Architecture begins with creating space
and finds its purpose in the lives it holds.
A window where morning light lingers, a garden that marks the changing seasons, a small room where we unwind at the end of the day. What stays with us about a place is often the time we spent there and how we felt, more than how it looked.
Before imagining a space, I listen to the story of the place and picture a day in the life of the people who will inhabit it. The direction of the light, the path of the breeze, the view revealed when a door opens: small choices come together to make everyday life a little more comfortable and fulfilling.
There is a sequence to how I came to see things this way. Art came before architecture. I studied fine art in France, and my graduation work combined sculptural work and video installation. Five screens were arranged as if in conversation, and I focused on the relationships between them more than on each screen alone.
After graduating, I worked for a time as a graphic designer, arranging words and images on the page.
As I moved from screen to page, and from page to space, the materials changed, but questions of arrangement and relationship remained: what to place where, and how much space to leave between. Life, too, unfolds not only in individual rooms, but between rooms, and between inside and outside.
I learned something else during those years. Beauty is not only a matter of form. It can be found in a space that serves its purpose well, a building that sits naturally within its surroundings, or a material that gathers the traces and memories of use over time.
At S-Tech, we value the comfort that grows with time as much as a striking first impression. By paying close attention to people and places, we will continue to create architecture that serves life today and makes room for tomorrow’s changes.
S-Tech Architecture Co., Ltd.
Seungik Shin
