The idea, or rather the problem, of solidity seems a central concern to SO – IL's approach to architecture. SO – IL is an office born in the week of the Lehman Brothers collapse. For its founders Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu this may have appeared catastrophic timing yet, they now acknowledge that that moment is somehow encoded into their project.
SO – IL formed at the moment when the relationship between matter and meaning was revealed to have shifted, born into a world where substance, architecture even, had been transformed into imaginary financial instruments. Traditional divisions between the physical substance of architecture and its abstract conceptual shadows of value had cut loose.
Just as Marx had suggested in The Communist Manifesto, hypercapital transformed matter: "All that is solid melts into air." Perhaps it is these kinds of contemporary concerns of immaterial materiality, of something being there and also not, that we see in SO – IL's office for the production company Logan in New York.
![Top: The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The architects were
appointed to work on the
project when excavations had
already begun. They were
asked to divide the gallery
into two parts: a number of
underground spaces in which
to house a small auditorium,
storage rooms, offices and
service rooms, and, on the
ground floor, a large double height
gallery. Above: The New York head offices
of Logan, a production
company specialised in
commercials, video games
and films, occupies a loft in
the heart of SoHo.
The space is characterised
by two elongated rooms,
each with a 20-m-long table.
The longitudinal spaces
feature a framework clad
with a taut fabric. This choice
enabled the architects to
create a room within a room,
while concealing the existing
structure Top: The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The architects were
appointed to work on the
project when excavations had
already begun. They were
asked to divide the gallery
into two parts: a number of
underground spaces in which
to house a small auditorium,
storage rooms, offices and
service rooms, and, on the
ground floor, a large double height
gallery. Above: The New York head offices
of Logan, a production
company specialised in
commercials, video games
and films, occupies a loft in
the heart of SoHo.
The space is characterised
by two elongated rooms,
each with a 20-m-long table.
The longitudinal spaces
feature a framework clad
with a taut fabric. This choice
enabled the architects to
create a room within a room,
while concealing the existing
structure](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_4521_07_LOGAN-SO-IL-1167.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The open staircase
that leads to the roof terrace is pushed out at an angle to
advertise its presence deeper into the site, helping to form new
routes through the campus The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The open staircase
that leads to the roof terrace is pushed out at an angle to
advertise its presence deeper into the site, helping to form new
routes through the campus](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_1834_03_Kukje-SO-IL-2169.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
There is a hallucinogenic effect. The interior landscape of the space is transformed into a visual field, as though a real-life, real-time Photoshop filter were being applied. Changes in natural and artificial light shift the depth of field, altering our perception of size, distance, connection. As they move through the space, people blur into silhouettes, become sharper or fade to grey. The sensation is ghostly, as though one kind of architecture were haunting another, as though you were in two places at the same time, as though the sensation of architecture were something that exists like an apparition around the hard code of programme.
These two SO – IL projects are full of productive paradoxes between form and formless, strength and lightness
![The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The long table is a physical
transposition of the office’s
workflows, acting as a focal
point for the development of
the design, production and
conference phases The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The long table is a physical
transposition of the office’s
workflows, acting as a focal
point for the development of
the design, production and
conference phases](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_3217_08_LOGAN-SO-IL-1208.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The false ceiling in PVC
reflects natural light without
casting shadows. The end
section of the continuous
table is separated from the
rest of the room by a glazed
wall to create an acoustically
insulated space The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The false ceiling in PVC
reflects natural light without
casting shadows. The end
section of the continuous
table is separated from the
rest of the room by a glazed
wall to create an acoustically
insulated space](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_9330_09_LOGAN-SO-IL-1233.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
In part we can understand the building through the dual roles it performs. First, internally as gallery, the ne pas ultra of internalised contemporary space. Second, externally, as a means to make sense of the piecemeal site and to help generate a more coherent campus-like relationship between Kukje's collection of buildings. The project seems formed through negotiating these disparate ambitions.
![The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea.
Surrounded by a dense
urban fabric composed of
hanok (traditional one-storey
dwellings with courtyards),
Kukje is the leading private
contemporary art gallery
in Korea. The clients are
expanding their business
by upgrading their existing
facilities and inserting a new
complex into the district The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea.
Surrounded by a dense
urban fabric composed of
hanok (traditional one-storey
dwellings with courtyards),
Kukje is the leading private
contemporary art gallery
in Korea. The clients are
expanding their business
by upgrading their existing
facilities and inserting a new
complex into the district](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_5695_02_Kukje-SO-IL-1819.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. A mesh formed by 510,000
steel rings envelops the
volume containing the
third exhibition space of
the Kukje Gallery in Seoul The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. A mesh formed by 510,000
steel rings envelops the
volume containing the
third exhibition space of
the Kukje Gallery in Seoul](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_5523_04_Kukje-SO-IL-2062.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
Its status as a specific type of environment is heightened by pushing everything else out, so that doors, stairs and so on are like facilities plugged in to sustain it. The formal status of the gallery verses the informal, or as-necessary arrangement of its services elevates its significance.
![The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The interior landscape of the
space is transformed into a visual field, as though a real-life,
real-time Photoshop filter were being applied The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. The interior landscape of the
space is transformed into a visual field, as though a real-life,
real-time Photoshop filter were being applied](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_5088_11_LOGAN-SO-IL-1325.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. Changes in
natural and artificial light shift the depth of field, altering our
perception of size, distance, connection. As they move through
the space, people blur into silhouettes, become sharper or
fade to grey The Logan offices in SoHo, New York. Changes in
natural and artificial light shift the depth of field, altering our
perception of size, distance, connection. As they move through
the space, people blur into silhouettes, become sharper or
fade to grey](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_6285_12_LOGAN-SO-IL-1376.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The gallery is organised as a hyper-logical diagram. The highceilinged
white cube gallery space sits at the centre as if it
were an art-market platonic form The K3 building for Kujke Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The gallery is organised as a hyper-logical diagram. The highceilinged
white cube gallery space sits at the centre as if it
were an art-market platonic form](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_8045_05_Kukje-SO-IL-2275.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![The chain mail was produced in
sections by, apparently, an entire village in China and then
seamed on site. It drapes from the roofline down to the ground,
bulging and stretching around the building's lumps and
protrusions. The chain mail has the quality of security fencing
made by jewellers, both tough and delicate at the same time The chain mail was produced in
sections by, apparently, an entire village in China and then
seamed on site. It drapes from the roofline down to the ground,
bulging and stretching around the building's lumps and
protrusions. The chain mail has the quality of security fencing
made by jewellers, both tough and delicate at the same time](/content/dam/domusweb/en/architecture/2012/05/14/between-matter-and-meaning/big_382967_7879_06_Kukje-SO-IL-2597.jpg.foto.rmedium.jpg)
![](.foto.rmedium.png)