the age-old reminder of disgrace and humiliation

Following is the fourth in a series of articles in which leading architects discuss their representative work. ― Ed.For many people, architectural space holds numerous meanings and responses. A space born out of a certain form creates countless stories for pedestrians who walk past the buildings or who look at them from afar; the stories can be different for the builders, the owners and the users. An architect is a person who gathers and predicts such stories and translates them into a form. Thu

The Seonggeo-san Catholic Church is located on the Seonggeo-san shrine near Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. The Seonggeo-san shrine is located two kilometers up along a mountain road. Nestled in the deep, isolated mountain, it is understandable that Korean Catholics hid here during the time of Catholic persecution. Every May, a wild flower festival is held here for a week ― the wild flowers are considered metaphors for the unnamed Catholic martyrs.The site of the Seonggeo-san shrine is a vi

Following is the first in a series of columns in which leading architects discuss their representative work. ― Ed.M+ is a building in a transitional location where different urban elements, such as luxury apartments, dilapidated low-rise housing, houses converted into offices and offices that double as residences all interact. M+ seeks to discover new possibilities within this transition. Like the colossal black obelisk in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” M+ seeks to unearth hidden life in th

MILAN (AFP) ― Austere furniture for austere times was the message from this week’s Milan design fair, where the aesthetics of the sober 1940s and 1950s prevailed and extravagance gave way to functionality.“Design needs to take into account a significant economic crisis which has led to a re-interpretation to make products more functional while avoiding provocations,” architect Marco Romanelli, a fair organiser, told AFP.“The attention is increasingly on the materials,” Romanelli said.The yearly

Scandinavian designs hot in furniture and household itemsIt is not difficult to detect a notable trend in the living section in department stores and in design magazines: a lot of things have gone extremely simple, eco-friendly, with few vivid accent colors. Because most of the popular furniture and warm and cozy household items like lamps and rugs with such designs are made by brands based in northern European countries, they are summed up as “Scandinavian” or “Nordic” designs and are stirring