11.15.23 Visiting Lecture | Dongwoo Yim, PRAUD

The contemporary project has been trying to answer the postmodern question of how to move beyond modernism through a thread of architectural styles that tried to respond to deficiencies from the modern promise and contextual changes. Yet, the question remains, should this ongoing struggle to move beyond modernism be a stylistic battle? Has the present architectural practice ever left the modernist tendencies, and is there a structure for a contemporary language in architecture?
In the face of the rapid transformations of Seoul's built environment, Dongwoo Yim poses a simple question: “What remains after all as a built form?” In Seoul, these transformations are often propelled by a series of accessories attached to buildings. These accessories, mostly applied by users, are more temporal, lighter, and more flexible than elements of architecture and define/or change functions of the building. So, if we acknowledge that the use of architecture can change at any time in the near future, what then is the role of an architect?
Topology & Typology is PRAUD’s argument on this manner as language for “Contemporism.” It fundamentally seeks for a holistic integration of elements, systems, and forms of architecture that not only goes beyond Modernism but also reflects adaptation of architecture in time.
Dongwoo Yim is an architect, urbanist, writer, and educator. He is the co-founder and principal of PRAUD as well as assistant professor at Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design in Hongik University. As an urbanist, his research focuses on revisiting urban production as a tool for developing a circular economy and sustainable social chain. Also, as an architect, Yim explores typologies in architecture that not only examines contemporary architectural language but also creates urban phenomena in a collective manner. He is the award winner of Architectural League Prize 2013 and the participating artist to 2014 Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion, the Golden Lion winner. Yim was the co-curator of Pyongyang Sallim in 2017 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, the co-curator of the Cities Exhibition in the 2019 SBAU, and the general director of Daegu Global Studio 2023. His publications include “AD Magazine: Productive Urbanism: The Meta Industrial City (Wiley)”, “A Language of Contemporary Architecture: An Index of Topology and Typology (Routledge)”, and “Unprecedented Pyongyang (Actar)” amongst others.