T2 Manifesto #1

When I was a child, my father owned architecture office. I had been there until he closed his office after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. I used to sit in front of drawing desk and draw some lines using magnetic rulers and a triangle. This memory is still vivid in my mind, so there is no surprise that I studied architecture in the undergraduate school.

I took a trip to Europe in my holiday in 2006 and it was my first time to abroad. The first destination was London and the atmosphere of London was completely different from cities in Korea. It was a chance to expand perspective of urban design. It was common to construct new buildings rather than keep old ones in Korea cities, but in the UK, they tried to make new constructions and old ones coexist. Since then, I could find values of old things and wanted to study in London.

I took several classes related to urban design while I was in undergraduate school of architecture in my last two years. The first project was an essay in Society and Space class. I learned Space Syntax programme and it made me know accessibility and visibility of space through the streets’ shape analysis. Based on the result of the programme, I could suggest a new alternative to keep existing streets rather than make grid streets at historic site. The next work, 2008 Incheon International Urban Design Competition for Students, was the urban rehabilitation project of Jemulpo station’s region. I couldn’t manage all the historical data of this project. Rehabilitation project was needed plenty of researching information and reinterpreting historicity of the site. My last urban-related project was planning ‘Dong tan Second New Town’ in the class of Architectural Design Studio 6. The project was a planning new city. The size of the site was much larger than any. My team used the Space Syntax Programme and it could make a good concept. It was an interesting project although I had to do too much works.

Through these projects, I realised the reinterpretation of history is not easy and more comprehensive knowledge was needed to design the city. So I will study focusing on the urban design theory, research skills and how to apply it to actual constructions. What is more, the haring international idea is great opportunity to get wide range point of view. There are differences between architecture and urban design, but I suppose I got a larger view of the urban study through this course. I hope the Spatial Planning and Urban design course have a balance of two parts.