“ SERENDIPITY ”
[ when interesting discoveries are made by accident ]
The portfolio is my own little world that I have been creating over the last 10 years while studying architecture.
Interesting ideas that I discovered while looking at daily routine through ‘Defamiliarization’ create unexpected fun.
I think architecture is to look at this ‘everyday things’ through ‘new eyes’.
I hope that someday this little world will be born as real architecture and become architecture to which the users become interested and attached, not just my own daydream.
01 Beyond Isolation
Designing a Dementia-Friendly Care Facility: A Symbiotic Approach
Theme
Location
Course
Team
Tutor
Designing Dementia Care Centre promoting Social engagement
Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne
2023-2024 | MArch | Stage 6 In Mind Studio
Personal Work
Professor Neveen Hamza, Newcastle University
Neil Turner, Howarth Litchfield Architects
With population growth and rising life expectancy, dementia cases in the UK are increasing, creating a greater demand for care facilities. The prevailing segregated approach isolates individuals with dementia, reinforcing both social and physical separation. Consequently, societal stigma and limited intergenerational interaction negatively impact their quality of life.
My research begins with the question: How can we break the psychological and physical barriers associated with dementia compared to conventional care models? I propose an intergenerational care facility as a symbiotic approach, fostering mutual benefits for both dementia patients and children through enhanced social interaction and cognitive engagement. This concept will serve as the foundation for a new type of heterogeneous, intergenerational care environment—one that promotes synergy, inclusivity, and meaningful connections across generations.
View of Movable Furniture Module from Child play hall
View of Art/Craft Activity Modules
This study proposes a new intergenerational care facility that fosters a symbiotic environment.
Through the integration of communal spaces, programmes, and modular movable furniture, the design seeks to promote mutual benefits across generations.
This concept explores a foundation for a heterogeneous care environment, redefining traditional approaches to dementia care.
View of Child Play Hall
02 From Retrofit to Renewal
Crafting a Narrative Path for Community Engagement
Theme Location Course
Team
Tutor
Adaptive Reuse: Transforming an existing building for new purposes
Shieldfield social services centre, Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne
2022-2023 | MArch | Stage 5 Material Change Studio
Personal Work
The construction industry today faces an urgent need to shift its focus toward the adaptation and transformation of existing buildings. The practice and theory of transition and reuse form the central theme of this project.
Shieldfield Social Services Centre in Newcastle is situated on a steep crossfall, acting as a link between residential areas and student housing blocks. However, the site contains large abandoned spaces, including an unused car park, an unmanaged courtyard, and a piloti area, originally intended for a future shopping centre and hostel that were never constructed. As a result, the corridor connecting the service centre to these unrealized buildings remains unused.
Furthermore, the building’s massive volume and the steep crossfall pose significant challenges for local residents’ mobility. This project aims to address these spatial and accessibility issues by retrofitting the existing service centre, introducing new programs that foster better community engagement and improve the overall site conditions.
Daniel Burn | Irina Korneychuck | Danka Stefan, FaulknerBrowns Architects
03 Urban Void
Religious Architecture as a Public Realm
Theme
Location
Course
Team
Tutor
Designing Religious Architecture for Urban Community Welfare
Religious Architecture Site, Muan, Jeollanam-do, South Korea
Undergraduate Architecture Studio
Personal Work
Tae-hoon Kim
Contemporary religious architecture often remains closed off from the public, contradicting its fundamental missionary purpose. This paradox highlights the need for a new architectural approach—one that fosters openness, inclusivity, and engagement with the urban community.
In response to this need, my project explores alternative design strategies to transform religious spaces into welcoming and accessible community hubs. I have sought to create a new form of religious architecture that fosters inclusivity and engagement with the wider community. By reimagining both spatial configuration and functional programming, my design aims to establish an open and inviting environment. Through architectural interventions and innovative programmes, the project aspires to redefine religious spaces as vibrant community hubs that transcend traditional boundaries.
View of Chapel
How should the religious architecture be changed into an urban community facility ?
While the religion of the past stretches to the sky, emphasizing only symbolism, the newly proposed religious architecture in urban areas reverses its hierarchy, thereby providing a place where residents can exchange freely. If different programs are distributed in open spaces provided, local residents can actively engage in knowledge-based productive activities. Newly changed places and programs will allow religious architecture to function as a community facility in the urban areas.
'Here
and Now' (space-time)
Religious architecture changes into an urban community facility. Blind worship of the God becomes a resting place for modern people and changes into a space where citizens can meet and communicate.
Offering more green open spaces for the public
In modern urban areas, planning green spaces and convenience spaces for residents is crucial. Buildings in the urban areas are built for profitability only by concentrating on achieving maximum floor space ratio, and open spaces for residents are only planned within the scope of laws. As a result, except for parks that have been planned only on maps or existing natural green spaces, convenience spaces for local residents are limited and simple. Modern cities need places where residents can engage in productive activities such as knowledge exchange and communication by meeting with each other in addition to city’s basic requirements, such as residential facilities, foods, and entertainment. In addition to simply eating, working and resting, cities need changes which are different from existing plans to become a space that grows sustainably.
Spatial Ideas
SEPERATED VOLUME AND VOID
In general, public open space is a public space that is used to enter and exit the building. An outer space is likely to be used in diverse ways such as a place where people can meet other people, gather and resting in a natural way. If they are distributed into separate facilities with small functions, rather than a single building, the interior space of the ground and basement floors can be more directly connected, thus maximizing their function to allow people to meet and communicate.
Design Developments
Considering the religious architecture as an urban community facility is to empty our perception on the religion as well as the cross on the ground floor. People freely use public programs distributed in the empty land. Naturally, citizens are led to the basement floors along the void space, and contact with religion repeatedly without feeling any resistance. The new religious architecture will approach citizens in this changed way and functions as an urban community facility while maintaining its religious function.
Religious space, the main use, is located on the basement floor
Public open space s are located on the ground floor.
Public indoor spaces are located on the 1st basement floor to separate the program
build the program on the first floor where new public space is planned
build not only the programs upward to sky, but also downward to ground
Specific programs make their volume to empty trough the characters.
Concept Sketch_Creating Trajactory around the Void
Perspective view_Public garden
GROUND FLOOR
FIRST BASEMENT FLOOR
SECOND BASEMENT FLOOR
MAIN ENTERENCE
COMMUNITY ROOM
LECTURE ROOM
CAFETERIA
04 The Wall that Connects US
Where Private and Public Meet
Theme
Location
Course
Team
Tutor
Designing Community Facility Rooted in History and Culture
Sansu-dong, Gwang-ju, South Korea
Architecture Competition, GRAND PRIZE
Personal Work
Tae-hoon Kim
In the outskirts of Korea, many densely populated residential areas are characterized by narrow alleyways and enclosed walls. Observing these villages reveals unexpected communal features—chairs placed for rest, small pavilions, and shared vegetable gardens filling the seemingly fragmented spaces between alleyways.
While designing a community facility for a competition, I focused on integrating the existing cultural practices and spatial dynamics of the residents. Conventional, object-based community facilities, in my view, are unsuitable for such compact environments. Given the limited available space, it is essential to propose alternative forms of community facilities that respect local history, culture, and spatial context.
Through this project, I propose a design guideline that prioritizes the preservation of locality in these aging residential areas while addressing the evolving needs of the residents.
The wall type changed the wall itself
Open the wall for movement and sight openness
The wall type of adding something to the wall
Add structures or sculptures to the wall and use them as vertical movement and decoration elements
FURNITURE
The wall transformed into furniture functions for rest
CULTURE
The wall functions as a space for cultural activities
The wall type expanded the wall
Expand the wall for community space
The wall type of utilizing empty space
Utilize deserted houses or empty space as community facility
PATH
The wall functions to connect new facilities and lead people to contact each other
PAVILION
The wall functions as a natural gathering space for neighbors
type-A
type-C
type-B
type-D
Unit to respond to various wall size.
The act of tearing down the walls together and making new walls will become part of the community and a new example of community facilities that will activate the run-down facilities
Recycling waste materials from tearing down walls
Convenience
05 Work Experience
Professional experience in Seoul, South Korea
JUNGLIM ARCHITECT (4 years)
JOURNEY
The way I look the world
To dwell means to belong to a given place.
- Norberg-Schulz
“ I believe architecture evokes a sense of nostalgia. When users form emotional attachments to a space, it allows them to create personal storiesconnected to the architecture. By observing and sketching user behavior within these spaces, I discover new dimensions of architecture.
This, in my view, is the most profound way to study and understand architecture.”
WORK SHOP
Architecture Design Club
