Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 5 hours ago
Minsuk Cho presents over two decades of architectural works by his Seoul-based firm Mass Studies, which offers “a critical investigation of architecture in the context of mass production.” Cho will explore the uneven spatial and temporal conditions that define architecture in contemporary South Korea, with its ever-shifting social and cultural dynamics. The term “compressed history” is used to describe the political and economic transformations that have unfolded in the country since the second half of the 20th century. In contrast to the universalizing bird’s-eye view, Cho responds to the heterogeneous conditions of contemporary South Korea by adopting a “crow’s-eye view.” This fragmented vision is based on the Korean poet Yi Sang’s 1934 work Crow’s Eye View, a work that inspired Cho’s 2014 Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion exhibition.
This event is supported by the Melissa Kaish and Jonathan Dorfman Makers Fund.
Speaker:
Minsuk Cho founded the Seoul-based firm Mass Studies in 2003. The practice is dedicated to advancing architectural discourse through socio-cultural and urban research, focusing primarily on built works that have achieved global recognition. Notable projects include the Pixel House, Missing Matrix, Bundle Matrix, Shanghai Expo 2010: Korea Pavilion, Daum Space.1, Tea Stone/Innisfree, Southcape Spa & Suite: Clubhouse, Wonnam Temple, the extension and renovation of the French Embassy in Korea, the Osulloc Tea Museum and Osulloc Tea Factory, and the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion: Archipelagic Void.
Current projects, all competition-selected, include the new Seoul Film Center (Montage 4:5), the Danginri Cultural Power Plant (Danginri Podium and Promenade), the Yang-dong District Main Street (Sowol Forest), and the Yeonhui Public Housing Complex. Cho co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale and served as commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia– where the pavilion won the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. In 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, presented a survey of the first 12 years of Cho and Mass Studies’ work, titled Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture.
0:00 Welcome by Sarah Rafson
02:23 Introduction by Grace La
08:52 Lecture by Minsuk Cho
01:13:29 Q+A
Minsuk Cho presents over two decades of architectural works by his Seoul-based firm Mass Studies, which offers “a critical investigation of architecture in the context of mass production.” Cho will explore the uneven spatial and temporal conditions that define architecture in contemporary South Korea, with its ever-shifting social and cultural dynamics. The term “compressed history” is used to describe the political and economic transformations that have unfolded in the country since the second half of the 20th century. In contrast to the universalizing bird’s-eye view, Cho responds to the heterogeneous conditions of contemporary South Korea by adopting a “crow’s-eye view.” This fragmented vision is based on the Korean poet Yi Sang’s 1934 work Crow’s Eye View, a work that inspired Cho’s 2014 Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion exhibition.
This event is supported by the Melissa Kaish and Jonathan Dorfman Makers Fund.
Speaker:
Minsuk Cho founded the Seoul-based firm Mass Studies in 2003. The practice is dedicated to advancing architectural discourse through socio-cultural and urban research, focusing primarily on built works that have achieved global recognition. Notable projects include the Pixel House, Missing Matrix, Bundle Matrix, Shanghai Expo 2010: Korea Pavilion, Daum Space.1, Tea Stone/Innisfree, Southcape Spa & Suite: Clubhouse, Wonnam Temple, the extension and renovation of the French Embassy in Korea, the Osulloc Tea Museum and Osulloc Tea Factory, and the 2024 Serpentine Pavilion: Archipelagic Void.
Current projects, all competition-selected, include the new Seoul Film Center (Montage 4:5), the Danginri Cultural Power Plant (Danginri Podium and Promenade), the Yang-dong District Main Street (Sowol Forest), and the Yeonhui Public Housing Complex. Cho co-curated the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale and served as commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia– where the pavilion won the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. In 2014, PLATEAU Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, presented a survey of the first 12 years of Cho and Mass Studies’ work, titled Before/After: Mass Studies Does Architecture.
0:00 Welcome by Sarah Rafson
02:23 Introduction by Grace La
08:52 Lecture by Minsuk Cho
01:13:29 Q+A
