Architecture Competition Caramel Shore Traveller Rooms Honorable mention – KAYWON UNIVERSITY OF ART & DESIGN

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winners for our "Caramel Shore Traveller Rooms" competition –  Jae Hwan Cha and Sung Min Lee from South Korea!

Honorable mention winners from South Korea

We are majoring in interior architecture design at Gyewon University of Arts and are currently in third grade. It is the first overseas competition to challenge with one team member who has been working together since the second grade.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

Our project concept is ' Māra ', which has an important meaning in Latvian mythology. Māra is a symbol of the material world, a guardian of women, a plot provider, and a ruler of land and underground. I thought that this point of Māra encompasses the nature of Latvia, and from the perspective of tourists, I wanted to apply this myth of Latvia to our project so that tourists who actually visit can experience Latvia's culture and nature.

Considering that it is a landscape-oriented contest, we put a lot of effort into blending Latvia's natural variety with the cabin, and we wisely developed the concept and process in the process of answering ourselves to the question of what kind of experience we can get if we visit Latvia's cabin.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture means 'natural' to me. I think all architecture should resemble nature because it exists for people and it is a place where people stay. Architecture is an artifact, but paradoxically, because it is an artifact, it must resemble nature as much as possible to make it natural while we stay in architecture.

I think the role of an architect is a constant consideration of 'sustainability'. For our convenience, architecture that is born by reckless development without considering nature and harms nature is not correct.

Why do you participate in the architecture contest?

I want to share a different perspective from mine.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

It is certainly beneficial if you do your best regardless of the result. It was very good for me. I'm just grateful that I can appreciate high-quality works and only learning remains.