SPACE April 2025 (No. 689)
Entrance of SHARE-US Evenesel (first branch, 2015)
Based on his experiences building houses as a university volunteer and repairing houses as a novice practitioner, Hyun Seunghun of SUNLABARCHITECTS (hereinafter SUNLAB) founded his firm in 2013. Considering it his mission to tackle areas where society needs architects, he has devoted more than a decade to private-public partnerships that remodel substandard gosiwons (a facility with tiny studio units in a shared house) at minimal cost into shared residencial housing. Behind SUNLAB’s experiments – partitioning a one-pyeong gosiwon into different kinds of units and connecting them across shared spaces to make them livable – reveal their design foundation to be one of meticulous investigation and research. Jo Jaehyuk, a researcher who pounded the pavement to elevate gosiwons and gosichons (gosiwon villages) into a shared public forum for discussion, also joined forces. SPACE met with them to discuss the potential and future of the gosiwon as an alternative form of housing and a hub for urban regeneration.
Hyun Seunghun principal, SUNLABARCHITECTS, Jo Jaehyuk partner, SUNLABARCHITECTS × Bang Yukyung
Exterior view of SHARE-US Sillim (fourth branch, 2019) ©Kim Yongseok
Gosiwons and Gosichons
Bang Yukyung (Bang): First of all, congratulations on winning the Korea Young Architect Award last year. It seems that this recognition has prompted a new perspective on the gosiwon.
Hyun Seunghun (Hyun): Thank you. We really didn’t expect much, since we assumed our work wouldn’t readily be viewed as ‘architectural work’ by those in the field, so we were equally surprised to hear the results. (laugh)
Bang: Looking over your past activities, it seems you haven’t necessarily been spotlighted withi...
