Architects Representing Korea, China, and Japan Discuss East Asia’s Architecture :
- 작성처
- Date2012.09.25
- 4613
The twelfth memorial lecture of Kim Okgill was held in the auditorium of Ewha at 2:00 p.m. on September 20 under the theme “Rethinking Locality in Architecture.”
The lecture, which takes place annually, focused on the globalization of Asian architecture through ‘locality’ along with the evolution of architecture cultures. Asian architecture has long been isolated from the Western-oriented paradigm of architectures.
Around 3,000 people took part in this year’s Kim Okgill memorial lecture, including undergraduates, faculty members, architecture figures, and students studying architecture at other universities. In the opening address, Ewha’s President, Dr.jur. Kim Sun-Uk, said “I hope that these varied discourses will serve as a stepping stone for Korea’s architecture to develop into the leader of international architecture cultures based on Korea’s identity.” “I expect that the roles and contributions of women architects and architecture majors will be broadened in the future,” President Kim added. Following the opening address, Jeon Suk-hui, the first graduate of the architecture department and co-president of Wise Architecture, reflected on the meaning of this year’s theme in her introductory remarks.
The speakers at the lecture, which was divided into two sessions, were representative architects from Korea, China, and Japan. Seung Hyo-sang, guest speaker at the Venice biennale in 2012, Nishizawa Ryue, the 2010 recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (similar to a Nobel Prize), and Wang Shu, the 2012 recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Price winner, discussed ‘locality’ as a new trend in architecture. Their lectures suggested that Korea and East Asia’s architecture must break from the limits imposed by Westernized modern architecture that has traditionally confined it.
Nishizawa Ryue, co-president of SANNA, introduced his various projects related to ‘locality’ and said, “It’s not easy to reflect local surroundings and cultures in architecture, but I always endeavor to incorporate them to the highest degree.” Seung Hyo-sang, the representative of Iroje, explained architecture in terms of the value of land, in which human beings and nature exist harmoniously and daily human life is projected through the combination of past and present architecture styles. Wang Shu, who is in the spotlight of the international architecture field due to his receipt of the 2012 Pritzker Prize and his role as a co-president of the Amateur Architecture Studio, visited Korea for the first time to take part in Kim Okgill’s memorial lecture. Wang’s lecture, titled ‘Return to the Picturesque World,’ emphasized that nature should be considered before human civilization and that we should use the principles of nature create harmonious architecture.
The twelfth memorial lecture of Kim Okgill ran continuously as four consecutive programs including forums, lectures, and publications featuring relevant guests on Thursday, September 20, to continue the systemic study of architecture. Through this annual lecture series, Ewha contributes to progressing both women’s architecture and Korea’s architecture by producing graduates with superior abilities as part of the College of Engineering, the first of its kind at a women’s university.