Out of the Ordinary

The Cass, London Metropolitan University announces the major architecture exhibition “Out of the Ordinary: Award-Winning Works by Young Korean Architects”.

Oujae Architects, Slow Island Trip Centre. Photo © Jaeyun Kim

With “Out of the Ordinary: Award-Winning Works by Young Korean Architects” the work of nine winners of the Korean Young Architect Awards, one of Korea’s most coveted awards, will be on display, for the first time in London.

Curated by Hyungmin Pai, Golden-Lion winner at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014, and a former visiting scholar at The Cass, the show explores the recent radical changes to Korea’s built environment, and looks at how young practices adapt to new challenges with unconventional solutions.

**Top**: Oujae Architects, Slow Island Trip Centre. Photo © Jaeyun Kim. **Above**: Chae Pereira Architects, Ucchin Museum. Photo © Wansoon Park

Projects by Chae Pereira Architects, Joho Architecture, JYA-RCHITECTS, Wise Architecture, UTAA Company, D·Lim architects, Lokaldesign, IAEO Architekten, and Oujae Architects have all been chosen for their careful and innovative approach, concerned with sustainable, mindful architecture. Ranging from small urban interventions to major master plans, the projects selected for “Out of the Ordinary” delve deep in to topical issues of Korean architecture today.

Material experimentation with both high-tech and traditional, local production; the emergence of new kinds of client groups and projects, combining both private and institutional commissions; architectural invention within extreme limitations of resources – are all key themes explored in the exhibition at The Cass, designed in collaboration with London-based Gatti Rhodes Architects.

D·Lim architects, CJ Nine Bridges. Photo © Joonhwan Yoon

Presented through a combination of photographs, architectural models, and full-scale details, these projects reveal a new aspect of contemporary Korean architecture, where inventiveness and resourcefulness play a key role.

Alongside this body of work, a selection of specially commissioned artworks by renowned photographers Kyungsub Shin and Thierry Sauvage further captures the wider physical and social context, giving an overview on Korea’s remarkable architectural environment.